February 17th – Only a couple of photos today as the commute was horrid both ways – driving, squally rain. I was cheered however, by spotting this grumpy-looking sentry on duty at St. John’s Church in Pleck. I don’t think he lives there, but was certainly availing himself of the shelter to watch the world go by.
I clearly didn’t amuse him. But he’s a big lad and I suspect someone loves him very much.
February 16th – Not neglected at all, and a wonderful place to be right now is Kings Hill Park in Darlaston. Regular readers will know this place needs no introduction or explanation, and at the moment it’s alive with spring flowers – Daffodils both large and miniature, snowdrops, crocuses and primroses. And still, it’s only the middle of February.
If you have time, get up here soon. It’s a joy to the heart, and just the restorative I needed after the awful sight of Corporation Street Cemetery.
February 15th – A few weeks ago I was recording this view at this time in darkness. The twin sisters of Wednesbury looking beautiful in the cold evening light of a winter sunset.
I love this view and never tire of it.
It was just about light until I got home – soon I’ll be travelling in the daylight again. This makes me very happy indeed.
February 12th – Still just light for 75% of my commute home, the bright western skies were a cheering feature of commutes this week. The ring road traffic was driving me nuts, so I took a shortcut past the Walsall College site and over the new bridge at North Street, which is still closed to general traffic.
The Walsall College building I’ve always found to be a hideous, cheap-looking tin shed, but it does look rather wonderful from behind at night, and the classic view over to the church never ages,
I’m so looking forward to leaving the darkness behind this year.
February 11th – Heading over Catshill Junction to slide down the High Street, I still can’t get over the lights and reflections of the new build, and the way it affects what was a formerly barren spot at night.
Combined with he LED streetlights from Chandlers Keep, it feels quite awake there these days, no longer lonely and isolated at all.
February 11th – Monkeying around with the Clayhanger overflow view again. I liked the sky, and reflections: not quite really dark, I think this worked quite well.
Nice to feel that chill in the air, too. Dry and cold, this is how it should be in February!
February 8th – This was supposed to be a photo of the statue of Sister Dorothy Pattison, heroine of Walsall and a great personal hero of mine, moodily lit in a windswept town at closing time.
On that score it failed miserably. The old girl is out of focus, and the light doesn’t do her justice at all, which is sad. She was the mother of modern healthcare in Walsall and gave her heart, soul and life to caring for the Victorian sick, injured and infirm.
It does, however, show the atmosphere on The Bridge as I passed through. I’d had a dreadful commute again – driving rain and a headwind ion the way in that morning, and on the way back, the tailwind, although decent, wasn’t the engine-substitute I’d laboured against earlier.
A nasty gale was whipping up though, and there was a sense of increasing desertion and of collar-up, head down scurrying home.
It was fascinating and I wish I’d hung around a bit longer.
February 5th – Yet again on a Friday, I found myself cruising down from Shire Oak into Brownhills. The wind had indeed been evil, but was at least now more or less at my back. I had to stop to answer the phone on Anchor Bridge, and while I was chatting I noticed the view, from the very bridge I was contemplating the night before. This slope here is more or less continuous from Shire Oak, and the road here is wide. Where I was stood in years gone by would have been a toll house, and when I was a kid there would have been grim maisonettes here and over the road, a large tower block. Now, it’s new build and an old folk’s home.
These days, this view seems utterly familiar, but twelve or so years ago, it would have been totally different. It struck me as I put the phone away that change is ongoing, and so granular that one hardly notices it happening.
February 4th – I came back to Brownhills late, and hopped on the canal from Walsall Wood. Leaving the towpath at the Anchor Bridge, I realised how odd the landscape is here. The canal, of course, remains level (473ft above mean sea level for the anoraks out there), yet the landscape rises above it gently, and the Chester Road crosses above with barely and undulation.
It made me wonder if the canal was channelled out here and what the landscape of the late 1700s looked like before it arrived.
The night was chilly and blustery and I was tired. I suddenly realised I’d been stood for five minutes or more in pitch darkness contemplating the physical geography here absent mindedly, whilst freezing cold.
Cycling catches you like that sometimes.
February 3rd – That moment when you reach out for the camera to grab a picture at the lights and they change. Nothing for it but to stash the camera back as it’s still turning off and haul away sharpish.
Normally judge it better than that, but the lights of Rushall were very beautiful tonight. A least I caught an instant in time.
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