January 9th – Spotted just hanging around outside the wonderful Mindful Gifts dementia charity shop in Darlaston, this lovely fellow. Not sure of his actual staff role, but clearly an important member of the team.
How adorable!
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January 8th – It’s not often I feature here photos of things that aren’t there any more. But in this case, I had no choice really as I just had to share.
Heading home along the canal to Brownhills, between the Black Cock Bridge and Clayhanger Bridge in darkness, I was brought to a sudden, screeching halt by… a group of deer on the towpath.
Something had spooked them up ahed and they were running toward me, but seeing my light, they deflected into the copse adjacent and disappeared into the darkness.
So, here was a group of deer.
An oddly unsettling experience…
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January 7th – I rode in to work from Walsall along the canal for the first time in a few weeks – it wasn’t;t a bad ride, though I forgot how grey it can be on a dull, overcast winter day.
Nice to see Canal and River Trust litter picking crews out at the birch ills end, and hopefully they can clear some of the mess left by the magnet fishers – what a pain in the backside they are.
At Bently Bridge the view was trying to be green, but it’s heart wasn’t;t in it, sadly. Maybe some sun tomorrow…
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January 4th – A stop on the way home on the North Street Bridge, the crossing point between Walsall’s Butts area and Birchills. The view from the railway bridge to the new college and town has always been great at night.
But sadly, no more.
The welcome electrification of the Chase Line railway below has had an unfortunate side effect of ruining the shot, with the overhead gantry stealing the foreground. But I don’t mind – I’d rather have the more reliable commuter service.
The college anyway was dull and in darkness, clearly not open yet from the Christmas break, and Austin House with it’s peculiar white halo was stark in the darkness.
Ah well, change is what happens while you’re not looking… There are other aspects on this view, I guess…
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January 2nd – I’ll start this with a note about this journal. Older readers will know I started this journal on 1st April 2011after being encouraged to do 30daysofbiking by ace cyclist and top Dutchperson Renee Van Baar. From the moment I agreed, the die was cast.
Sadly, I was very ill with food poisoning the following New Year, so never rode a bike on 31st December 2011, and 1st January 2012. But I steeled my resolve, and I carried on, and I never missed a day since. Every day from 2nd January 2012 I have got on a bike and ridden somewhere.
From 100 mile plus rides in one day, to trundles to the shops, I have recorded my daily life as a cyclist, in all its ups and downs. That’s 7 years, or 2557 successive days (including 2 leap years), and about 63,000 miles.
I adore keeping this journal – both writing it, and creating the photos.I welcome feedback. If you have something to say – that I should stop, continue or do something differently, please get in touch by commenting or mailing me – BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com.
Today was my first day back at work and on my way back, I headed up the canal to Newtown. I had forgotten to charge my camera, and it was flat, so these are actually photos from an iPhone, which just shows how much phone camera technology has advanced.
When I started this journal in 2011, my phone would not have been remotely capable of images of this quality.
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December 21st – Summerhill motorway bridge on a dry evening is the ideal place to try long exposure photography, with the opportunity presented by the motorway below and also down the A461 from kerb level.
Today is a turning point: Not just last day of work for 2018, but the shortest day. Today, I have beaten The Suck – the darkening, grim winter commutes when traffic is bad and huge riding concentration is required. From today, the days will lengthen, sunset will get later and later and the driving will actually improve.
Regardless of the weather, the light will return and things will get better. Today was a turning point, and a very welcome one.
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December 20th – A late night at work finishing off, then the Christmas party. I crossed Rushall Square junction late in the evening.
As ever, the lights were lovely and there was hardly anyone on the road, which was a bonus.
Christmas is feeling closer now…
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December 20th – Back at work, I noted that the holly trees around the industrial estate where I work, normally heavy by now with a bountiful berry crop – were very sparse this year.
Still, there were enough red berries to feel festive. Bad news for the local birds though.
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December 17th – Returning home through a darkened, very wet Brownhills. A generator was quietly ticking over by the waterside, and there was the clatter of Tesco unloading, and the distant windy sweep of the odd car on the High Street, but little other evidence of humans.
Brownhills looked somnambulant, peaceful and homely, and it was good to see.
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December 17th – The weather is still awful but finally finished the work paperwork, which always means that Christmas is beginning for me.
Just the medical stuff to go and a couple of days at work, and that’s it.
Leaving work late, I noticed the Christmas tree in reception glowing in the dark, and it made me feel happy…
Merry Christmas everyone!
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BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 