Tag: Darlaston

March 1st – Another grey day, but it felt warmer. At dinner time, I had to venture back into Walsall from Darlaston and took the canal, which was a mistake: the works to relay the towpath have made sections not impassible but hard going.

Passing over the Bentley Mill Way Aqueduct, I looked down at the works below. Running three months late, the road has been closed and totally relaid – but the main bottleneck that is the narrowness of  the bridge I’m standing on – has not been touched. I’m at a loss here to understand how anything other than the footpath and possibly drainage has been improved.

Sometimes it’s hard to see the benefit in road schemes until they operate in practice. I hope that’s the case here.

February 29th – I know this journal is becoming somewhat old when I realise this is the second leap year it’s passed. I still find that peculiar, really.

Today was not so sunny, although there were patches of brightness in the morning. On the way to work I noticed flowers – primroses amongst a stack of cut logs in Kings Hill Park and marigolds in a roadside garden flowerbed. I still can’t believe this is happening in February – but given the coldness of the day, and keenest of the wind, it was welcome colour.

February 24th – Darlaston is changing right now. In its parks – Victoria and Kings Hill – spring his here, and the first signs of a green summer are just seeping into the landscape. Daffodils, crocuses, primroses and snowdrops dapple the lawns and beds, and everything seems just a shade more alive.

I actually saw a honeybee today. It’s not yet March.

In the parks though, the peace is uneasy; a susurration of labouring diesel engines, the whine of hydraulics and the rupturing of concrete as nearby, the land the old Servis factory stood on is reclaimed for new housing. So much concrete on site to be pulverised, an army of fascinating machinery is working away at it.

Change is good. Chase is interesting. But the change for the greener lifts me the most.

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 15th – Spotted by the bridge in Victoria Park, Darlaston: the sadness of things. This huge teddy must have been very much loved once. Sodden with rain and looking dejected, he’s been moving around the park for a week or two. He looked particularly miserable today, he wasn’t even in the sun where he could dry out.

Few things are more melancholy than an abandoned toy.

February 10th – I’m quite liking the weather this week since it’s calmed down a bit. Cooler, clearer, some great evening skies. Sunset now well after 5pm, which means I’ll soon be commuting home in the light again.

In the meantime, stood silent sentry, but buzzing with unseen data, the cellphone station in Darlaston was a beautiful contrast to the black country dusk.

It seemed to be trading secrets with that beautiful crescent moon – which, as my grandfather might have said ‘is lying on it’s back and holding rain in its belly’ – so perhaps it’s not a good sign…

February 9th – Sad to note that at the south end of Victoria Park in Darlaston, beyond the railway bridge, flytippers have been at work. What is normally an fairly clean marshy area beloved of birds and bugs, a quantity of tyres have been dumped, clearly thrown down the embankment from the car-park above.

Only the lowest of the low do this. Scum.

February 2nd – Kings Hill Park in Darlaston is a real treat at the moment, for the miniature daffodils, crocuses and finally snowdrops are in flower.

Spring has come already and it’s only the 2nd of February.

In all my days, I’ve never know daffodils and crocuses beat snowdrops into bloom. These past couple of years have seen some crazy seasons.

To see these flowers was a real joy to the heart.