Tag: dusk

#365daysofbiking Radio activity

March 7th – Spinning over to Pelsall on at errand at dusk, I passed under the Old Cement Works Bridge at The Slough, and noted the radio masts there, the larger of which has always been a bit more than the average cellphone mast.

There since the days of analog mobile phones, it was the first cellphone basestation in the area and has been repeatedly upgraded as technology improved. I also carries on the same structure some microwave transceivers and what looks like maybe VHF telemetry antenna. It’s a busy mast for one lurking in a car park of an average, fairly remote trading estate.

Next to it of course, the three armed mast of a Tetra node, the UK emergency services digital network.

Antenna and masts fascinate me. And they never look better than against a dusk sky.

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#365daysofbiking Gathering darkness

February 29th – Joy of joys it was raining again.

I returned to Brownhills via Catshill Junction in a darkening hour. The weather was getting to me, as was the lack of colour in my world.

I try to be, and stay a positive person at heart. I like to try to make this journal as positive about the places I got and things I see as possible. But of late, I seem to have done nothing but whinge about the weather.

But be in no doubt: Out there, right now, it’s pretty awful to be on two wheels.

These are some of the hardest weeks I’ve ever ridden, if I’m honest.

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#365daysofbiking Downtown lights

February 28th – Brownhills High Street. The rain was still perched upon my world as I came home, looking for a takeaway and some solace in the gloom.

A couple of minutes later I met an old pal, we dived into Costa for a coffee, and rolled the years back.

Brownhills isn’t nearly as depressed as it was; things are improving, slowly.

It almost looks beautiful in the rain. Or have I got meteorological Stockholm syndrome again?

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#365daysofbiking Night lines

February 3rd – My short local bimbles continue as I build strength back up – and a run up to Catshill Junction, then to Ogley Junction and back up the Lichfield Road was about my limit on a chilly Monday evening.

I enjoy the canal at night. The sounds of waterfowl, the quick glance from foxes and rabbits suddenly illuminated by my bike light. The peace, quiet and the sky.

Hopefully soon my range will start expanding a bit more.

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#365daysofbiking The blue period

December 28th – A stretch up to Walsall Wood on my way to Aldridge in one of those remarkable but fairly rare blue dusks we sometimes get at this time of year.

There must be a meteorological or astronomical reason for them, but I have no idea other than the fact that they are really, really beautiful. The view from Hollanders Bridge glowed in the cold night.

Reall,  really gorgeous.

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#365daysofbiking Deceptive


December 20th – At early evening, with the right kind of light and sky, the view of Telford Station, the new footbridge and the skyline of the town look gorgeous and you can actually see what the designer of the new bridge was getting at.

The surfaces and textures are gorgeous.

Shame it’s such a disconnected, dysfunctional shambles, really.

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#365daysofbiking Deluge

December 17th – By the time I left work and returned to Telford Station, it was raining again.

Not light rain, either, but the torrential kind I’d been caught in the previous Sunday.

At least I had waterproofs this time.

The colours of the rain and dusk were captivating on the cycleway down to the station from Priorslee.

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#365daysofbiking Just desserts

December 15th – The day had been OK, so far. I’d been to a cChristmas Fair at the Rugby Club, then dropped into the craft centre north of Lichfield – Curborough – for Christmas shopping. While I was there, the heavens opened, and I hadn’t got my waterproof trousers.

I partook of a nice pud at the cafe and waited for the deluge to abate. It didn’t.

Making a dash for home, I got soaked. But I still had time to take a couple of shots of Stowe Pool. Funny now to think that in 2006 I took a sunset view of that church from this point at about this time of year that really kickstarted my desire to document my rides and what I saw.

At this precise point, I couldn’t have felt less like riding a bike.

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#365daysofbiking – Wooden heart

December 6th – I had to pop to the Touchwood Centre in Solihull, a place I’ve only been once or twice: In fact, I rarely visit the town at all.

I left in the afternoon, and as usual of late, the trains were messed up and the journey was horrible. But Solihull had some interesting views in the early evening gloom.

That underpass was stunning in the dark.

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#365daysofbiking So close

November 10th – Up at Chasewater to hopefully catch the beautiful sunset that never happened, it was clear the reservoir would overtop the weir this week and water would once more flow out into the spillway and Crane Brook, for the first time in a couple of years.

The authorities seem to like to let the lake fill completely every winter now – something that rarely happened previously, presumably to stress test the dam after work to strengthen it a decade ago.

Despite the wind the Nine-Foot pool was glass still and early quiet as dusk fell, maybe in anticipation of the moment when the water finally crossed over…

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