Thursday February 25th 2021 – The pandemic has been hard on all of us.
Locally, they area was plagued for a while by anti-inoculation, pandemic denial graffiti that was persistent and prolific.
I don’t know who finally snapped and replied to them in marker pen over the top of older conspiracy graffiti on Ogley Junction Bridge, but my respect to them.
from Tumblr https://ift.tt/3vN3l9F
via IFTTT
Wednesday February 17th 2021 – On the canal at Walsall Wood, a familiar pair of beaky chancers come towards me hoping for food.
They make out they haven’t eaten for weeks, that they’re starving to death, and also they’ll feed my body to the pike if I don’t cough up a treat.
But unluckily for them, I’m empty handed, my usual small bag of corn left in the garage after filling; fortunately they seem in a rudeness of health that matches their people skills, and despite their menace, only hiss at me and scud off, to browse the canal bottom for tasty green goo.
Waterfowl can’t half turn on the sob story…
from Tumblr https://ift.tt/30KgLF5
via IFTTT
Saturday February 13th 2021 – It’s a fact that in the Brownhills and the wider South Staffordshire area, on the fringes where urbanisation becomes rural, red deer are now present in large numbers, and often become victims of traffic collisions.
This is particularly true around Chasewater, which has several large, itinerant hears of these human-tolerant beasts, so it’s been necessary to put up warning signs for road users.
I do wonder if, in a cruel twist of fate, this one on Pool Lane was knocked sideways by a leaping stag…
from Tumblr https://ift.tt/3qS95eP
via IFTTT
Monday February 8th 2021 – About the only thing the pandemic has been good for has been the re-emergence of political graffiti.
It’s everywhere – the angry, the conspiracy theorists, even satirists are having a go. They’re all a bit rusty but it’s coming along nicely.
Here at Catshill Junction, just on the bridge, some disaffected soul has expressed themselves. Blunt and to the point.
Generous offer but I’d rather not, cheers.
from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2PJVtFn
via IFTTT
Friday December 4th 2020 – Heading home along the High Street, something in the dark looked different about John McKenna’s Brownhills sign.
Some kind hearted soul had decorated it for Christmas.
With things in the town a little grim for the season, with the pubs shut and the pandemic ongoing, this guerrilla act of festive cheer was welcome and beautiful.
My thanks to the beautiful soul that did this. Merry Christmas!
from Tumblr https://ift.tt/3aXbQai
via IFTTT
Friday November 21st 2020 – One here for Bob’s big book of bizarre mechanical failures – specifically the ‘This is not my circus, and those are most definitely not my monkeys’ chapter.
This is not my bike. I was asked by an old family friend to change their tyres, as they didn’t feel comfortable to do so themselves. ‘No problem!’ I assured them as they wheeled the bike into the garage.
First step, remove rear wheel and let air out of the old tyre. Simple enough. Since the tubes would be too big for the new tyres, I removed the valve for a full deflation – and the telltale green ooze of tyre sealant – slime brand – bubbled out.
This would be no problem, usually, except the local bike shop who originally fitted these tyres made a mistake.
What I found was only half of the tyre went down – the other half opposite the valve state inflated. That I was astounded and somewhat bemused is an understatement.
Never, ever had seen that before, and it took me a few minutes to work out – with the help of a mate by text – to diagnose that the tube had been twisted when fitted, under inflation the pressure had compressed the two twists, and the sealant blocked them creating an effective seal.
Great. But how do you release the trapped air?
I didn’t want to try puncturing it. Friend suggested a sharp tap with a blunt, soft object on the inflated section, or bouncing it off the floor. I grabbed an offcut of 2×2 and rapped the tire sharply.
There was a loud bang, and a volcanic ejaculation of green sealant.
Everywhere.It went everywhere. It’s just possible there’s an object in the workshop that doesn’t have green slime on it somewhere, but as yet I’ve not found one. A total mess. I was dripping.
The areas where the tube had twisted had clearly worn tissue-thin against the tyre, and the tap with the wood was the straw that broke it’s back.There was no patching THAT tube.
I have never seen this before, and probably never will do again, but it was a messy, if perplexing adventure.
That was a blowout on the road waiting to happen, and the bike shop deserve a slap.
Fixing other people’s bikes is never as simple as you think…
from Tumblr https://ift.tt/360RHgN
via IFTTT
Friday, October 23rd 2020 – I had to nip over Penkridge Bank on Cannock Chase for business so I cut across Maquis’s Drive to catch the autumn colour – and wasn’t disappointed.
It’s always a lovely route, and being a Friday, wasn’t very busy. The Chase itself was quiet.
I was on the lookout for interesting fungi but sadly the only example I came upon of note was wooden…
from Tumblr https://ift.tt/31SBk37
via IFTTT
Thursday, October 1st 2020 – I had business to do in Bolton so took the bike up on the train. In these bizarre, pandemic days trains are strange: Even early on a weekday morning the inter-city services and suburban commuter trains are next to empty, populated by wary, slightly suspicious, bemasked travellers. Rail ravel is really not a pleasant experience right now.
Bolton is one of the areas apparently in greater lockdown, but it seemed as relaxed and unperturbed by the outside world as usual.
I was amused and puzzled by this restaurant on the Wigan Road: How on earth did that come to happen? Top marks for the name ‘Steaks on a plane’ though.
Coming home, I got off at Stafford and rode home for the exercise, chance to enjoy the sun before oncoming rains next day and maybe a treat at Milford’s Wimpy. On the side of a boarded up pub in Stafford, the intellectual giants of the local conspiracy theory scene say more about their capacity for reason and mental acuity than any outsider ever could. Meanwhile, over at the frankly insane website mentioned, you can buy a promotional mask bearing the website URL…
from Tumblr https://ift.tt/36wOMgg
via IFTTT
Thursday, September 24th 2020 – This healthy horse has made me smile a few times of late. Passing it at Newtown, on the A5 Watling Street in North Brownhills, it dwells in a small paddock between the footpath and canal.
I often see it atop the steep bank, craning through the fence to get to the grass on the footpath edge.
The horse is friendly and always enjoys a nuzzle when you stop and say hello.
Gorgeous animal. But I’ll never understand horses.
from Tumblr https://ift.tt/3i5nShI
via IFTTT
May 21st – I adore flag irises. They are lovely yellow harbingers of summer, and when they appear at the margins of the canal I know the peak of the very best of seasons is upon us.
Unfortunately they give me appalling hay fever and consequent sneezing fits.
I tolerate them though, as you cannot avoid the waterways when everything is just so beautiful.
So if you see a cyclist with streaming eyes, sneezing his head off and cursing profusely, it could well be me enduring my love for flag irises…
This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.
from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2AfnIVf
via IFTTT
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 