March 6th – Out for the evening and returning late, the streets were very, very quiet. I sped from Walsall with the wind at my back on silent, wet roads; I even sailed through the lights at Rushall Square on green without having to slow down.
Sadly, the night was more redolent of November than March, but the ride was nice.
Still can’t get past my unease over the eeriness of Green Lane at night…
February 21st – Returning home in the wee small hours, I was irritated to discover I’d forgotten my camera. As I sped from Walsall on deserted streets, there was a fine drizzle but the wind was behind me. I saw nothing but a handful of cars, a couple of foxes and a started badger. The phone is useless in low light, but these do capture the atmosphere quite well.
I’d quite forgotten the otherwordly atmosphere of being out on a bike at 1am…
January 29th – Micro asphalt is a pain in the arse. There are several installations of it in Walsall that I know to. The system is simple; a thin layer of resin-based coating is applied to a poor road surface, levelling the dips and sealing cracks. Unlike conventional tarmac, this is a chemical adhesive process. It’s way cheaper than resurfacing fully, and purportedly much more effective than tar and chipping.
Sadly within Walsall, in places it doesn’t seen to have gone too well.
Manufacturers claim a life of 20 years for an application, but this stretch in Green Lane, Shelfield is only a couple of years old, and is already forming potholes and ruts like a ploughed field.
It’s actually easier to see the effect on a wet night, as the water pools in the ridges and dips. Riding over this is afoul and makes steering unpredictable.
This road is now worse to ride than before the new surface was applied. Nice work, Walsall. Nice work…
From November 6th – Walsall new ring road, Green Lane Junction about 5:10pm, Wednesday 6th November 2013. I didn’t feel it safe to stop as the guy behind was stuck to me like a wet T-shirt. This is far from unique driver behaviour here – get in the wrong lane trying to queue jump, then bugger everyone else trying to sort it out.
More of this run later.
Best viewed large by clicking on the youtube logo, and click on the wee gear symbol and select 1080 for best video quality.
October 30th – The flytipped fridge problem continues. Recently, the law changed and scrap yards can’t accept old chiller appliances, which must now go for specialist recycling. Sadly, people are still leaving them out for scrap men, who strip the easiest to separate metal parts, and flytip the rest. Dumped fridges and freezers are currently a huge issue for local authorities all over the country.
When you leave stuff out for the tat men, you are encouraging this scumbag behaviour – please don’t do it.
These are in Green Lane, Walsall Wood, just past the houses beyond the Black Cock pub, just pushed off the back of a vehicle into a lay-by.
This is what happens if you fiddle with waste disposal legislation without thinking through the consequences.
October 16th – Autumn is in full swing now. As I cycled down Green Lane from Shelfield to Bullings Heath, the golden hour pre-sunset sunlight caught the hedgerow and set it afire. It was so lovely, I had to stop and take a photo.
Maybe this autumn thing can work out after all…
Septemebr 24th – I came home after a late finish at work full of cold. Still struck low with the weekend’s bug, the going was hard. The dusk fell during the commute, and I became painfully aware that we’re now in the few weeks where drivers seem to be re-learning to drive in the dark. I don’t understand the psychology at all, but up until about the end of November, driving standards at dusk will be very poor. Left hooks, getting pulled out on, overtaking into oncoming traffic. All tonight. I had bright lights and a generally decent road position. There must be a reason for this, I see it every autumn.
Be careful out there, folks. You never know what’s lurking at a bad junction or beyond the oncoming headlights.
August 20th – another fruit that’s set to be in abundance this autumn are haws, the berries of the hawthorn. Bright red, bitter and woody, they’re not toxic and can make decent jams and wines; but to me, their primary purpose is to provide sustenance for the birds, who flock for their goodness in winter. At the moment, these copious tiny berries are orange-green, and these fine examples were spotted in the hedgerow at Green Lane.
Enough sun and they’ll be pillar-box red, another fine sight and indicator of the passing year.
July 2nd – Today, summer faded to grey and the rain returned. I cycled home in steady rain, but it wasn’t unpleasant. Coming down Green Lane, Walsall Wood, I noticed what had been a lush field of beans last year had been left fallow this year. There is is immense pile of manure at one end of the field, and wonder if the growing of legumes and subsequent fallow period are part of a natural ground management system.
No such concern in the water meadow the other side of the road; untroubled by livestock other than deer, the grass there is lush, colourful and a couple of feet high now. It’s absolutely beautiful.
April 30th – I see someone has been busy renewing all the footpath signs around Jockey Meadows and Coppice Woods off Green Lane, Walsall Wood, which is great. The new ones are lovely wooden jobs, well made. Excellent stuff.
I notice they make a specific and accurate distinction between public footpaths and permissive footpaths. This difference in status is crucially important and sadly little understood by many walkers.
Nice to see this – wonder how far the signage extends?
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