January 3rd – Returning to Brownhills, there was a lovely, low sun at lunchtime so I visited the row of trees that make for such great autumn pictures during the leaf fall.
It’s fair to say they look totally different undressed, but no less beautiful.
Every time I see these, I can’t help but remember the when I was a kid, I remember these saplings being planted.
Oh, how that makes me feel old…
December 26th – The Boxing Day weather was altogether better, but still somewhat grey and overcast with that keen wind. Again, bad weather was forecast for the evening, with heavy rain and even snow predicted.
I slipped out at lunchtime into a grey landscape, and was encouraged to find these bright honey fungus clumps growing on an tree stump on the Black Path.
Some days, the mere sight of something natural and bright is enough to improve your day.
July 24th – Noticed in Holland Park, the reships are growing orange and becoming more rotund; yet thankfully, the blooms show no sign of slowing up.
With a coating of fresh raindrops, they look superb. Beauty is there, even in the rain of a grey Friday afternoon…
January 24th – Despite the gradual shift to white LED lights, the colour of the urban night here is still sodium orange. It makes for interesting, haunted townscapes and renders corners of the town eerie in the monochromic light.
Here at Holland Park, normally a busy, bright, pleasant place, it looked empty, haunted and unsettling. It’s fascinating once you get used to it.
October 25th – The Parade, Brownhills. Just by Holland Park.
This place is beautiful. Don’t ever let anyone tell you different.
March 2nd – Whilst in the public notices department, it had been drawn to my attention that the Black Path – the popular right of way from the bottom of The Parade to Watling Street by Brownhills School – had been temporarily closed by council order following the flooding I documented recently. Today, I noted that the water on the tennis courts and at the foot of the incline at the top of the path had receded. Both problems will now, without doubt, be forgotten by the council until the next period of heavy rains.
Oak Park’s bowling green is still doubling as a lido.
Is it too much to ask that these problems be fixed once and for all before the next wet winter? Closing the Black Path may not seem much, but if you have to walk it’s a very long way arouund…
February 17th – There’s water everywhere at the moment, but it’s depressing to note that flooding caused by bad drains is still happening a couple of years after I first noticed it. At the Black Path, near the A5 by Brownhills School, pedestrians and cyclists are forced onto a muddy desire-path around a lake formed because the drain at the bottom of the slope hasn’t been cleaned out for years.
Similarly, and most frustratingly, at the other end of the Black Path, the money recently spent on Hoilland Park clearly didn’t extend to sorting the nonfunctional drains on the tennis court. Like the flooded bowling green at Waslall Wood, this has been ongoing for a couple of years now. A refurbishment has recently taken place here, yet it’s still flooded, and presenting a hazard.
I’d really like someone to look into sorting these problems out – a lot of people complain about them, and it’s getting harder and harder to defend the official position.
If we can find money to resurface paths, I sure we can spend a little bit sorting the blocked drains.
August 9th – I was pleased to note that someone has taken it upon themselves to paint and restore the old milepost at the top of the Black Path on the Watling Street in Brownhills. The sign, which is quite old, has been broken the way it is for as long as I can remember, but it’s nice to see it white with the remaining test picked out in black. I have no idea why it was erected here, or who by; it’s not in the common local style. I’m also curious as to why it says ‘Rugeley’ at the base, a detail I’d never previously noticed.
It would be nice if it could be restored to it’s original condition. I wonder what the blank arm said?
March 29th – A lazy day. Work has left me exhausted lately, and with a long Easter weekend ahead, I slouched out and did some stuff I wanted to for a change, and slipped out late afternoon for a gentle loop of Brownhills. The thaw has really set in now, but the canal towpaths are still no go, even with the snow tires. I noted at Holland Park that the tennis courts were now tennis duckponds, complete with ducks. The sunset from Chasewater, however, was gorgeous. Water is still overflowing from the Nine-Foot, and the bird life there tonight was fantastic.
By the time I returned to Brownhills, the sunset had retreated to a magenta band on the horizon, but the sky was still stunning. A great sunset.
I could handle a few more days like this. Lets hope the snow melts away soon.
January 5th – Errands in Brownhills before a well-deserved evening with good friends found me dashing up The Parade in Brownhills. I notice there’s been a lot of work done here on the north of Holland Park by Walsall’s countryside services team. One of the things they have done is to cut down the scrub and hedge that screened the former cricket club car park from the road. Previously, it was a haven for antisocial behaviour and other mischief, but thanks to a bit of lateral thinking, now it’s not a place to hide.
Just one of the small, but significant things a busy team does to make lives better. Well done, folks.
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