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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December 19th – I came back through Walsall Wood and up over Castlefort as I had to nip into Stonnall. I’ve been using the TZ100 all week. After trying some night shots from Hollanders Brindge in Walsall Wood, I’ve decided – I prefer the Canon.
This is momentous. I’ve used Panasonic cameras mostly for 10 years. But the TZ100? It takes good pictures. It’s low light performance is good. It’s not a bad camera. But it’s too like the TZ90 in user interface and features, and it’s lagging the G7X in usability, and I think, just a little in picture quality too.
Whatever succeeds the TZ100 needs to plough a different enough furrow to make it feel better. It doesn’t, particularly.
December 2nd – Again passing through the Wood, this time to Screwfix, it was a grim, miserable, drizzly dank day – but at least it was much, much warmer than in previous days.
The ice was melting, and some of the less religiously inclined types were relishing their fast diminishing ability to walk on water…
March 22nd – A cockup. I took loads of photos today on the way to work, not realising I had the camera set in some horrid artistic mode and they all came out as blurry rubbish.
The only pictures that came out reasonably where these, where I’d picked a different mode – and being handheld, neither are very good, sadly.
I had to call in to Walsall Wood on the way home, and hopped on the canal at Hollanders Bridge. The night-cap from there was gorgeous, as were the lights of Barrow Close. I just wish I’d captured them better.
Ah well, another day.
February 13th – I wasn’t very well, so I only cycled out on a quick errand to deliver something in Walsall Wood. On the way back, I decided to hop onto the canal at Hollanders Bridge. There was little wind for a change and the canal was pretty flat. Even though it wasn’t late, everywhere seemed eerily quiet.
Walsall Wood, despite being part of the lumpen sprawl of North Walsall, is still lovely and retains a village atmosphere.
November 9th – A strange day. I was at work very, very early and spent the day tired, misplaced and spare. I wrote a little, did some bike mechanics, slept an hour or so. When I emerged, it was after dark and I had a desperate run to Walsall Wood on an errand I left way too late. On the way back, I experimented with the evening townscape. From Hollander’s Bridge, the road that no longer bears the same name looked almost dreamlike, and somnambulant. Binary Wharf, nearby, looked impressive in the street light. Even Bullings Heath, once tiny hamlet but now extension of Walsall Wood seemed villagey again.
What is it about night, the urban landscape and this atmosphere that I love so much? It’s almost addictive to me.
March 14th – Monkeying through the back streets of Walsall Wood on an errand today, I traversed Hollanders Bridge, the pedestrian-only canal crossing next to Binary Wharf. Closing the bridge to through traffic years ago cut off Queen Street from the Lichfield Road side of the canal, and created an orphaned stub of road that was of no consequence until a new housing development was constructed adjacent to it, on the site of an old computer business. Somewhat cringingly, the road-stub was christened “Steep Bridge Way’.
Way back in August, 2011, local blogger The Stymaster noted the original sign was badly spelled; then, in May 2012, I spotted that sign had been removed. It seems to have been finally replaced.
One wonders at the cost, and how slowly the gears of bureaucracy can grind in such matters…
May 18th – Well, that’s one technique. Over the last year, both myself and The Stymaster have grumbled to Walsall Council about the badly spelled road sign that stood here on the southwestern flank of Hollanders Bridge, in Walsall Wood. I say stood, as the obvious solution to crap spelling is apparently just to remove the whole sign…
Like, wow. I have nothing further to add.
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