Tag: mystery

February 19th  – This one has been puzzling me for a while. 

In Shelfield, theres a backstreet pub called The Four Crosses. Most nights on my way home from work I pass it, it’s lights glowing warmly in the darkness. It’s a good pub, and always was, with fans across the borough. 

In recent years, this pub shut for a while, and then, after a brief planning dispute, reopened, with the rest of the pub being converted into flats or bedsits. The outer walls of the building were reclad, and it lives on.

Except for one thing. There is no sign. Nothing to tell the unfamiliar passer-by this is a pub. 

It has been like this for 12 months now. It can’t be good for business.

It worries me.

December 17th – Riding up over Anchor Bridge towards Shire Oak I spotted the boat that had broken the ice back by Silver Street: a contractor’s work boat, which appears to have been cutting back overgrown trees from the canalside.

That must be hard work at anytime, but more so in the cold. I was also interested that the boat appeared to be tethered on a side of the canal not reachable by pedestrians, so the work crew must have a dinghy or something.

If anyone knows how they moored that and got out dry, I’d love to know…

December 6th – Something today I noticed on a couple of bikes in a communal bike shed whilst locking mine up – what is it with quick release seat clamps?

For me, you find your ideal seat heat for a bike, and stick with it. Once you’ve dialled it in, there’s no need to fiddle. Unless you’re riding a folder, or a serious off road bike that requires a remote dropper that can be adjusted on the fly, I don’t understand why you’d use something so insecure, non tamperproof and pointlessly complicated on such a seldom adjusted clamp.

Can anyone enlighten me please?

August 30th – Posting letters at Darlaston Post Office, I spotted this very old metal plaque fixed to the wall above the postbox.

Think about this. Dig through the archaic legal language, and consider it. What on earth were the circumstances that were so severe this notice was required to be made in metal and fixed so prominently?

Answers on a postcard, placed in a postbox in full accordance with the bylaws please, to…

August 21st – Back in Darlaston, the building behind the town hall – for all the world nothing but a small, brick-built, ornate garage – had had more masonry removed, and scaffolding erected.

This is a sad state for what was the town’s fire station in the earliest days of the service to be in.

The site has been cleaned out and is tidy, and the further demolition seems too neat and level to be part of a total removal, so I’m hopeful this is the start of a full restoration.

I still have no idea what happened here, I’d be interested to find out.

August 3rd – It’s been a few weeks since I called at Telford, and was pleased to note the flowerbed at the station has now been replanted with late flowering plants and as ever, is a credit to those that look after it.

Resplendent in shades of red, white and blue the yellow flowers are curious and I’ve not seen them here before. Anyone know what they are?

A lovely bit of brightness on an otherwise dull day.

July 21st – At Birchills on the Walsall Canal, an odd one. Someone has cleanly cut off the balance beam on one of the lock gates. I have no idea why they might have done this, and the indications that this isn’t the normal vandalism are clear.

This was severed by a machine in one cut with no messing around. Whatever power tool was used, it was wielded with even pressure and the cut is square. clean and smooth.

I’d love to know what’s going on here.

July 18th – On the canal near the Black Cock Bridge, there’s again a natural, organic scum that seems to be originating in the reed beds on the far bank. I can’t see what it is, but the film is definitely organic and natural.

There’s been a lot more of this phenomena this year than normally – I wonder if it’s a factor of the particularly warm summer we’ve been having?

June 26th – A brighter day and on the journey to work, a small mystery.

A huge pine cone, eaten by something, probably a squirrel, lying on the canal towpath near Pleck.

It was lying under an apple tree, with no pines or conifers in sight.

Perhaps the grey bushy-tailed fellows commute a long way these days. 

This year’s apple crop is looking healthy, though…