Tag: new

#365daysofbiking Thats one heck of a goose grumble going on

March 4th – You need to turn the sound up for this one.

I was returning from work early for me, before it was dark. Passing the new pond in Clayhanger, a couple of swans landed out of sight on the water, then took flight again. The geese, mallards and other waterfowl were clearly not happy about something.

There even seems to be what I think might be an owl shouting to them to keep the noise down!

I love the sounds of birds like this. The only loud birds we heard here as a kid were crows.

This journal is moving home. Please find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2NSTRUV
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Ring around

January 31st – I shoot around Walsall’s new ring road all the time, and it’s not a road system I like at all. The junctions are complex and often, badly thought out; it’s unfriendly for bikes and the signals are only just seeming integrated with each other after ten years of being fiddled with.

However, it does have it’s plus points. Sweeping over the hill and canal bridge from Place Road past the old Smiths Flour Mill and up towards the Magistrate’s court is a delight, which flows well on a bike if the traffic lights and drivers will allow.

It’s also rather beautiful.

Don’t be deceived though; despite the marking and seemingly wide cycle lane there, it’s shared use, full of obstacles and soon Peters out to nothing.

This journal is moving home. Please find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr http://bit.ly/2D9ac2J
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Decent exposure:

December 9th – As darkness fell, I pulled myself up and decided to find a decent photo opportunity or two. The pedestrian bridges over the Chasetown Bypass are always good, and the Canon G1X really comes into it’s own on the long exposure work.

The crescent moon over Catshill doesn’t bode well for the weather, though – mum always said when the crescent was on it’s back, it was holding rain in it’s belly. I hope she’s wrong.

My unusually distorted shadow caught under Middleton Bridge arch from my bike light was an oddly serendipitous thing, too.

Grim days are what we make of them, I guess. Never was that more true than today,

#365daysofbiking Electric night:

November 26th – A quick shot passing through New Street station in the evening.

The skyline from here, considering how low you are from street level, is remarkable, and I love the way the machinery, lights, signals and surfaces mix.

A real late night feelings shot.

image

#365daysofbiking Loaded:

October 19th – In telford at the other end of the journey, on the new bridge project, technicians are stud welding – mounting threaded pins to steelwork to enable attachment of another structure.

A better demonstration of the loading effect on a generator could not be found anywhere. 

Every time they weld, watch and listen to the generator.

Science in action!

365daysofbiking Ever falls the twilight:

October 6th – I returned to Brownhills in the overcast weather hinterland between night and what passed for day. It was damned grey and inside, I felt that way too. The onset of winter has me by the neck this year and I’m alternately OK with it and then quite down. I somehow feel I let summer slip away – I didn’t, I rode lots and saw lots and it just ended early, but I feel bereft.

From the Silver Street pedestrian bridge, I surveyed one of my classic winter views: Autumn is settling well here now, and the new houses with the nice line along the canal made an interesting match to the colour of the trees before them. There is life here now, lights in the new dwellings, and no longer does it feel desolate to stand here and be confronted with the place I love. 

This town is changing, like the season; slowly, imperceptibly if you’re not attuned to it, and I think for the better. Finally, the ghosts of the civic failure here are being exorcised, and there is evidence of a little hope, a little life, a little warmth.

Unlike the season, Brownhills is opening up. Perhaps this grey twilight is better than I thought.

#365daysofbiking The Crane life:

September 12th: My first trip to Telford in several weeks and the new station footbridge is making steady progress. The ring road is now closed under the bridge, and. a large crane is being assembled, presumably to lift the massive main deck into place from it’s construction point on an adjacent verge.

A queue of HGVs and machines lines up down the empty roadway. People discuss, Marshall and prepare. This is clearly to be one heck of an operation.

The rest of the project progresses: Brickwork is going up, lift machinery is taking form in the assembled bridge piers and lots of ancillary pathways and steelwork are moving into place or emerging.

This is going to be one to watch.

#365daysofbiking Great Scott:

September 11th – The former Scott Arms pub in Kings Hill, on the Darlaston-Wednesbury border has been derelict for many years now, but at the beginning of the year, I spotted signs of life here. I assumed it was to be converted into a house of multiple occupation – a building divided into tiny bedsits for the really down on their luck – but no, it’s actually being renovated and is becoming a Chinese restaurant.

It’ll be handy for when I’m stuck working late I guess….

Good to see this building saved from the usual derelict fate of these place. I wish the new business well.

July 26th – At Telford, the new footbridge at the station continues to take shape. Steel is being erected, steps and glazing are being added and lifts seem to be going in too. 

There are now five distinct building sites that make up this construction. Getting to the right one to start work – across a railway, a major dual carriageway and slip roads – can’t be much fun!

July 3rd – I had stuff to do in Telford mid-morning, and was eager to see how the footbridge project was progressing. I wasn’t disappointed.

On site, the assembled over-railway portion of the deck had been lifted into place as I suspected onto the lattice piers – which despite my scepticism last week appear to have been positioned without breaking any glass at all. Remarkable.

The crane used to lift the 96 tonne structure into place was being dismantled on site – by another crane. It was terribly meta. 

It was heaven for a machine geek like me, I was transfixed for some time.

It’s nice to see the new footbridge taking shape at last.