February 28th – The run home was no better. I got caught in a prolonged snowstorm, the wind was hard against me and the traffic was mad.
Temperatures actually got as low as -8.5 degrees C. Despite good gloves and being wrapped up in many layers, it physically hurt to be out there.
It seemed to take forever, but when I finally reached the end of the journey, I was glad to get home.
February 26th – I needed to pop into Walsall Wood so crested Shire Oak Hill on the A461 Lichfield Road. That view at dusk is very special to me and always takes my breath away.
On the distant Black Country skyline, the huge seventeen storey tower block in Dudley, Butterfield Court. Several people have asked what this building is over the years, and recently I checked it on a map. There’s no doubt. over to the left, the twin blocks of Claverly and Clent Court.
Inbetween, the A461 Lichfield Road a snake of light and motion into the dusk.
Have to say, the new layout for the Lichfield Road and Shire Oak Junction has really reduced the peak time queues up Sandhills.
February 24th – As I expected, the sunset was beautiful, but the phone is terrible for sunsets. Galling.
I caught it from Mickle Hills near Lichfield, and as night fell at Sandhills, over Home Farm. It was cold, but gorgeous. However, the frustration at being unable to capture it was real…
February 20th – Spring is encroaching. This evening, coming through Walsall at a close to normal homecoming hour, I started in the last vestiges of daylight and finished in the last vestiges of a gorgeous urban sunset.
I first spotted it as I came down the ring road, but couldn’t stop; by the time I got to North Street it was still strong, but although the photos are nice, I don’t think they quite did it justice.
At Walsall Wood, onto the canal, and my long-time muse of Clayhanager Bridge at night. The dozing swans at Catshill Junction were also rather lovely.
This dusk interregnum as the days lengthen when winter draws to a close can certainly be very beautiful.
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.
February 17th – Back in Brownhills, and another azure blue nightfall, which the Canon camera – to which I’m now really attached – really lapped up. I loved the way it picked up the warmth of the lighting on the Watermead estate over the canal from Silver Street and how that contrasted with the cool white of the LED street lighting up at Chandler’s Keep.
I’m sure there’s far more to find out and learn with this camera yet, I’m really loving it.
February 15th – I missed the sunset, but escaped from work on a chilly night to one of those early spring azure blue skies fringed with the last orange rays of the sun.
Even in the industrial hinterland of the Moxley-Darlaston border was gorgeous.
February 10th – I’m liking the look of the houses going up on the old Brownhills market site right now. Hopefully, when complete they’ll bring lightness and a more populated feel to this once very open, wind-swept area of town, and hopefully also much needed footfall for the High Street.
Since the new houses became occupied on nearby recent developments, there has been a notable increase in people on the High Street, which can’t be a bad thing.
February 10th – An evening spin out turned out to be warmer than expected, but rain seemed to be threatening. The canal and towpaths were sodden, and the paths and roads glistened in the headlight.
The flats on the Watermead, next to Coopers Bridge look lovely in the dark, the lights reflecting beautifully in the water, as did those of Tesco, itself looking unexpectedly attractive.
Either that, or I’ve been hemmed in too long…
February 9th – I was in town past six, in the early darkness, and the light had that blue, luminescent quality to it you don’t often get. Wandering in town from supermarket to supermarket, the urbanity glowed beautifully.
The Canon really loves an urban electric evening, I have to say, and I still do love Walsall.
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