January 21st – Taking a shortcut home through The Butts in Walsall,I was struct by the beauty of the car-lined street of terraces under the ghostly white LED streetlights. I don’t often come this way as I find the traffic down here a nightmare, but it’s a lovely place; by day, busy and occupied but by night, almost somnambulant.
A snatched photo taken just because the scene charmed me.
January 18th – After months of being shut to be rebuilt, the North Street Railway bridge, linking The Butts with Birchills in Walsall is very, very close to reopening. Rebuilt higher to accommodate electrification of the railway beneath, the bridge seems much steeper than before.
Still, it was fun to ride up and down while traffic free and still closed – and at the top, a decent view of the New College at night.
January 13th – And there you go, it can’t even manage 24 hours dry at the moment. Another soaking on the way home – and it was cold too, with the temperature hovering just above zero degrees.
I stopped to adjust my scarf at Maybrook Road and took two quick shots. They look wet, cold and desolate and that’s just how it was.
January 11th – Another reason I wasn’t feeling too chipper was I’d forgotten my camera, but felt like I might have lost it. I hadn’t, thankfully, just in the general cloud of roughness that morning I’d left it behind.
Returning to Shenstone tired, I chanced my hand at a couple of night shots of my beloved station, and have been genuinely surprised at how decent the phone camera is in low light.
A bit grainy, but I don’t think it did too bad. Surprising.
January 7th – The canal is still chewy, to say the least, particularly after another day’s heavy rain. But the overflow at Clayhanger was flowing well and made a reasonable photo, again in the bike light.
Also, at Catshill Junction, now the leaves are off the scrub, the lights of the new Courtyard development compliment Humphries House well.
Let’s hope there’s some real winter rolling in now…
January 7th – Passing through Pleck on the way home, on the first winter night of the season. It was cold, so very cold after all the unseasonal warmth and I was hungry. What better way to warm up than a quick snack of samosa and shashlik?
Place is like that other glowing night-suburb, Caldmore. It seems busier at night than in the day, and a constant hubbub of traffic, people, shops and lights.
There’s also some great architecture.
I love these places and the snacks really filled the gap.
January 5th – My experiments with the night-time view of Wednesbury’s twin sisters from Kings Hill continue. This is the third camera I’ve had a go with, and the best so far and more what I was after, but the limitations of the Nikon S9900 – lack of manual focus and noise – were very apparent.
I know what I want, and this is almost it, but I need to learn more about the craft to get it, I think.
It’s still beautiful, though, and one of the best views in the Black Country.
January 4th – Still, once I was wet there was no point in not enjoying the environment. I keep playing with this view of Clayhanger Bridge from the canal. Today, I used the bike light to highlight the railings and overflow. It seems to have worked but would have benefited from a tripod.
One day I must set out to learn what I’m doing with a camera.
January 3rd – A late, wet spin around Brownhills after another very, very wet day. Thankfully, I had a huge amount of paperwork to do for work, so at least I didn’t feel so bad about missing a decent cycling day.
Brownhills was wet, dank, and once again, oddly warm. I hardly saw a soul, and the only sounds were my wheels squelching through the puddles and of water flowing endlessly into drains.
I think I’d be better at this rate flogging the bike and starting 365daysofcanoeing…
December 31st – Well, another year gone under the wheels and it’s not been a bad year. My health has been generally improving, and we didn’t have a bad spring and summer. The autumn was spectacular, and just this wet, oh so warm and wet winter has been wearing me down.
This evening, drenched and wind-battered at Catshill Junction, I stopped to reflect.
Despite the webbed feet and permanent patina of mud and wet grit, I feel happy I’ve seen it trough – coming very close to four years of cycling every day, and a few months off five years from when I started this journal.
I didn’t get in as many long rides as I planned, but commuting has been consistent, and I’m still enjoying being part of the environment that surrounds me. And all the way I’ve had you guys along with me.
Happy new year to you all – lets hope for a dry new year. May there always be wind at your back, sun on you face and speed in your wheels.
Here’s to 2016, and the return of the light.
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 