Tag: odd

#365daysofbiking Monumental

March 14th – Passing through the Wood on an errand. The world is clearly on the brink of something and people have been panic buying toilet rolls and other silly stuff needlessly because they fear the spread of coronavirus.

I swung over the playing field of Oak Park to admire the pithead sculpture to Walsall Wood Colliery while I was passing. It was solid. Strong. Ever present. Reassuring in a world that seemed to be losing it’s composure.

Sometimes it’s the monuments and monoliths that make you feel most secure.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/34sggR5
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Gimme shelter

March 11th – Going to work via a call in Aldridge on a wet day, I sheltered under Northywood Bridge near Stubbers Green.

It gave me an opportunity to study the boats in the yard nearby.

I noted the one closest to me – a handsome, large craft – was loaded with junk. Perhaps someone was clearing it out.

I couldn’t help but wonder if the halloween pumpkin was to ward off evil spirits deliberately, or was just where it happened to land…

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2WZmvu8
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Flocking hell

January 9th – I had to nip up to Newtown in the morning, and went via the canal  and Ogley Junction. I was intrigued on the bridge by a quiet but fairly large roost of birds in the trees behind the old lock cottage by The Long Pound.

It turned out they were just wood pigeons.

Whilst very familiar with these ambling, affable birds, I can’t recall seeing flocks of them like this before, but I guess it must be normal.

An intriguing thing on an otherwise very dull morning.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/304iRi5
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Dark centre

July 18th – Yesterday, I found a plant that I considered may be wild carrot due to the presence of a tiny, dark flower in the centre of it’s otherwise creamy white umbrel. I wrote:

The reason I think this is wild carrot is the presence of a tiny dark flower in the centre of the head to attract insects – I’ll have another look tomorrow to verify this.

That is definitely a tiny, dark purple flower, so this plant is indeed wild carrot. Another baffling, wondrous feature you have to wonder the path towards.

This lovely wildflower was certainly keeping the overflies busy too.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/30D7fBG
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Locked out

May 21st – On a late journey to work following a meeting near home earlier, I tried to get on the canal at Smith’s Flour Mill, on the New Walsall Ring Road – but I was thwarted by…. A flood.

I’ve noticed this happen here before: Someone leaves both paddles open on the lock above and I don’t think the overflow sluice next down the line – the lowest in the Birchills flight – can handle it. As a consequence, the pound between floods under the bridge.

The cause  appeared to be inexperienced boaters who were in the lock above, looking a bit helpless.

I contacted the Canal and River Trust local team who came and sorted things out.

At least it should clean some of the detritus of the path under the bridge…

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

from Tumblr http://bit.ly/2VZS4F2
via IFTTT

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.

January 12th – I found myself un Burton Upon Trent for a meeting – I’d been in Lichfield for breakfast, Burton Lunch, Derby mid afternoon and Leicester by 5pm. It was a busy, hectic day, but the railways served me well.

I haven’t had a look around the centre of Burton in an absolute age. It’s a very odd place. Some great shops, lovely people, but it seems half asleep, almost somnambulant. They have a sculpture of a Marmite bottle, as the dark goo is made there. I saw lots of odd things.

I like this place. But on this Friday, when I was starting to feel a bit odd with a cold, it felt a bit… strange. 

June 29th – A grey, wet afternoon in Tipton, and I noticed something I’ve passed maybe hundreds of times but not noticed: an odd little bit of civil engineering.

Just on the corner of Wood Street and Owen Road, effectively right on Tipton’s High Street, a circular bench feature, that’s actually concealing the top of a storm buffer.

A storm buffer is a large subterranean tank usually made from reinforced concrete pipe that acts to store rainwater surges in the event of a storm, buffering the deluge and releasing the water slowly into the drainage system at a manageable rate.

It’s unusual to see one proud of the ground, and even more so in such a prominent location.

That’s quite clever, and surprised I’ve never noticed it.

March 15th – With the good weather comes the rash of new bike commuters. Spotted in the shed at Telford, this curious, new looking steed: a Dawes Haarlem commuter bike. Aimed at the female market, huge front basket, step through frame, chain guard, carrier and three speed Sturmey Archer hub gears. It weighs quite a bit, and the frame welds are hideous. Also surprised at the rim brakes rather than disc or hub roller ones.

The outward curve of the carrier stays bothers me: stop sharp with a heavy load on and they’re pre-shaped to bend unpleasantly.

An odd bike, but someone loves it.

January 29th – for the first time in some years, I paid a visit to the railway museum at Chasewater, which was as pleasingly eccentric as ever. This free attraction, run by award-winning volunteers is a little gem, and contains much to enthralling and entertain even if you aren’t a railway buff.

Some of the most interesting stuff though, isn’t in the museum but outside it. That’s certainly nearly a case of the cart before the horse, and that odd little railcar.

That panda looks a bit delinquent to me.