October 12th – Cycling home after an unexpected, sudden shower, I was surprised to note that for a few brief minutes there was a rainbow over Walsall.
Like the rain itself, completely unexpected, but a wonderful thing I was glad to witness, and made up for the awful road conditions.
March 8th – There’s clearly a traffic survey going on along the feeder routes on Walsall Ring Road. A huge amount of monitoring equipment has been temporarily installed at junctions and crossings, some of it quite high tech.
In a journey between Lichfield Road and Ida Road I must have seen 20 different items of equipment – cameras, motion sensors etc.
This must be costing a lot of money. Wonder what’s going on?
February 22nd – Dat moon. I first spotted it when I was coming home late along the ring road in Walsall – large and full, it doesn’t seem like five minutes since it was a new crescent, which I suppose means this year will pass very quickly.
I liked the contrast of the electric, traffic-choked urban night and the ancient light of the moon.
January 6th – A fair commute in both directions for once, in fact almost sunny.
On the way, the sun was trapped above low smog but I didn’t mind – as I came through central Walsall on the ring road, it made everything look beautiful. I don’t know if it was just in the haze or my mind, but everything was suffused in a delicious yellow, soft light.
The Workhouse Guardian’s Office in front of the Manor Hospital may still be derelict, and gradually being carried to dust, but it’s at times like this it regains some of the lost stature.
Could do with a few more days like this, please.
November 6th – I was crushingly tired as I trundled home with a thankfully assisting tailwind. It was wet again when I started out and I was damp and miserable. The traffic was hell, and sweeping off the ring road at Walsall, I looked westwards to an unexpectedly beautiful sky.
Cheered, I pressed on and noticed that at the Black Cock pub, their annual bonfire and fireworks display were starting, with stalls and a merry go round on the front car park. The lights looked so beautiful in the dark.
It’s been a hard few weeks. I’m tired, I’m grey and I need rest. Thank heavens it’s the weekend.
August 19th – First really wet commute in ages, and the rain wasn’t cold, so it wasn’t particularly unpleasant. The traffic, though, lulled into the forgetfulness it normal befalls in summer, wasn’t so pleasant.
I hate the way summer rain seems to make drivers behave so oddly. I was glad to get home.
July 10th – On the way home, I passed through Walsall and noticed something that takes me by surprise every summer – the roses in the beds at the Arboretum Junction. They’re beautiful, and my compliments and thanks to whoever planted and maintains them.
April 3rd – It’s Good Friday. You’re going home, mid afternoon. It’s raining, you’re wet and you just want out of here.
The trafic is awful and backing up. It’s time to just go for it and get the hell out.
February 19th – Snatched quickly whilst stopped at the lights, on the commute home 13 hours later. The ring road in Walsall is almost deserted, and it’s raining. Everything is wet, and colours blend and blur in the night. I’m tired. My eyes are sore from fatigue. But the wind was behind me, it was pleasingly warm, and to see the beauty of the wet, urban kaleidoscope was a minor but tangible joy.
February 6th – I’m also getting used to the regular pebble-dashings from gritting trucks, spreading salt as a de-icer on the roads. As a cyclist, I’m generally quite slow moving, and because I ravel at particular times of day, my journeys often coincide with the council salt runs. On cold days they’ll be out in force, plodding down the roads of the borough, making the surfaces crunchy to ride on.
Many people have a mental block with grit: they expect it to be magic, like fairy dust, and when they find roads still icy, they’ll tell you the trucks never came, or that the council is useless. In reality, spreading rocksalt is not an exact science, and is only to improve conditions, not complete ameliorate them.
Driving skill we still be required after the glitter has gone.
I often feel for the crews, who work long hours on a generally thankless task. So I don’t mind the evening coating of grit.
Up the council gritter!
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