February 11th – It was one of those days daylight seemed to avoid. I headed to the canal for a little inspiration, but none came. The grey just merged via a horrid, drizzly mist.
The sky was grey. The water was grey. The landscape was in shades of grey. I felt grey.
Days like these really try your resolve.
February 3rd – Snatched shots of my beloved Brum as it got dark.. It was raining, lightly, and the wind was building up.
I love Birmingham when it’s wearing this atmosphere, this cloak of impending night.
My pictures don’t do it justice.
January 7th – I love inversions, when mist rolls off water low into the air. I don’t see many these days, and certainly none as dramatic as those from my childhood, but the character of the area has changed so much in 40 years that I shouldn’t be surprised, really.
I was out after dark and noticed fleeting, transitory clouds of mist forming over the canal at Silver Street, intensifying, then disappearing. It was stunning.
I tried to photograph them as best I could, but this is really something you have to see first hand…
November 9th – A wet night in Walsall, returning later than usual through the area near the Civic Centre, I noticed the fallen leaves were forming a glistening, multicoloured carpet. This area is surprisingly beautiful at any time of year, with usually unnoticed mature trees and wide pedestrian areas, but in autumn, after dark, even with the peculiarly strident street lighting this place is special.
Walsall is a place of many hidden beautiful and unexpected corners.
November 2nd – Walsall, on a crisp, chilly but sunny autumn day.
You couldn’t wish for anywhere finer: Walsall may have it’s detractors, but the trees.The mixed architecture. The sunlight.
THis’ll do.
March 7th – I don’t often ride through The Butts in Walsall, although it’s a lovely place. The tightly packed streets of traditional terraces are lined with parked cars, and any ride through this fascinating place is marred by conflict with other traffic, which is a great shame as I miss scenes like this.
Stopping to wait for my companion caught up further back, I looked up Borneo Street to see a perspective sunset, perfectly replete with TV aerials, chimneys and the ghostly white LED street lights.
I could really love this place, were it not such a challenge to cycle around.
February 6th – I had promised not to moan about the rain again. But come on, it was rain all day from the moment I awoke until late into the evening. That’s not good. And again, that evil, evil wind.
I got out around teatime and did a quick loop of the town. There is something enchanting about traffic, electric light and rain, but I think I’ve seen enough of it.
All I want right now is a dry, calm and sunny spring. It seems unlikely. But I can always hope…
September 1st – And when I say frenetic, I mean frenetic. Look at this junk shop. Does he get all that stuff back in at night? That’s astounding.
July 4th – Fully loaded with shopping, I pottered back, becoming slower and slower as my energy dropped. I was pleased to note, however, lots of new duckling families on the canal at Brownhills. There are mallard chicks from newly hatched to a week or so old, clearly all second clutches.
This summer seems to be favouring the wildlife, which is nice to see.
March 24th – Compression of the neck… herons are more and more common now. Barely a towpath ride goes by without seeing one, and on longer rides like last week, I’ll see five or six, which must be a symbol of how clean the waters are now and how the fish population must by bountiful, too.
This proud bird was on the towpath in Pleck, just by the wall of Rollingmill Street Cemetery, pretty much the industrial heart of Walsall. Wary of me but not skittish, by dismounting the bike and taking things gently I got close enough for some decent pictures, I think.
I adore herons.
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