Tag: The SLough

#365daysofbiking The darkening hour:

March 8th – I was out late the following day, too: the weather was awful and very un-springlike.

I stopped on top of the bridge I’d crossed under the night before and looked at the view. The sky was dramatic again, and the world was quiet, save for a little traffic.

This is a great spot in summer, and a stark one in winter. In spring and autumn, it takes on an otherworldly feel, as if only existing a the interregnum of night and day.

I do wish the weather would pick up.

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#365daysofbiking Radio activity

March 7th – Spinning over to Pelsall on at errand at dusk, I passed under the Old Cement Works Bridge at The Slough, and noted the radio masts there, the larger of which has always been a bit more than the average cellphone mast.

There since the days of analog mobile phones, it was the first cellphone basestation in the area and has been repeatedly upgraded as technology improved. I also carries on the same structure some microwave transceivers and what looks like maybe VHF telemetry antenna. It’s a busy mast for one lurking in a car park of an average, fairly remote trading estate.

Next to it of course, the three armed mast of a Tetra node, the UK emergency services digital network.

Antenna and masts fascinate me. And they never look better than against a dusk sky.

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January 20th – Back on the Canon, the photos felt more… vital, or vibrant. Which is an odd thing to say about a bunch of images of a cold, wet, snowy and misty grey winter landscape. But they do.

It was lonely. And cold. And I think these images convey that fairly well…

August 9th – Teasels are a relatively new addition to the flora of Brownhills, I never used to see them as a kid. I think when Clayhanger Common was seeded after landscaping, teasels – in this case common or Fuller’s – spread from there to the immediate commons. Here at the old cement works bridge, over the Wyrley & Essington canal at The Slough, they’re growing on the trail edges of the former railway line in abundance. They derive their name from their use – as a comb in fabric processing, used to tease or raise the nap or fluffiness of materials like felt and wool.

They’re a lovely, fascinating wildflower. It’s good to see them spread.