Saturday January 30th 2021 – I had to nip to the shops on an errand, but wanted to miss the worst of the lockdown queues, so went as late in the day as possible, and then headed up to Walsall Wood to get some bits for a DIY project, I realised it was still just about light at 4:45pm.
Spring really can’t be far away now, the light is flooding back.
Even on this grey, chilly winter day, it filled my heart with joy.
from Tumblr https://ift.tt/3rWBAJk
via IFTTT
Tuesday November 24th 2020 – I’ve got hold of a GoPro Hero 9 action camera: The last model I used was the Hero 5, I was never particularly impressed with, so I drifted out of using it.
I decided to revisit ride cams and managed to borrow a Hero 9 from work, and it’s quite a bit more complex and more polished than the 5. I have to work out how best to mount the thing for a start, so this cam is cropped down from a 4k shot in portrait. The image quality considering that is remarkable.
The light balance, exposure and colours are better, and I have to say the image stabilisation is remarkable. It’s really quite impressive. Once I can work out how to mount it on the bike securely in landscape, we’re off on some adventures. Be interesting to see the low light quality, and if they’ve sorted the formerly lousy reliability of the flash card interface.
Here’s an unedited, real time journey from an appointment near the Arboretum back towards work through the ring road of Walsall on a grey, dull Tuesday afternoon. The music is Bent’s lovely bit of electronic blippery ‘Exercise 6′.
from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2HFypUM
via IFTTT
Monday, October 12th 2020 – Back to the rain and grey. Such is the season.
I’ve been ignoring as much as possible the nights closing in, for my hatred of the darkening in Autumn causes me to get down if I think about it too much, but this evening, leaving work only a little later than usual, I hit The Suck.
The Suck is the season of commutes from when they start occurring in darkness until about Christmas, until motorists are used to the dark and bad weather again. All through this period, riding a bike home especially, is more arduous mentally and more hazardous. Unused to the gathering murk, drivers seem less attentive, more aggressive and riding safely in traffic requires absolute attentiveness in a way it doesn’t in daylight.
At around Christmas the hazard wanes as the traffic is more used to the lack of light, and the pressure and aggression gradually eases.
This evening, at Rushall feeling mentally flat, I realised how hard I’d been concentrating and that for another year, the traffic was sucking me down.
Be careful out there folks. Every other person on the road is someone’s child. Let’s look after each other.
from Tumblr https://ift.tt/312FHbB
via IFTTT
March 12th – You can always tell a decent traffic improvement scheme by the way nobody mentions it after it’s completed.
The improvements at Shire Oak and Streets Corner took ages to complete, and were not without pain but the improvement in the performance of both is marked, and I’ve heard few moans about these seemingly well planned and executed safety upgrades.
So I think probably the work has been appreciated.
I do know one thing for sure: Streets Corner is still oddly beautiful by night.
This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here
from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2UDPan7
via IFTTT
February 5th – My energy didn’t give out so I went full circle and attended to an errand in Walsall Wood.
I passed under the Black Cock Bridge, named after the nearby pub. A familiar if ramshackle affair, the bridge has been lifted several times due to subsidence and now exists in a sort of limbo: It’s not got much life left, yet replacement of the structure, on a notorious rat-run, would not be easy and due to the aforementioned subsidence, would probably be better and an under bridge with and aqueduct above.
I suspect eventually it will be closed to through traffic and left, like Hollanders Bridge further up in Walsall Wood.
It’s seen better days, as have I, but I hope there’s a few more to come yet for me. For the first time in weeks, I feel like there might actually be a summer eventually, and wellness might once again be mine.
This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here
from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2u3xKWi
via IFTTT
January 16th -Thoughts of spring had been very seductive, but as the following day had proven, it was way too early to call yet. A very wet, windy but warm day, I got soaked on the way in to work and soaked on the way home.
A day with bad traffic, near missed, lousy weather and terrible light.
Returning I had to leave the canal at Catshill Junction again, although I wanted to be well away from traffic, but the water on the towpaths was so bad I had no choice.
At least the lights of the Anchor Bridge Junction were pretty reflected on the canal.
This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here
from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2R5fowX
via IFTTT
January 4th – It wasn’t particularly late – I think about 5pm, maybe 6. I was test riding after repairs. I’d relented and cleaned the bikes and done to urgent jobs on them. So a test ride around the bounds of Brownhills was very much in order.
I’d dropped down off Castle Gate onto Chester Road to burn in new brake pads, but as I pottered up the Chester Road back towards Brownhills, I realised there was next to no traffic and hardly anyone about.
I guess it’s the post-Christmas lull, but even the Shire Oak pub looked sleepy in the evening.
A peaceful, but somewhat odd, journey.
This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here
from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2QpNfjO
via IFTTT
December 29th – The ride cut a bit short due to the sunset alert, it was a good chance to try the long exposure on the M6 Toll from the Pool Lane bridge.
It rarely disappoints, I just wish it had been a shade busier.
These shots always make me think of science fiction artwork: the vanishing points, the defined, rigid lines. The tapering geometry.
Splendid, and very fun to take, even on a cold night.
This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here
from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2QEQgeL
via IFTTT
December 12th – Walsall’s Christmas lights are not ostentatious these days, but Walsall always looks sort of Christmassy at night anyway.
Whether it’s Bridge Street or Leicester Street, the street lighting, vehicles, building lights and architecture combine to make something quite festive and magical.
For all the stick it gets, Walsall isn’t a bad old place.
This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here
from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2MB9fWr
via IFTTT
November 2nd – Out again after dark for a supplies run to Walsall Wood, and on my return, I stopped on Walsall Wood Bridge as I often do in winter to admire the lights of the village that straddles the A461.
Walsall Wood is an interesting place. Unlike Pelsall and Aldridge, Walsall Wood actually seems a little like a village still: a smattering of shops, trio of pubs, a parish church all in a quarter of a mile, surrounded by housing and further out, factories and industrial sprawl.
In daytime this place is pleasant if unprepossessing enough.
But at night, it develops a really interesting feel: almost like a sort of semi-permanent Christmas. The lights of the shops, pubs and takeaways combine and make this place look bright and welcoming in the gloom, in a way most other places don’t.
In this period between rain showers, there was a lot of traffic for a Saturday and cars made that noise they always do on wet tarmac. But it all combined as it usually does and looked beautiful.
I always love this view and I think I always will.
This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here
from Tumblr https://ift.tt/32aYZt4
via IFTTT
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 