Tag: Walsall Wood

January 1st – I wasn’t well, and didn’t go far. Not overindulgence from the previous evening – I partook of no alcohol at all on New Year’s Eve – but the recurring IBS I sometimes get, thankfully very rarely these days.

I was also drowning under a sea of paperwork I had to complete for work, which always drives me mad. At least the day was wet, so I didn’t miss good riding time…

I spun up Walsall Wood on an errand, and hopped off the canal at Hollander’s Bridge and took a quick shot of Binary Mews. It still disappoints me that the addresses here don’t go 1,10,11,100,101 etc…

Passing St. John’s, I forgot to note this year that the Christmas tree in the Churchyard – donated as it always is by the local councillors – was looking splendid this year with a new set of coloured lights. The generosity of the politicians is noted, and appreciated.

I welcome 2017, and a return to normality. When my stomach settles, of course.

December 21st – At last, work is over for the year, coinciding happily with the shortest day. The winter solstice is important to me, as once it’s passed, the days begin their sinusoidal rollercoaster of opening out once more – slowly at first, then careering to daylight as the spring comes. 

When I reach this point, I always feel I’ve survived. From here on in, things can only improve. And Christmas is here!

I passed the Black Cock in Walsall Wood on my way home; a pub that’s clinging on despite several changes of landlord in a short time, it remains popular and the welcoming, warm lights in the darkness made it feel festive and welcoming.

I’m ready for Christmas now, and a rest.

November 30th – Another beautiful, frosty and glass-hard morning, and again Jockey Meadows captivated me.

This wetland, separating Shelfield from Walsall Wood for centuries is an essential drainage band for the area and a haven for wildlife, as well as being a notified Site of Special Scientific Interest.

And I think Jockey Meadows are at their most beautiful on mornings like this.

November 21st – I’ve not known a day’s weather so consistently, unrelentingly bad for a long, long time. It rained continuously from before I awoke, through my 7am commute, right up until around 6pm.

Riding to work was a battle. Despite waterproofs, a ride rendered 50 minutes rather than the usual 35-40 left me wet in places. I was miserable, cold and grumpy.

In Darlaston at teatime, the rain slowed, so I made a bolt for it. Mostly, the rain held back during my journey home, on flooded, waterlogged roads through a glistening, dripping, wet and cold town. 

Drivers were behaving in that terrifyingly single minded, selfish way they always do in bad weather; either travelling at ridiculously inappropriate speeds, or crawling. The spray was penetrating.

Thankfully, by the time I reached the Coppice Road junction on the Brownhills/Walsall Wood border, there was little traffic around.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to get home, have a shower, and a mug of tea. I so hope tomorrow is better.

October 24th – Passing Jockey Meadows on the way home, the clean up from the recent sewer problems near Bullings Heath is still ongoing, with tankers pumping our sumps and groundwater in series during the day. I noted as I passed a diesel standby pump dropped in a field, and pipeline equipment. It’s either for flushing, or pumping water out of the brook into the sewers for a while.

The work here has been protracted and involved, and the efforts taken to avoid damaging the local ecology with raw sewage have been dedicated and impressive.

Let’s hope all the issues are resolved shortly.

October 18th – Another lovely golden hour, this time as I came through Walsall Wood and the Black Cock Bridge. The sun reflected off the golden leaves beautifully and rendered the farmhouse precious.

As the sun receded further, the skies were dramatic over Clayhanger, too. 

The sunsets at this time of year are fantastic.

October 13th – Have you had a new bathroom fitted lately? Does your house now look splendid and fresh? Great.

Sadly, if you paid a chancer to remover the rubbish, it’s now in Green Lane, on the Walsall Wood/Shelfield border in a field gateway, because you were too cheap to pay fro proper waste disposal, or they were.

Since the partial closure of Green Lane for sewage repair works last week, the lane has been blighted with such flytipping.

If you paid someone to dump this stuff, you could be prosecuted on the same basis as the flytipper., because under the law giving waste to an unlicensed carrier incurs the same penalty as fly tipping.

The other possibility is you dumped it yourself. In which case you’re beneath contempt.

There’s a lot of packaging in there. Hope none of it has your address on it.

October 5th – This is an odd one. Drifting for a while on the canal around the Black Cock Bridge in Walsall Wood, this abandoned pleasure craft does seem to have been someone’s home for a while, with boards tied at a broken side window, and signs of recent life inside. There’s no boat registration visible, no apparent engine and the craft is just drifting.

I had thought the boat had originated locally, but I think that assumption is wrong, having studied previous photos.

I guess, if abandoned this can be considered flytipping, and I suppose the Canal and River Trust, the people responsible for the canals, have a procedure for this sort of eventuality, but it must be a real pain hauling it out of the water and disposing of it.

A curious thing indeed.

October 5th – Of all the flowers hanging on in this odd autumn, the butter and eggs is one of my favourites. It’s still flowering well along the hedgerows and towpaths of Walsall Wood and Brownhills, and this example was spotted near Walsall Wood Bridge.

It’s getting colder now, though, and it won’t be long until the first frost, which I think should put an end to this unusually long flowering season.

Which is a shame. The flowers have been wonderful this year.

September 12th – A little local mystery solved, perhaps. This autumn, the Canada geese population have been very active indeed over Brownhills in the early morning and in the hour or so before sunset. Groups travelling en masse from one place to another, honking joyfully as they pass.

I love the noise they make and it always makes me smile. And there’s been a massive increase this year.

Returning home from work at dusk past Jockey Meadows where the crops had been harvested a week or so ago, I noted a huge flock of the birds, ground feeding on the spilled grain in the stubble. The birds were busily browsing, getting a good feed.

There must have been in excess of 500 birds.

My grandad used to call this otherwise lost seed ‘gleanings’ and traditionally, it was collected and used to feed fancy birds like guineafowl, who were therefore known as ‘gleanies’.

I assume the geese have been doing this for a few weeks as local cereal crops have been harvested – possibly an extra stop off on their normal journeys between daytime waters and night time roosting spots.