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.
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December 12th – The Christmas tree in Walsall is usually very nicely done. After a few grim yers in the early 2000s when lighting contractors synthesised something akin to a tree from a lighting column to universal derision, then a year or two without, we now get a pretty decent tree in the square between the bus station, bank and the Crossing at St. Pauls.
This year’s tree is excellent – but following blustery weather, developed an unfortunate tilt. It’s now fixed, but still not quite plum.
I think it adds character.
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December 10th – I spend a lot of time waiting at traffic lights, and of all of them, I think I like the ones on the Arboretum Junction on Walsall’s new ring road least of all.
Ostensibly heuristic and adaptive, the loop sensors here don’t always pick up my bike, and often I watch a whole cycle take place before the lights allow me to go.
Tonight was just such a night – because the controller didn’t find me, my phase of the lights was completely absent first time around.
Nothing to do but shuffle the bike on the loop and swear…
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December 3rd – Returning to Walsall a little earlier than usual from Birmingham, I was just in time to see a most beautiful sunset descend upon Walsall – but not in the best place to catch it on camera. Standing on the steps at the station side entrance. the view down Station Street and back over the empty station platforms was much better than I expected.
I’m glad I caught this one – but by heck, it felt cold…
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November 29th – I nipped into work for a short while in the morning, and out of necessity, went through Bloxwich and down through Bentley, the sprawling suburb that separates Walsall From Willenhall.
Bentley has a fascinating landmark: A church on a large hill.
Emmanuel Church is a modernist, almost brutalist design by Richard Twentyman in the mid 1950s, and although interesting, I’ve always found it to be a stark, unsettling building. Twentyman was an acclaimed church architect who had also designed pubs and crematoria, so perhaps the stark nature of his work was appropriate.
The church though plays second fiddle to the Bentley Cairn, something I’ve never really stopped to look at before – it’s simply put an extraneous rock with some debate over the actual origin, but it marks the site of three halls which were historically significant. The cairn was restored and enhanced a decade or so ago, and now is a bit of an out of the way curiosity.
The views aren’t bad, but are not quite as good as one would expect, either; interestingly, the green hill with the striking tower atop looks far better from below than the surrounds do from atop it.
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November 25th – Some things that are seasonal are always a shock when you find them, as they remind you of a year passing. Snowdrops and acolytes after Christmas, the first daffodil, the first berries and galls, etc.
One that always catches me up short is holly berries.
That’s Christmas – it is after all, a great element of Yule symbolism. But they do appear a ways before Christmas and tend to be around long after. I don’t know why, but holly berries never seem that attractive to birds.
These, spotted on a wet Monday morning on the cycleway near Ryecroft Cemetery quite took me by surprise – but then, it’s only a month to go…
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November 18th – It was a cold, thankfully dry journey home. The roads were glistening with ice, and the main ones, a fresh scattering of road salt.
The first icy commute home of the winter is always hard. My hands and face were cold. It hurt.
Stopping at a shop in the way home, I noticed that the temperature was marginally still above zero degrees Celsius.
That was a shock. it felt much colder.
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November 16th – Another wet and grey day, another errand: I had to pop over to Shenstone and then to Lichfield at teatime. The wind was hell coming home and the rain sporadic. It wasn’t;t a great ride if I’m honest.
Coming back up the A461 to Shire Oak over the Summerhill motorway bridge, since there was a break in the rain, I tried a long exposure with the G5X. Interesting result, but I needed more traffic – unlikely at this time on a Saturday, to be honest.
With the wind against me, rain starting and no fuel in my tank (I’d forgotten to eat during the day) the ride uphill was not nice.
Still, it was nice to get home.
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October 25th – Passing through Walsall on a wet and very blustery day, I passed Town Wharf, the canal basin that’s been in Walsall for a while now. In fact since the canals were built here, a couple of hundred years ago.
I notice we now have hastily added deep water warnings, because apparently people are mistaking the weed on the canal for grass and falling in.
There has been a sudden rash of such incidents in the last few weeks.
Once can only speculate why so many folk suddenly should try to replicate the biblical miracle of walking on water here in Walsall. Perhaps the nearby establishments that sell wine may be linked. Maybe they converted it from canal water (not too much of a transition for some of the local ales, to be fair).
It’s all most peculiar. But do mind how you go. It’s wet down there.
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October 24th – I had to be in work very early and woke up bleary and grumpy. The cold air, clear skies and empty streets as I seed through north Walsall though were gorgeous.
Cycling through sleeping suburbia I heard alarms waking folk from their beds, and watched the day coming to life and I felt a bit like a low rent Dylan Thomas without the talent. There’s something special about being out legitimately obscenely early. I always love it.
The church visible from North Street bridge was beautiful against the sky as was the college and listening skyline.
Riding a bike can really set you up for the day.
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