March 22nd – Working very late, a 14 hour day. I returned through a somnambulant Park Street in Walsall, the pavers shining in the electric light.
Walsall gets an awful lot of stick in some quarters, but looking tonight at the clean street and welcoming light, I was reminded that this isn’t a bad place, for all it’s detractors.
It certainly felt like home tonight.
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March 21st – A remarkable early riser at the moment in this early and temperate spring is the purple dead-nettle. Not usually seen until mid April around here, there are lovely little mauve-pink patches of this small plant in scrubs, commons, heaths, hedgerows and towpaths everywhere I go.
It doesn’t sting, and I love how the upper leaves have a red colour that compliments the delicate blooms.
In the last couple of years I’ve really come to appreciate nettles – yellow archangel is another member of the family which will soon appear and it’s stunningly beautiful too.
A real gem.
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March 19th – Returning from work late, around 8pm I sailed through the Civic Quarter in Walsall and found it oddly bereft of people and even the roads were quiet.
Glad to see someone has finally painted over the horrid spots on Hatherton House which although painted by the tenant, were nothing short of an act of vandalism to a historic building.
This place is always odd at night: I love the interrelation of the light, trees and built environment but will always hate those streetlights. Awful design.
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March 18th – On a grey, cold morning in Darlaston, the hedgerows, scrub and edgelands are turning the colours of new growth.
Everywhere you look, leaf buds are opening and the fresh colours of spring’s palette are coming to the fore.
As winters go, it’s not been a bad one. Let’s hope summer is as good as lat year.
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March 14th – At the traffic lights on the junction of Hatherton Street and the New Ring Road, Walsall, lunchtime. Waiting at a red to turn right.
Why is it so often the most uncourteous drivers are those charged with teaching newcomers to the road the tenets of good driving – respect, obeying the law and consideration for others?
I despair sometimes. Not indicating, either.
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March 12th – I noticed a couple of weeks ago there seemed to be new bike parking at WalsalL Station, but only got around to investigating it this evening.
It’s in a curious, newly built compound off platform one, and isn’t like the secure hubs at other stations, which are lockable and really deter the casual thief. This is a decent enough stacking stand, with a tethered tool station nearby which is, I guess, a nice touch.
It clearly isn’t secure though, despite the claims it’s monitored by CCTV. A new looking bike lies in one station, stripped and trashed.
I’d rather leave my bike locked on Park Street – and the disclaimers are very off-putting too.
This is nothing more than lip service by West Midlands Trains, a company I’m rapidly coming to dislike.
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March 8th – It was another wet, blustery afternoon and I had to go to Birmingham for a working lunch then come back to Walsall for a legal meeting.
The rain when I arrived at Walsall was horrendous.
I know it’s still winter, and that the early spring lulled me into false optimism, but I’d quite like an break from the wind and rain if that’s OK please.
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March 7th – It’s time for the periodic traffic survey in Walsall, and the sheer number of traffic counter units fitted across the borough’s roads is causing some comment on social media.
They aren’t sinister at all: By law local authorities have to take traffic counts for planning and other reasons and like most councils now, the work is deputised to a specialist contractor.
These Metrocount units – that use the familiar, traditional rubber air tube and pressure switch technique are surprisingly sophisticated and the manual for them was found online by The Stymaster – you can read it here.
I crossed at least eight between Brownhills and Darlaston. Just setting them all up and gathering them back must be a mammoth task, let alone analysing the data…
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March 5th – On the way to work, I took the canal through Bentley Bridge to Walsall. Near the disused Anson Arm at Bentley Bridge, apropos of nothing, four pure white domestic pekin ducks I’ve never seen here before. I assume they’d come down out of the wind for a break.
They have got the cutest backsides of any waterfowl though, I think…
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February 26th -Arnold and Flossie, the Bentley Bridge swans have definitely got the spring imperative, and appear to be building a news. Well, she is. He was patrolling on guard – but Flossie was very busy weaving reads into her pile and testing it for fit.
This will be fun to watch over the coming weeks.
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BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 