February 26th – One thing I have noticed this year is that the crazy mild and early spring seems to have really benefited the catkins. They are lush and large this year, which seems good.
Here on the canal at Walsall Wood they’re the largest such crop I’ve ever seen.
February 26th – Really not well at all, I did a few hours of necessary stuff at work and crawled home mid-afternoon. I wanted a change, so I came over Church Hill, and stopped to take some photos while up there.
Church Hill is one of those conundra that I find troubling. St. Matthews is as beautiful as ever, and the views would be splendid were they not obscured by mature, beautiful trees. I want rid of some of them for a better view, but I also don’t…
No sign of the peregrines on the bellcote, but this is the first time I realised you can see the Workhouse Guardian’s offices from up here – and they look better from such a distance, and also, terribly out of place. Marooned.
St. Matthews itself is suffering the rogues of the weather, and desperately needs some love. I hope the CofE can get around to giving this venerable old church a bit of love soon.
February 25th – I’m experimenting with night shots at the moment, and what better place than Catshill Junction to try them? Quite pleased with these.
Again, that seasonal light-not-yet-died colour was fabulous. Hardly and wind with a flat-calm canal. Wonderful.
february 24th – Another interesting thing about spring is the colours of the dusk. Tonight, quick shots as I rode home; a gentle indigo in Birchills, soft orange in Pleck and deep, deep blue at Clayhanger.
Winter feels nearly through now. I’m really enjoying the outdoors again. This is what I’ve missed. Light, air and colour.
February 24th – Darlaston is changing right now. In its parks – Victoria and Kings Hill – spring his here, and the first signs of a green summer are just seeping into the landscape. Daffodils, crocuses, primroses and snowdrops dapple the lawns and beds, and everything seems just a shade more alive.
I actually saw a honeybee today. It’s not yet March.
In the parks though, the peace is uneasy; a susurration of labouring diesel engines, the whine of hydraulics and the rupturing of concrete as nearby, the land the old Servis factory stood on is reclaimed for new housing. So much concrete on site to be pulverised, an army of fascinating machinery is working away at it.
Change is good. Chase is interesting. But the change for the greener lifts me the most.
February 21st – Today, I saw an old familiar, I thought was lost – the white domestic goose from Chasewater with the bump it’s head. Originally part of a cohort of six kept as guards for the boatyard at Ogley Junction, they were cast into the wild when the yard closed. Living on the canal by the Chemical for a few years, two were lost, presumably to the local fox’s belly. When the Chemical was redeveloped, the geese moved to the main lake at Chasewater, where they lived seemingly contentedly amongst the Canada geese and swans.
One bird was lost to the cold in 2013, and another disappeared last year; for a couple of months now I’ve only seen the one, and assumed this bird was lost, but today I saw it preening by the waterspouts club.
The flock would be probably over ten years old now, and it shows in their eyes – these are venerable birds. Truculent, permanently cross and hostile to anything that didn’t give them food, they were hard to like. But I’ve always loved them. Such pure, white plumage, always tidy birds who knew their mind.
I hope they see another summer, and feel the warm sun on their backs once more.
February 21st – Another grim, grey and periodically wet day that had started reasonably well, but by the time I was able to escape, had descended into grey intemperance. I headed out to Chasewater and found the water level still rising, but the place was largely deserted and the lake very choppy indeed. This place was hostile today.
The only bright thing here was the gorse, which is strongly in flower all around the park. Such vivid, bright yellow. A real joy.
February 20th – A foul, grey and wet day hemmed me in and I only left the house to get some shopping in. While out, I looped up the canal and back to town; it was dark, desolate and windy and I found the experience particularly joyless.
I did find cheer, however, in the bike on the back of the narrowboat moored at Siler Street, which seemed made to measure to fit in place, and for the waterside grotto at the back of the houses on Lindon Drive which seemed like the ideal place to chill out on a more temperate evening.
A lot of thought has clearly gone into that little sanctuary.
February 19th – Down in Stonnall on an errand, I noted the pubs of the village, the Royal Oak and Old Swan both seem to be doing well now. Both have been closed previously, with questions over their future, but both with new landlords, they both seem to be doing well now, despite being barely 150 yards apart.
February 19th – In Walsall Wood, the spring flowers on the grass in front of St. Johns Close are showing well. A range of beautiful daffodils and yellow crocuses form a cheery carpet on this greyest of dull days.
Interestingly, the purple crocuses – normally here in profusion – seem to have suffered a crop failure this year. Maybe they’re late to what is a very early party.
Curious.
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