Galleries

December 13th – An excellent sunset. I needed to pop to Chasewater on an errand, and had intended to call to the supermarket in Burntwood, but left without a lock, which was fortuitous really. I noticed the beginnings of a good sundown while at the dam, and it improved steadily as I cycled back to Brownhills. From Ogley Junction it was gorgeous; strong, really strong pink and purple, yet by the time I got to Anchor Bridge it had dissipated into a light orange, and then darkness. It was fleeting, but gorgeous and had I gone to the supermarket as intended, I’d have missed it.

A fine evening to be out, and a very lucky strike with the sunset.

December 13th – The kind of cold, crisp morning that grabs your throat and seizes the air from within. The canal had frozen a little, and as I headed to the town Christmas market, I thought how beautiful the canal looked at Pier Street in it’s winter jacket.

In recent winters, we haven’t had nearly enough days like this. This year, I hope there are more. It’s the beauty of winter.

December 12th – I’ trying a new camera out. It’s got similar specs to the one I normally use, a Panasonic TZ60, but this one is made by Canon and is a Powershot SX700. I’ve got it on loan, just to check the competition, as I have the feeling the spring may not bring a new Panasonic model like it usually does.

Shooting out at teatime after a day in Birmingham, darkness probably wasn’t the best time to try and use a new camera, but it wasn’t so bad. 

I like some of the features of the cannon, but the images seem a bit colder, if I’m honest. Also, the controls seem quite pointlessly complex, but I’m sure I get used to them…

I’m sure coming days will give me a better idea.

December 11th – Thoroughly rotten but very necessary journey into Walsall in an evening rain storm. The wind was against me and conditions were vile, including a rather flooded Grown Lane. As if to poke fun at me, the wind that made my progress so hard on the way in had died by my return, but the rain continued.

A couple of nice Christmas trees, though – at Chuckery up at Hydesville and at a very wet Rushall.

I was glad to get home tonight.

December 10th – I hopped onto the cycleway at Pelsall Lane, and passing by Mill Lane Local Nature Reserve, the familiar Walsall skyline was pleasingly in a shaft of light.

I’m not really keen on this cycleway. It should be fast and direct – but it’s potholed and slow, and surprisingly hilly here; but this view is always worthwhile.

Allegedly, bad weather was rolling in. The weather sensationalists who seem to get so much attention these days were calling it a ‘weather bomb’ but all I felt was a cold, relentless wind from the south west – the direction in which I was headed.

Like moons, we don’t seem to get normal weather anymore. It has to be ‘most… since records began’ the whole time, just as we once got a full moon, it now has to be a ‘supermoon’.

Spare me the hyperbole. It was nippy. And windy. But it did blow me home.

December 10th – Can’t ever remember a winter passing this quickly. It doesn’t seem ten minutes ago since shirtsleeves and sun; but today – unusually heading through Pelsall to Walsall due to a necessary call on the way – winter had arrived in full force. The second day of a headwind forged on Satan’s back step, it was relentless and drained my energy.

As was pointed out to me, it’s only a matter of a week and a half until the solstice – and then, opening out again. I dreaded the darkening this year, but somehow, thankfully, the usually associated black dog didn’t ride pillion. The relief of this has uplifted me through the darkness.

Pelsall Common reminded me of Joni Mitchell ‘Shivering trees standing in naked rows’ – but hey, it’ll be Bryter Layter.

And so, the season’s wheel advances inexorably on, with me in a surprisingly good humour for the time of year. I think someone must be slipping happy pills into my tea…

December 9th – Walsall Council’s road repair contractors, Tarmac, have a new toy: a velocity patcher. This hi-tech bit of road repair kit cleans out potholes, then blows in a grit and fill mixture, which has a finishing coat of grit applied afterwards. It does a good job.

They’ve been using such a machine in South Staffordshire for ages, and the repairs are long-lasting and good for what they are. They certainly take the nasty surprise out of potholes.

However, just a wee complaint. The crew in Walsall clearly aren’t quite as proficient as those in Staffs, and in the otherwise nicely repaired Scarborough Road in Pleck is awash with loose grit. It’s like Chesil Beach, and very unsafe for cyclists and anyone braking suddenly.

The repair is great, much better – but that loose stuff is going to cause, or exacerbate an accident. Please sort it out.

December 8th – I noticed it particularly in Victoria Park, Darlaston; this was now a winter place, and the low sun was doing it justice. It was only morning, but looked almost like the golden hour. Days like this, the light is like honey all day. 

This sun, the weak but beautiful one we’re blessed with for the shortest days of winter, lights the red, red terracotta of the Black Country wonderfully, and there’s no better place to enjoy it than Darlaston.

December 8th – A shock today, commuting on a cold, hard morning with the wind against me; I noticed today that the leaves had gone and winter was truly here. It was chilly, and I felt it in my bones.

The sun shone, though, and passing on the Ring Road, I noticed the site of the proposed new cinema between Tesco and Stafford Street in Walsall had been cleared of scrub and it looks like work might be about to start here.

It’ll be interesting to see what develops.

December 7th – it was a beautiful afternoon with a very unpleasant wind, but the sun and commons of Brownhills were a joy to behold. The heaths and scrub glowed beautifully, as did the canal embankments.

These days it’s hard to imagine these beautiful places have a harsh, lingering industrial legacy.

Looking for deer near the site of the lost Coombe House, at Coppice Side, I spotted this monitoring well, a int of a none-too-pleasant past; this is the edge of a former landfill and boreholes like this are regularly unlocked and ‘dipped’ to monitor contamination. The EX symbol warns of an explosive gas hazard – methane, mostly, from rotting refuse buried underground.

This is a problematic site and will require monitoring for many years to come. 

I looked up from it to see the backside of a young hind disappearing into the the copse…