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February 8th – I took a spin up to Burntwood in a fearsome wind. It was the first time in my life I can actually say I was blown off my bike. Fortunately, only against a fence, and no harm done. 

The day was grey, periodically squally and oddly warm, really. Chasewater was pretty much deserted. Even the bargee Alsation dog, keeping watch onAnglesey Basin was finding the wind a bit harsh.

The outlet valve is still closed, and water continues to flow down the spillway.

There has to be an end to this soon.

February 7th – It had been a hard, long day. For the third time this week, I hit the canal back into Brownhills, but not before I’d stopped to reflect at Jockey Meadows in Walsall Wood. The heath there is sodden, and the meadow is still in winter clothing, but the daffodils here too are sprouting. No sign of snowdrops, though, which was sad.

The canal overflow is working to high capacity at Clayhanger Common, and I was interested to note the trash screen was clear of debris – either someone is cleaning it out or the canal isn’t that polluted these days. Think it’s probably the latter.

I paused on Catshill Junction bridge to look over to the wasteland where Bayley House once stood. One of the two high rise blocks demolished here just shy of a decade ago, permission has finally been granted for a new canalside development here.

Things change – the seasons, the weather, the skyline. But sometimes, the constancy of just loving where you are is enough after a tough day. Standing there in the weak February sun this afternoon, I really felt that attachment deeply. 

I absorbed the space, the sun, the smell of the damp earth, the canal.

I got back on my bike, and rode home.

February 7th – I was over in Telford early, and returned to Darlaston at lunchtime. In contrast to the day before, the weather started out rainy, but turned springlike pretty much as soon as I left the house. The cycleways of Telford were beautiful in the sunlight, and the station at lunchtime oddly quiet, but a much nicer place to be for a bit of sunlight.

Why does the weather keep taunting me like this? Why am I scaring the sun away?

February 6th – I’d been in Telford, in a building with no windows. When I came to leave, I realised it was raining fairly heavily. Nothing to do, but don the waterproofs and go for it. The journey was pretty miserable, really; delays at Telford and Birmingham made for a long, damp trudge home, but at least the wind was behind me. 

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a continuously warm, wet winter like this. Last year was bad enough, but at least we had variety with the snow. This is just getting boring now…

February 5th – I know little about this, and although peripherally aware of the Aldridge Garden of Reflection for some time (if that’s the right name), I’d never stopped to look. Today, passing through the town on my way home, I stopped to check it out.

On the corner of the High Street and Little Aston Road is a small, landscaped and sculpturally paved area with benches, flowerbeds and decorative friezes in the paving. It’s very sweet, and a little oasis. The reliefs in the paving relate to aspects of Aldrige life – history, present and so forth. There’s an interesting large compass too, pointing out the nearby major landmarks. Overall I was very impressed.

Not sure who was behind this, although Aldridge Rotary Club are mentioned. I must find out more about it.

I wish I’d stopped to look here sooner…

February 4th – Another click, and the seasonal mechanism advances a notch. On the canal bank at Walsall Wood, hazel catkins, one of the first signs of spring… Then, near Clayhanger Bridge in the undergrowth, daffodils are growing and starting to form buds.

Jack-in-the-green has tapped his cane on the ground and told the plants it’s time to grow. More power to him!

February 3rd – I was out unexpectedly early, so I left work while it was still light. The sharp wind was drying out the towpaths, so I hopped onto the canal at Aldridge to get a break from the traffic of the school run. 

Passing the drain sluice near the Big House at Clayhanger, I noticed something I hadn’t previously. I always thought that if the sluice were opened, it would drain the canal onto the gardens below, as early pictures show this sluice feeding an open channel.

Now the leaves are off the trees, I see there’s actually a drain shaft on the embankment through the trees a few yards away that it must flow into; one assumes this is connected to the common drain for the area.

I’d always wondered why that sluice wasn’t better locked than it is.

February 3rd – I was in Leicester for an important meeting, but the travel gods were not favouring me. I left with good time to spare, but a bastard of a headwind made me just miss my train; a frantic Clockwise-esque fiasco ensued. I got to Leicester, and had to head to the outskirts of the city. I took a wrong turning. I found myself battling the headwind again. I arrived with just minutes to spare. 

The person I was due to meet was running an hour late, so at least I had time to freshen up. Thankfully, the journey home was less eventful, and with an assisting wind.

At Leicester railway station, apropos of nothing, an apparently abandoned table tennis table. No, I haven’t a clue, either.

Nice to see Notwork Fail have actually recognised the shortage of bike parking here and stopped getting shirty with people chaining their steed to the railings. So good to see so many bikes.

February 2nd – It was a gorgeous day, much better than of late, but I was sadly confined to sorting out the computer for most of it. I slipped out for a quick spin around Chasewater at 4pm and caught a good sunset. Everything was still dripping with mud, of course; the going on the towpaths and trails is chewy, to say the least; but there was a chill and hardness in the air that suggested the warm, wetter weather might be on the way out.

The canal sluice is still closed and Chasewater is still overflowing into the spillway. 

February 1st – I’m coming to realise the value of multi-storey car parks as crow’s nests for taking a view of a town. I rode up to the car park on the roof of Aldridge Shopping Centre to see if I could find a decent photo, and I wasn’t disappointed. 

One thing that’s always piqued my curiosity here is the truncated access ramp that never was; at the back of the centre, an unfinished sloping access way is abruptly truncated on the edge of Rookery Lane, hanging in mid air without explanation. Legend has it that the required planning permission was not in place to complete it, or denied, and the alternate spiral one further down was built instead.

Wonder if that’s true?