Galleries

March 5th – The sunsets are great at the moment. The welcome lengthening of the day, combined with some dry, misty weather is making the local countryside beautiful at dusk. Winter is still ongoing, as the bare trees indicate, but everything feels like it’s ready to go. Crocuses and daffodils are in bud, hedgerows are smattered with small specs of light emerald, and the sun, when it comes it feels warming.

After a wet, cold winter, this is just what’s needed. It warms the shoulders and the heart.

March 5th – A beautiful, late winter/early spring day. I left when the morning fog was thick and cold, and headed to Telford. As I got nearer the station, the mist was gradually burned off by the sun. I came back to Tyseley later, and it seemed the colour of the day was gold. The mist lingered, and made for beautiful skylines.

This spring thing? I think it could be a goer…

March 4th – I came home from Shenstone at sunset. They day hadn’t improved much – coming back necessarily late, my train ticket was invalid and I had to buy a second. All the way back I’d been fighting the kind of tiredness that repeatedly pulls you into slumber, then cruelly snatches you awake, momentarily terrified. I just wanted to be home.

It was chilly, and slightly misty as the sun went down. The countryside around Stonnall, Lynn and Sandhills looked gorgeous in the subtle light and mist. I was still tired, but I couldn’t stop taking pictures. I love the outdoors, even when I’m nearly beaten. It gives me strength.

I note that at Home Farm, at Sandhills, the field that was potatoes last year has been prepared with long, flat, plastic film encased beds, suggesting something delicate. I’m wondering if it’s connected with the pipework I saw being installed last weekend. The geometry and precision of the automated planting and covering is stunning. It’ll be interesting to see what crop emerges.

March 4th – A day beset by travel difficulties. Actually, a bloody awful day all around, if I’m honest. I set off on an 8am train to go to Leicester. I didn’t get there, due to signalling issues, until gone 12pm. Hopping off the train in South Wigston, in bright sunshine,resisting the urge to kiss the platform papal-style, the deathly dark mood was suddenly lifted.

Readers who’ve been following this journal a while will recall from last year that I’m fascinated by the flowers that grow, untended, on a patch of embankment at South Wigston Station. All year, this once tended strip of border is a riot of colour. Today, I noticed it had already got it’s spring jacket on.

Yellows and blues were the order of the day. Crocus, forsythia and a small blue flower I think may be hepatica or anemone, but I welcome a positive ID.

I went on my way, my mood lifted. Heaven, in a wild flower.

March 2nd – Erdington Bike Jumble. A regular fixture every year – loads of buried treasure and junk, and the chance to meet old friends and acquaintances and shoot the breeze. Most of the cycling tribes are here – tourers, city cyclists, vintage buffs, fixie kids, even bike polo guys. Busier than ever before, it was nice to see lots of youngsters here for a change, and it’s also nice to check out other folk’s steeds. I was particularly taken with the lovely refurb of the Carlton, parked out front.

March 1st – Although still very cold, it feels like spring is stirring. Crocus tips are turning colour in preparation to bloom, and the birdlife seems busy. I noted the swans on the canal near the old mill by Home Farm were looking cosy again. I’m convinced it’s the same couple from last year who nested, laid and failed to hatch their eggs – hopefully, they’ll have more success this year. 

The crested grebe was pottering about on Chasewater, away from the gull roost by the valve house on the damn. He was hard to photograph in poor light, but he was a beautiful chap, and did the customary grebe dive fro fish, which must mean there’s still a few in there.

If only the weather felt a bit more spring-like.

February 28th – I mentioned last week (at least, I think it was last week…) that Walsall has some really interesting architecture above street level. Making it back to Walsall in the daylight, I took a quick scoot around. Chineys, on Park Street – when did they last see smoke? The mosaics, still on the front of the former Priory Hotel. Crests, cupolas and cornices. The Edwars Moore building is beautiful from the front, in Leicester Street (look at the upstairs windows), but equally so from the rear. There’s fantastic detail in those chimneys. Yet the building is scarcely noticed.

Walsall still has some gems.

February 27th – What a difference a day made. Yesterday I was lamenting the grey, the cold and the murk. Today, it was grey in the morning, but as I came home – in the light – the sun shone softly and the sunset was terrific – so much so that I was contacted by friends who asked me if I saw it.

Sadly, as I was returning from Walsall at the time, I couldn’t get a good vista on it, but I managed to catch a little of it at Bullings Heath as it died to  darkness. 

A beautiful, beautiful evening that brought joy – and spring – to my soul. Just what I needed.

February 27th – I hopped on a train whose first stop was Spring Road. This isn’t too far from where I go in Tyseley, and it means I cycle the backstreets of Hall Green suburbia. Here is the impressive, monolithic Aero Engine Controls factory. I believe this used to be part of the Lucas empire, but could be wrong. It’s a huge site and the 1930s offices and grand front entrance belie the optimism of the early days of flight in the interwar period.

It’s easy to think we don’t manufacture much in the UK anymore. We do; there’s loads going on. We just don’t talk about it, and sites like this stay hidden and relatively unknown.

February 26th – I was thankful for the favourable wind on the way home, but the grey, half-mist half-drizzle was miserable. I normally love this journey, but today, it was dismal. It did, however, have some bright moments; the buzzard spied over the field near Muckley Corner was a long, lucky shot in very poor light, and the snowdrops on the verge at Sandhills are numerous and cheering. 

Mostly, though, the A461 just ground on into the grey afternoon. Come on sunshine, where are you?