Galleries

September 21st – The madness of crowds. On my way through Brum, I’d heard there was an event for cyclists up in Victoria Square. Sadly, I was too late for the free pastries, but I did meet a nice fellow cyclist or two, which was rather nice. Heading back down through the city centre I was bemused by the huge queue snaking its way up New Street from out of the Bullring Shopping Centre. Then I twigged: It was iPhone launch day. I’m an Apple nerd myself, but I’d draw the line at that.
I can remember waiting on launch day for the iPhone in Lichfield, but there were five of us. I did that for the experience, and never again. I guess many of these folk are hoping to pick up a couple of units to sell on. Strange days indeed.

September 20th – A busy, draining day. I had urgent and unexpected stuff to attend to in Redditch, so headed out early. Expecting a quiet journey, it was horrid, and the task I had to undertake didn’t go smoothly either. At 11:30am, I left Redditch and had to go to Tyseley, so to get a bit of perspective I cycled up the Arrow Valley cycle route back to Redditch Station. It’s interesting how, even in this most unusual of years, some things have prospered. One of those things is hawthorn. Everywhere I go, hedgerows and trees are laden with deep red berries. Some say this is the sign of nature preparing for a hard winter.

The fruits themselves are edible but quite bland, and not actually berries at all; they are pomes, the same structure and type of fruit as apples. Haws are said to have health and fertility promoting properties, and can be used to make wine or jams. Birds love them, and will survive on this plentiful, sugar-laden bounty during the long months of winter.

September 19th – I wasn’t feeling lucky, but it seemed fortune was on my side. I came back to Walsall on the train, and rain ominously flecked the windows. Emerging into the light, the rain – which I was dreading, with no waterproofs – hadn’t reached Walsall. I raced home, the sky to the north east getting darker and darker. Arriving home dry, I was feeling rather smug… But as it happened, the threatening skies never delivered, so I was safe after all.

September 18th – Another reason to like Leicester is the railway station. Recently refurbished, it’s full of thoughtful features, and has twice the number of ticket machines as Birmingham New Street, which says much. The front concourse has been totally reconstructed, and features some clever and unique bike parking – although there clearly isn’t enough of it.
This is a wonderful solution, and the whole lot is under CCTV watch with it’s own camera. the BTP also plant tracker-fitted bikes here to catch thieves.  Sadly, though, the mechanics of the stands seem to have baffled one punter…
Well done to the designers – nice job. Love it. 

September 18th – I spent a good 45 minutes spinning around the backstreets, just taking in the architecture. I’ve never really seen a place as wonderfully diverse as this. Buildings here variously remind me of Leeds, Clifton, Brighton and Cheltenham. The area seems to have a genuine air of community, too. Leicester is great, and very underrated. 

September 18th – Today, I visited Leicester. Not my usual haunt, I was up in a different part of the city. On my way, I passed through the melting pot that in North Everington and Spinney Hills. Here, there are folk of every culture and ethnicity imaginable. Asians, South East Asians, Africans, Arabs, Europeans. I saw cars with not just UK number plates, but Polish, Latvian, Irish and Lithuanian. The streets are busy with shoppers, students, kids, folk going about their everyday business. This place is buzzing, and has the frantic air of commerce one gets in all such places – the Edgware Road in London, say, or the Soho Road in Brum. What makes this spot different is the architecture. From factories to churches, mosques to terraces, there exists an incredible diversity of styles and adornments. Towers, bays, pediments and porches. All overlooked by the hillside park. Beautiful.

September 16th – Silver Waters (oh lord, that’s a preposterous name) is coming on apace. Most of the foundations have now been laid, and a show home has positively sprung up on the patch of wasteland off Silver Street, Brownhills. Fortunately, the doom-mongers predictions about the diggers finding the remains of the swine disease/foot and mouth cull from Swingbridge Farm in the 1960s have been unfounded (not surprising, really, as the pits for that were dug adjacent to the farm and are now lying beneath public open space).

I must say, those are massive drains, there. They seem a bit excessive for a relatively small number of dwellings. Wonder what the reason for that is?

September 15th – I noticed that in the fields between the A5 and the canal, the farmer was baling mown hay this evening. The device behind the tractor rakes up the sun-dried grass, rolls it into mat-like clumps, before compression and baling with twine. Completed bales are ejected back onto the pasture. Unlike straw, which has no nutritional or economic value to speak of, hay is a valuable commodity as it retains the goodness of grass, and becomes expensive during a bad winter.

Hay making is one of the great traditions of the rural summer, and speaks of provision and preparation, as well as the rotation of the season’s wheel. What better place to do it that in pasture in the evening sunshine?

September 14th – I hauled myself up from Lichfield slowly, fully loaded with shopping, against a horrid wind and with little energy. I was feeling grim, and Muckley Corner at rush hour is no place for old men. Having traversed it, I pulled over on the far side of the junction and took a look at the old Muckley Corner Pub/Cornerhouse Hotel. It’s been beautifully converted into dwellings – it’s clear now that there will be no form of commercial afterlife for this pub. In a way, it’s all gone full circle, as originally, the building was a corner pub and associated terraced houses. 

A number of folk have pointed out the attention to detail in the reuse of the decorative coping tiles, ridge pieces and finials. They look wonderful. Shame about the chimneys, though…