Galleries

June 6th – I left Darlaston late in the afternoon to head to Tyseley for an important meeting at short notice. This happened to coincide with heavy downpours, which I managed to avoid with an air of smugness that must surely come before a drowning. At 5:45pm, Moor Street in Birmingham was busy, and wringing wet in the midst of a rainstorm. At the other end of my short hop, I waited ten minutes for the rain to ease off. With all the gutter-less canopies, Tyseley is surprisingly hypnotic in the rain.

June 5th – In virtually the same spot as the deer, I spotted a kestrel hunting. It did that thing they seem to do; floating, almost static in free air, studying it’s prey on the ground with a gimlet eye, before thinking better of it and returning to it’s pylon perch. These are lovely, graceful birds that seem increasingly populous here. Or maybe I’m just noticing them more. Either way, they’re wonderful, and like the deer, I could watch them for hours.

June 5th – It was another miserable day, but the wildlife at Chasewater was showing well. There were several deer on the north heath, but it was this stray hind that caught my eye. Hanging around the railway line, she seemed to be after food, but didn’t sam to quite trust me. Coming quite close at times, the scene was spoiled, as it usually is in summer, by an idiot with a dog off the lead. 

June 4th – The weather was spectacular, and Chasewater and it’s surrounds looked beautiful. The sun gradually emerged through the afternoon and the day got brighter. The flowers are gorgeous right now, and everything is just so green. After a frankly grim weekend, it’s easy to forget how lovely everything becomes after a few minutes of sunshine…

June 3rd – The photography was as lousy as the weather. The light was grim and every interesting shot was into the rain. Splashing despondently along the canal to Chasewater, something caught my eye. There was, in the midst of the rain, a temperature inversion going on. It was colder than it had been for days, and the canal water was clearly warmer than the air, and it was gently, almost imperceptibly, generating mist. I stood in the rain, watching the steam form and disperse, mesmerised. There’s beauty everywhere if you look for it. Even in Brownhills. In the rain. 

June 3rd – The weather was atrocious today. It rained solidly for most of the day. Finally hauling myself out in heavy waterproofs late evening, I took a spin round Brownhills and noticed that Laburnum Cottage was now empty. This building, stood prominently on the junction of New Road and High Street, was built in 1871 and has served a variety of purposes, it’s last being as a print shop, which it had been for at least three decades. The long lost – and much missed – local free sheet, ‘The Brownhills Gazette’ was produced here in the late 80s and early 90s by Brian Stringer. 
I note now that the building is empty, with all signage and even the advertising hoarding on the side removed. There’s no planning applications outstanding, so it’s fate remains a mystery. At 141 years old, I hope the building is accorded the respect it deserves in any future use. 

Jun 2nd – On the way to Chasewater, I spotted this fine cargo boat heading for Anglesey basin. It was a very unusual craft, and I wonder as to it’s history. I regret now not asking the chaps on board about it – but I was so surprised to see such a huge narrowboat that I just took pictures, awestruck. I love how the front end, unladen, seems almost proud of the water. I guess there was a time when these types of freighter were an everyday sight here, plying their trade from wharf to wharf transferring coal, clay or other essential goods to drive the industrial heartlands. A fine thing, to be sure.

June 1st – In total contrast to my dismay at the arboreal destruction in Stonnall, the roadside verges on the Lichfield Road at Sandhills are, like just about everywhere else at the moment, a delight. A riot of colour and wildflowers, just as one species finishes flowering, it passes the colour baton to another in a delightful natural relay. All of these gorgeous examples were spotted in a hundred yard stretch between Lanes Farm and Shire Oak House.

The dead nettles are a particular delight – lovely to pluck a flower or two and suck the sweet nectar from it’s base. Worth checking they’re out of dog pee reach first, though…

June 1st – I see that Wordsley House in Stonnall has  now been sold, and this includes the barn and land.  The barn is now marked down – like most agricultural buildings in the area have been – for conversion into dwellings. It says much about the economics and demographic of this burgeoning Metroland that all the farming has now gone from the village. The transformation – from comfortable rural village to almost totally soulless commuter resort –  has been completed in the 30 years I’ve been riding through here, and I find it desperately sad. The only redeeming feature is the rolling countryside and greenery – although it is under threat too, as the lower image from Google Earth Streetview shows. In danger of losing the remainder of it’s greatest assets to overdevelopment, I fear for Stonnall’s future. Sad, destructive and tragic.

May 31st – My unexpected commuting grief did lead to an unexpected visit to the throbbing metropolis that is Walsall. It was quite fortuitous really; it meant the wind was at my back on the ride home, and also that I could check out the damage caused by yet another derelict building fire in the town the previous night.

The fire was in an abandoned, derelict former leather works smack bang in the middle of the Waterfront development area. Immediately adjacent to a new apartment block, the old factory has been derelict for a few years, and I guess this will lead to another hasty demolition and yet another rubberstamped planning application. I circled the former factory, and noticed something about this development area I’ve never noticed before – it’s very shabby, in reality. New blocks of housing, both new build and renovations, are punctuated by derelict, rotting hulks of workshops, dark and forbidding. The planning here has been lousy, and I wouldn’t fancy walking in this area at night. Who’d want to buy a new luxury apartment next to a derelict drugs den?