October 23rd – Up on the Chase again today – can’t get enough of it at the moment. A climb to Pye Green, a bite to eat at the excellent Springslade Lodge cafe, and then over Brocton Field and down into the Sherbrook Valley, and thence up to Milford. Autumn is here, but failing to quite grip the Chase as yet. Most trees still have leaves and the bracken is still just turning yellow. An odd year, indeed.
October 21st – I love night photography, but I’m not terribly good at it. I love the way familiar places change totally at night. The senior citizen’s flats opposite Holland Park and the fuel tanks of the Tesco depot on the Pelsall Road don’t really register as aesthetically pleasing in daytime – interesting, but unremarkable. Shroud them in darkness and discharge light and they come alive. I think I’m starting to get the hang of this winter thing at last.
October 21st – Work was heavy today, and didn’t escape until the evening. Brownhills is very desolate at night, yet I kind of love it more like that. The shutters, sodium light and hard surfaces are very atmospheric. Silver Court fascinates me at night – this 1960’s promenade of shops and maisonettes is crumbling and needs renovation, and is one of the last remnants of the system building fad of the period. Once bustling, it’s now largely empty, even in the daytime. The driveway at the back would once have been overshadowed by the noise and bustle of the five tenements of Silver Court Gardens, but is now surrounded by an eerily quiet wasteland. Much of what ails Brownhills is concentrated here – failed town planning and lost community.
October 18th – against the odds (and it has to be said, against the forecast) the great sunsets continue. Battling a westerly wind on the way home, I’d left the train at Shenstone. Winching myself along Lynn Lane and past Fighting Cocks, the sky grew ever more beautiful. I didn’t mind the wind as long as I had views like this. Magical.
October 17th – one of the nicer features of new towns like Redditch and Telford is their off-road cycle facilities. They don’t all work, or indeed, are even maintained, but where they are they are very useful and often rather quirky. This subway lies on my commute when I work in Redditch, and I’ve never, in over five years, seen another soul use it. The lights are on every day. The sloping, banked walls have always made me want to race down the access ramp and mount them like a wall of death, but I’ve never had the courage.
October 15th – A late afternoon spin around Brownhills, and my attention was snagged by the cellphone base station near the old cement works on Coppice Side. I recently featured a picture of Pye Green communications tower and noted that the microwave network was being dismantled. Whilst that’s true, Pye Green and others like it are still hubs of the telecoms network. Microwave transmission, rather than providing high bandwidth channels for live TV and suchlike like it used to, is till used for backhaul and interconnection purposes for the mobile phone network. The plethora of small drum antenna on this tower are pointing variously at Sutton Coldfield, Pye Green, Birmingham and Tameway Tower in Walsall. The shorter tower to the left is a Tetra unit providing support for emergency networks secure communications.
October 14th – Another stretch of canal, 70 minutes later. Had to nip out to Walsall, so swung home on the canal from Sutton Road to Leighswood. The sunset was remarkable, but sadly, no herons today. I didn’t see a soul, and as the sun sank over Walsall, the familiar chill of autumn returned to the air. A gorgeous end to the day. 30 miles in two hours punctuated by the most gorgeous scenes and views. It doesn’t get much better than this…
October 13th – A day of meetings. First in Darlaston, then a second in Telford. Leaving Darlaston mid-morning, I headed onto the canal to catch the train to Wolverhampton from Dudley Port. On such a sunny, hazy, bright day it’s easily to fall in love anew with the Black Country. I adore it’s backstreets, canals and unexpected vistas. The view of Rowley Regis and Turner’s Hill from the station was particularly fascinating. I love this place.
October 12th – Returning at the same time as the previously dark and dingy evenings this week, it was still fairly bright without the cloud that had overcast the previous two days. The low sun came out, and the sunset rendered many views golden. At Mill Green, it added a glowing sheen to the hedgerows and cottages, while it’s final recedence as I passed Lazy Hill made for a dramatic and beautiful sunset. This is more like it…
October 12th – This is Redditch. Not on the outskirts, or the countryside surrounding, but right in the middle. The Arrow Valley Lake is a favourite of boaters, watersports types and anglers. Situated in the Arrow Valley Park, which serves as a green ‘spine’ for the new town, it’s a stones throw from factories and busy roads – but you’d never know it. When I’m working in Redditch, I pass it every morning. A fine start to the day.
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