Galleries

November 28th – Pleased to note the return this year of the sunny rosy earthstar fungus to Clayhanger Common.

They aren’t looking too good at the moment – they need more damp – but these uncommon fungi have plenty of young ones developing and will look like no other fungi I’ve seen when fully developed.

I was hoping last year’s find wasn’t a one off. I’m  chuffed to bits.

I watch with interest.

November 27th – I passed through Lichfield at sunset, and later, into Brownhills West from Chasewater where I checked out a new twist on an old muse.

Lichfield was beautiful but busy, so I grabbed a few shots at Stowe and Minster Pools before heading home through Hammerwich and Chasewater. At Chasewater, I was interested to see how the recent change from sodium lamps to white LED on the M6 Toll had affected the curoious portal effect on the footbridge which has so fascinated me before. 

It’s still a very otherworldly effect. This pleases me.

November 27th – It was a very dramatic-looking afternoon as I headed up the canal towards Lichfield on this cold afternoon suffused with golden, low sunlight.

I note from my favourite tree – the lovely horse chestnut at Home Farm, Sandhills – that it is now winter, as it’s bare. 

As I noted yesterday, surprising how much colour is still in the landscape.

November 26th – A day spent shopping, eating and having fun in Cheltenham and Tewkesbury, two lovely places, left me exhausted. But oh, the architecture! Tewkesbury has lost none of it’s charm, and the abbey really is a fine thing indeed, much better than many cathedrals in my opinion. 

But the skylines? They belong to Cheltenham. I shot the chimneys, before they went up in smoke.

November 26th – Out for an early spa and an errand to Aldridge, I passed through a grey, millpond still Catshill Junction. With it nearing December, and nobody around, this is a quiet, if bleak spot to take five minutes and contemplate the day ahead.

Still astonishingly plenty of colour in the trees from the late autumn, though.

November 25th – A wee cycling tip for the road cyclists out there. I’ve recently had to replace my bike-mounted pump (I smashed the previous one when I came off on the ice a couple of weeks ago). One problem with frame mounted pumps is they accrue crud, so that when you come to use them, often they’re munged up.

One tip I pickled up off an old touring cyclist (if you use Presta or Woods valves) was the M5 screw in the pump head. Just take a 5mm metric screw, preferably stainless, and with the pump head relaxed open, it should be a comfortable push fit in the open port. 

This stops water getting into the pump body and corroding it, and also stops mud getting in where it has to be removed and stands a change of buggering up the tyre valve. Easy to remove with a nail, blade or Allen key, this tip makes those uncomfortable roadside repairs a bit more bearable.

Cycling wisdom, right there. 

November 24th – I’ve been starting early and working late a lot lately, and the tiredness is showing, so apologies for limited subject matter. Things should improve next week.

I found myself returning from a meeting late with time to kill at New Street, and the air of quiet, almost reverent dislocation that sets in there at about 8pm continues to enthral and captivate me. This station swallows large numbers of people and hides them from each other, so even when quite busy, the station appears deserted in places.

This was really feeding my Late Night Feelings vibe: the forced perspective of platforms, the train waiting for the red light to turn green. The solitary lady, perfectly framed by the identifier for platform 8, her face lit in the gloom by the light of her phone.

And then, 45 weary minutes on, Walsall, desolate and beautiful in the same way.

What is it about me and stations at night?

November 23rd – Spotted in a customer’s bike shed, this venerable, full suspension Specialized bike. In the day, I think this would have been a fairly expensive bike and it’s interesting to see the complexity of the rear linkages, which seem heavy and very intricate. Particularly noticeable is the pivot ahead of the dropouts, just on the chain stays.

Obviously well ridden as commuter, it looks like a hard bike to ride on road, particularly with those tyres – but I also note the old school leather shoe straps and general patina of road grime.

Other people’s bikes are endlessly fascinating.