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January 7th – Back in Birmingham, and after a long break it almost felt like coming home, if that makes sense. Nice to see nothing had changed; Tyseley Station maintains it’s gentle slide into decay, but touch wood, the trains have been better. I enjoyed the commute today, and an ongoing change from Vodafone to EE (Orange) for the phone contract seems to have solved the poor signal issues en route, particularly the Gravelly Hill dead spot. Fiddling with technology on my way, I noticed this older tech on my  way through the station. I think it’s an old, very old, signal switch – possibly for train dispatch purposes. I’ve not seen anything like that for a while, and now clearly disconnected, wondered if the nearby rail museum might be interested…

January 6th – I have absolutely no idea what to make of this. Reader and top friend of the Brownhills Blog Rose Burnell had tipped me off the previous day that there was a CV pinned to a board outside the tyre sales place on Co-op  corner in Brownhills. I checked it out, and she was quite right. I’m not sure the sign was thought out enough, but ten out of ten for optimism. 

Sign of the times, or a brave punt for a new job in an increasingly hard world? I’ve no idea, but best of luck, my friend. 

I wish you the very best of luck.

January 5th – Errands in Brownhills before a well-deserved evening with good friends found me dashing up The Parade in Brownhills. I notice there’s been a lot of work done here on the north of Holland Park by Walsall’s countryside services team. One of the things they have done is to cut down the scrub and hedge that screened the former cricket club car park from the road. Previously, it was a haven for antisocial behaviour and other mischief, but thanks to a bit of lateral thinking, now it’s not a place to hide.

Just one of the small, but significant things a busy team does to make lives better. Well done, folks.

January 4th – Walsall and it’s boroughs can be very, very odd sometimes. Here in Walsall Wood, the planning system threw up a peculiar juxtaposition. Oak Park is the local leisure centre, with a large car park at the front, itself fronted once by an expanse of grass. Over the road, a private health centre converted from a former night club. Inbetween the two, a Kentucky Fried Chicken drive through was built, as if to mock the punters attempting to keep fit.

The construction of this unusually located fast food joint was protracted, and difficulties  in planning were extensive, but there it now sits in its red and white illuminated, plastic glory, attracting far more customers than both its healthy neighbours combined ever could.

And it smells revolting.

January 4th – There was a bit of a psychological barrier I had to cross: I wanted to still do this, but I think I’d mentally prepared myself to stop; so like slowing down on a bike as you reach the bottom of a hill, you’re robbed of momentum and it takes you a while to build it back up. I found it hard to take pictures. This I know, will pass; I’ve had it before. It’s like I’m trying to deny myself something.

I reflected on this whilst stopped at the lights coming from Walsall that evening. The nights already seem to be opening out, and I had hat feeling that Christmas was way behind. But two days of work had left me strangely enervated. Life is odd sometimes. When the lights changed, I just hunched over and went for it. 

Sometimes, that’s the only thing to do. 

January 2nd – I rounded the bend towards Brownhills, and the overflow near the Pier Street Bridge caught my eye. Only a few days ago, this was a raging torrent, flooding the land behind, struggling to cope with the downpours that had constantly filled the canal. Tonight, it was quiet, a relative trickle. The land behind was still saturated, but draining, slowly. There was very little sound. I thought about it for a while. The transitory nature of the water, about beginnings, endings and direction.

You see, today, It was the end of 365daysofbiking. I started this odd mission on April 1st, 2011, after being cajoled into it by fellow cyclist Renee Van Baar, originally only for 30 days. I enjoyed those 30, and resolved to do a whole year, but last new year I was very ill indeed. I missed two days laid up, and returned to the bike on the 2nd of January 2012. So, the mission is now complete, but I have cycled all but two days out of 21 months.

I’m quite proud of that, but more later. Is this where the story ends?

January 2nd – So, back to normal. The festivities over, Christmas decorations down, the rain, just for now, gone. This time last year I was struggling to ride at all. This Christmas has been a little odd: very little riding for the sake of it, and fearsome bad weather. I’m hoping for a better new year; maybe we’ll get a proper summer this time, not just warmer rain, although on the canal in Brownhills, early evening, early January, it was warm, clear and dry. Perhaps it’s a good sign.

January 1st – If you’re thinking of traversing Bellamour Lane, between Colwich and Colton, near Rugeley, I’d leave it a couple of days. Under the railway bridge, the road is flooded to some depth. I tried it, but gave up when the water rose up to my crossbar. The road could certainly do with a with some ‘Road Closed’ signs, I certainly didn’t appreciate the u-turn and long journey round. 

31st December – A few folk have noticed these two wreaths tied to the central barrier on the Miner Island in Brownhills. Fellow local blogger Warren Parry asked about them yesterday, and I said I’d check them out. Passing today, they appear to have no labels. I have no idea what they’re relating to. 

Can anyone help? A small, sad mystery. 

December 30th – I think I was a little over optimistic in wondering if Chasewater would be totally full by new year, but I guess it’s only got 18 inches or so to go. It’ll be interesting to see if the authorities allow water to overtop the new weir into the spillway, or if they open the drain sluice before that point. 

There’s no doubting, however, that the lake is back to it’s old self, and the now the wildlife should recover well. There are already huge nightly gull roosts, and the waterfowl seem happy. This has been an incredible process to witness, and I’m glad I documented it in a small way.

For those interested in such things, the phone camera isn’t bad in the right conditions – this was taken on the phone.