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#365daysofbiking Wet stone:

November 27th – Returning home just as the rain stopped, the streets and buildings of Walsall glistened beautifully in the soft evening light.

Leicester Street always makes for a fine night photo but when wet, even better.

This area is not just the beurocratic heart of Walsall with it’s Town Hall, Council House and Civic Centre, but also the centre of the night-time economy too, with large pubs that seemed quiet tonight. 

And, despite the total absences of any Christmas decorations, it felt rather, dare I say it – Christmassy.

#365daysofbiking Portal:

November 27th – Coming down from Priorslee in Telford along the cycleway to the station past nightfall.

The lighting here is still shrouded by the last remnants of the summer’s greenery and was changed at some point in the year for new LED fittings.

The combination of the much more specifically directional light and the tree overhang was some remarkable tonight that I had to stop and take a picture. 

This image hasn’t been doctored in anyway. 

#365daysofbiking Electric night:

November 26th – A quick shot passing through New Street station in the evening.

The skyline from here, considering how low you are from street level, is remarkable, and I love the way the machinery, lights, signals and surfaces mix.

A real late night feelings shot.

#365daysofbiking You’ve come a long way baby:

November 25th – A late, short, frantic test ride saw me crossing Clayhanger common by the Spot Path and just as I neared the Pier Street Bridge this view pulled me up short.

Just 18 months ago, I’d have been looking at an empty marketplace, forlorn, money, desolate.

Now look at it.

A change for the better that did much to cheer me up.

#365daysofbiking Holding on:

November 23nd – It’s been a tough week, I don’t mind admitting. Work has been hard and everything else has been manic. The weather hasn’t been too wonderful either.

But, it’s Friday, and even though the day was grey and overcast, the daisies on the verge outside work were doing their best to be cheerful.

#365daysofbiking Where my heart lies:

November 21st – After a cold, slow ride through the lanes and up Shire Oak Hill, a quick breather on Shire Oak Hill looking toward the town I was headed into.

Brownhills may not be pretty. It may not be posh. It has it’s problems.

But as I contemplate getting back on the bike and rolling into town, I remember the place I love, the community, the characters, the history and how much I love it.

Nearing home is a wonderful feeling – especially when you’re so tired.

#365daysofbiking The sound of music:

November 20th – This is the coolest bloke I’ve ever seen on a commuter train. 

Bar none. 

We were sharing the bike space on a Birmingham commuter service. He’s on an urban flat bar; partially consumed coffee in the cup holder. He clearly works in something musical as he’s playing a small, portable electronic keyboard of the musical variety, and listening on headphones whilst reading sheet music.

He was playing the keyboard in total silence to the outside world, pensively and in the considered way someone might type an email on a laptop.

I’m not sure if he was learning music, marking it or writing it, but I have to say, you are a seriously cool man. Fascinating.

#365daysofbiking Not just pointless, but wrong:

November 18th – This one may be of interest to the Back the Track guys. 

When the NCN – National Cycle Network – was created by charity Sustrans in the late 90s in the UK as a Millennium Project, the Royal Bank of Scotland invested heavily in creating thousands of cast iron mileposts for the new routes, to be erected, well, every mile. Apart from being an utter waste of metal and time, the money spaffed on this pointless vanity crap could have gone into trail upkeep or whatever.

I notice of late some kind soul with a surfeit of time has been touring the network painting and renovating these monuments to banking largesse, but this one, on the old rail line just south of the Old Cement Works – or Slough – Bridge in Brownhills remains neglected and forgotten. 

There’s a reason for that.

It’s not actually on the National Cycle network at all.

Trail 5 comes through Brownhills on its amble from Walsall to Lichfield, and at this point arrives at the bridge from Ryders Hayes by canal towpath; it then continues up onto the bridge and along the former line north to Coppice Lane. This post is about 15 metres off the route on a cuthrough to Apex Road, that’s not actually part of the route at all, and due to barriers and a steep bank, is dammed hard to get a bike up.

So not just pointless, but wrong.

Sustrans. Never knowingly the cyclist’s friend.

#365daysofbiking Chains changed:

November 16th – Heading back to Brownhills and home, I stopped to look at the view of Silver Street now the building works are finished here. Around 200 new, modern dwellings on what was 12 year dead wasteland and an abandoned marketplace. The change from desolation to signs of life and habitation is remarkable. Every time I see it, I struggle to take in the massive change here.

Change for the better.

About 6 years ago I speculated that this then desolate, windswept, empty place was haunted by the ghosts of civic failure. They have been exorcised, and gradually, almost imperceptibly, there are signs of life developing in my old town again. The people that live in these houses now will use the local takeaways, pop for a paper, a haircut and use the high street out of convenience. No, it’ll never boom like it did, but this trade fillip has to be welcome. 

Finally, Brownhills is becoming unshackled from the system built housing misadventure of the sixties. All we need to do now is finally rid ourselves of the blight that is Ravens Court…