Pollen and other hazards #Sunday ramble

Welcome to another Sunday ramble when I take you on a wander around the less trodden pathways of my mind. It’s the pathways up my nose that are concerning me today as my sinuses get blocked with spring pollen.

The tree pollen seems to be coming to an end, now we have all sorts of spring flowers coming into bloom. The River Tame will be lined with zillions of them, which might make a good photo, if I can stop sneezing. I’ll go armed with a camera and a half dozen tissues. It’s wet and cloudy this morning, but the weather doesn’t fool me. I’ll wait until late afternoon, I expect it to clear and then I have to whizz around all the places I have in mind to take photos before I lose the light. The flowers should be all down the sides of the river and the Walsall canal too.

The river doesn’t bother me too much, except for the people walking their dogs. I don’t mind the normal ones, it’s the pit bulls, dobermans and rottweilers that make me nervous. Then down the canal there is always the thought of falling in and drowning. I hate not being able to breath; this nose full of pollen is bad enough without adding water to it…

They say the rain makes the pollen wet and so clears the air. Another theory is that it breaks it up and make for even smaller particles that reach the nasal passages that other pollen cannot reach. Whatever… It still gets up my nose…

I’m still admin of the history group on Facebook, it’s 8 weeks now and I still haven’t had the sack. I have now satisfied myself that the warrior princess Aethelflaed did have a medieval castle, just up the road from my house. I might start taking in paying guests who want to sleep in the same spot as a Anglo- Saxon warrior princess. Well it won’t be exactly the same spot, but it’s close. My spare room is still empty, I had to clear it out when I had a international student from the university to stay earlier in the year. Actually, she was a graduate, she went back to China with a bachelor’s degree in business marketing and a Master’s degree in International business. Chinese students aren’t like the British students; they work hard.

The Black Country is an interesting place, we have a university that attracts students from all over the world. In fact many people come here from all over the world to live. Going down the pub is like attending a United Nations convention. I’ve just had a thought. I wonder what the Black Country would be like without bridges. They are everywhere, over the river, over the canals, over the railways and even the motorway has bridges. It’s those bridges that link communities that are all quite distinctive. We are all united by a common Anglo Saxon heritage and even the accent and dialect is derived from our rich cultural heritage. This is why we like change, but gradual change. We don’t like grandiose change, yet that’s what the powers that be prefer. They like to knock down whole town centres and build something ugly and grey or in the case of West Brom something ugly and pink and then invite people to come and gawp at it.

There is a street in West Brom that’s pedestrianized and is also a bus lane. The latest madness is to put cameras up to nick people who drive down the bus lane. There is a problem with that because in order to use the disabled car park opposite their pink arts cafe,  you have to drive down the bus lane.

There is a fancy coffee shop there too. I hate those places, but at least I remembered it when I was driving around the maze that call the amazing West Bromwich. I parked around the corner from the garish neon sign and then walked around the corner and there was the arts cafe I was looking for. Even ugly things can make good landmarks. We have a giant Rubik’s cube next to junction 9 of the motorway. Anyway, a well known blind person who we all know of, went in the coffee shop and they asked him to leave because he had a dog. Now they can be forgiven for not recognising a local celebrity called blind Dave, but they have to be a bit thick not to realise his dog was a guide dog. Mind you, to be honest it looks more like a police dog…

I’ve managed to ease my breathing with a smelly thing that I bought in Poundland. A bit of fresh air later might do me good, that or give me an asthma attack…

That’s all for this week, please comment if you find a thought trying to escape the dusty pathways of your mind. You can also subscribe to this blog using the widget in the sidebar and get sent emails 4 times a week. You can also  follow me on Twitter and  get updates on my literary and photographic adventures.

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