There is a fire station on Derby Road that overlooks a Brownfield, an interesting site in two halves. Fronting Derby Road, the site has the boundary wall that is a common feature along the length of this road and Great Howard Street; red brick and blue powder coated railings. But venture off the A565 up the side streets in either direction and the aesthetics are very different. The back of this Brownfield is clearly a demolished warehouse – the external blue brick walls left standing. It accounts for approximately 25% of the site. This section is well vegetated with tall herbs and Budlea. The remaining 75% is in the early stages of natural succession – the surface sealing of concrete being slowly covered in rugs of moss.
I could get onto this site with ease… and stood in the middle of the concrete flooring I found another use for my “Independents Cone”… a bike stand!
With the luxury of being on site, I spent quite some time looking… and being looked at… the firemen were watching me. It had begun to rain again, and there they were, watching me from the warmth of what looked like their brewing room. I willed them to come out and talk to me – I hadn’t had the opportunity to talk to anyone all day - but they didn’t. So I decided to knock their door and introduce myself. The fireman I spoke to didn’t seem overly interested, but I gave him a tag with the blog address and asked him to pass it onto the men that had been watching me, so hopefully he did and the White Watch fire fighter are reading this...

The weather was getting worse – not a problem - I was into the swing of it, but my camera wasn’t. Rain and my digital camera are not compatible, evidenced by the refusal to take photos when I pressed the button, and then taking photos when my finger was no where near the button. I decided to call it a day. By the time I got back to my van I was drenched… and the only way I could switch off the camera was by removing the battery.

Summary
6 miles covered
6 sites evaluated
4 blue
2 yellow
1 conversation