Spirit of place: Bournbrook

I'm on annual leave & this morning did one of the explores I've been considering for some time. Since a rearrangement of roads & bus services near my work in the last few years I have been walking to a bus stop past a sign that says 'Bournbrook Walkway'. The name refers both to a brook that is a tributary of the River Rea, the major river around which the early development of Birmingham grew, & which is shown in the second picture in Fazeley Street in Digbeth, and also to a residential area of the city.
I didn't realise that the walkway goes on forever way into Woodgate Valley, following the route of the brook. Hoping for a hag stone I managed to get to the bed of the brook in one place, which is shown in the first picture. It meant getting my best trackie bottoms fantabulously muddy: it seems whenever I dress for mess it never comes my way.
The bed of the brook is definitely rocky: and the brook flows a meandering way to its destination. The river Rea is notorious for bursting its banks after heavy rain, & these waterways on which Birmingham is built seem to explain the city's spirit. People wonder why nothing can ever be left alone in Birmingham or why it is continually being rebuilt, but that's the spirit of the city. The area called Bournbrook is by the university & thus represents continually shifting student life. This shifting& changing doesn't have to be uncomfortable once you see this for what it is: the expression on our plane of the underlying restlessness of the city's spirit.
I have only just realised that this and the other explore I've had in mind for a long time, a walk along the route of the River Rea, are so linked I can't believe I didn't notice before! Perhaps having Strength as my year card is drawing me in an unaccustomedly watery direction...
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