And then the electrician turned our solar system on. I looked at our control panel and there it was – we were already exporting electricity to the national grid.

What can explain my excitement?  It was partly that we were making money, just as we sat there.  But the greater sense of wellbeing was in the knowledge that it was all coming from the glorious, never-to-be-depleted sun.

My boy is part of a football team and plays matches against other teams throughout the south of the city.

That means that each week, I drive through the streets in search of the place where the match is being held and find myself down unknown cul de sacs or on familiar A roads in front of a previously unnoticed gateway. And there I invariably find a big beautiful open space of which I had previously been unaware.

I think of Birmingham in a different way

This has happened so many times that I now think of south Birmingham in a different way.  On the surface there are roads, roundabouts, offices, houses and towerblocks.  It’s a city of concrete and tarmac and glass facades.

But get out of your car and walk down a tow path or through a narrow gate and you’ll find another layer to Birmingham.  There are wide green fields, canals, wildlife, woodlands and rivers. It’s all there, nestling around the ring roads like a majestic, dignified secret.