May 6th – Three years ago, I took and posted a photo of the glade of Ramsons (or wild garlic) in the Arrow Valley Park in Redditch. For some reason an odd, quite poor photo of a common British plant has earned over 10,600 likes and reblogs on Tumblr, It’s far and away my most popular post on this journal ever, and I have absolutely no idea why, it’s bizarre.

Today, I had to go to Redditch early – a rare occurrence these days. I stopped off to check out the glade this year – it’s still gorgeous. The smell – a heady, full on odour just like normal garlic – is astounding. This really is a remarkable plant.

Bear in mind this glade is no more than a few hundred yards from heavy industry, and about a mile from Redditch town centre. It’s a remarkable place, Redditch, in lots of ways.

May 5th – Up on the A5 at Newtown, Brownhills, things aren’t looking so good. The Terrace restaurant, once a popular establishment, closed just after Christmas and is currently vacant and up for sale, with no sign yet of a buyer – sad really. Back in it’s heyday the place was busy every night.

Meanwhile, almost opposite the Chase Inn is still up for sale. Still open and trading, it’s nonetheless been on the market for ages.

I know society and it’s drinking and socialising habits have changed, but it’s still terribly sad to see these places lost.

I hope they both find new ownership and prosper, I really do…

May 5th – Only a short spin around Brownhills as I’d had a bunch of unexpected work crop up. It was pleasant enough though, and decent weather for a bank holiday, to boot. 

It’s time for the annual warning – this scum on the canal isn’t pollution. Yes, it looks horrendous, but it’s natural – it’s wind-born debris from some shrub or other (never worked out which). It drifts over the surface of the canal and forms in scummy, oil-like ripples.

Nothing to be concerned about, it’s perfectly natural and soon disappears.

May 4th – This is, as they say, boiling my piss. 

Pardon my language, but these signs have been put up recently by Sustrans rangers (who are volunteers) maintaing the cycle route through Brownhills. The aim is innocent enough, I guess.

The cycleway runs along Wharf Lane, onto the canal at the old bridge, then as far as Anglesey Wharf (fifty yards or so), then alongside the new bypass on the embankment, and on to Pool Road at the top of the dam. As a route, it’s crap, frankly.

Far better is to ride straight up the canal, past the basin and up the slope to the dam. It’s a fifth of the distance, on wide, well made tracks, and makes perfect sense. 

Likewise one can head to Brownhills along the very good towpaths and find a much better route than the Sustrans National Cycle Network one.

These signs only indicate that the route beyond this point is not part of the National Cycle Network, but they look like – and people are reading them as – cycling prohibition notices.

Why bother with them at all? The routes have functioned for 15 years without them. These are just a waste of time, money and effort.

Sustrans are supposed to be supporting and promoting cycling. This is a whole bag of fail.

Rant over.

May 4th – I was, to put it bluntly, shagged out. I slept well, and there was nothing wrong with my legs or body, but my eyes were sore and I felt weary.  Not the usual post-ride dehydration, though, so the new gels I was using must be working. The day after a century ride I normally feel hungover. Today, just jaded.

I nipped up to the new Farmers Market at Chasewater, and was pleasantly surprised; after the disaster of the Innovation Centre-organised Christmas Fayre with 4 stalls, this commercially organised event was busy, even at my late hour. It wasn’t huge, but there was some interesting stuff to buy, and I spent fifteen quid on various bits and pieces.

Only one snag – no real produce stalls: if this was a Farmers Market, the farmers didn’t know: I hope this can be rectified for future events – we have Big Tasties locally for meat, bakers and cheese-mongers, so lets hope they take a stall; if they do, tis market will be banging in no time at all.

I was taken with the basket hack on a bike I spotted locked nearby; serious thought has gone into that. Bit more needs to go into the locking technique, though…

May 3rd – First dayride of the year, and as usual, I was drawn to the trails of the Peak district like a magnet to iron. I cycled the High Peak and Tissington trails, and stopping at Middleton Top and Parsley Hay, I noted the selection of equipment available for hire to those less mobile folk, who nonetheless like to get out and enjoy the area like I do.

It’s good to see a rough-terrain mobility scooter, and all the varies of wheelchair and handcycle. Those things don’t half rocket, too; I used to see an athlete in training on one of those for the Paralympics regularly on the Tisssington Trail.

It’s great to see such thoughtful provision.

For some great stuff on this ride, check out my main blog.