June 2nd – Can the concept of ghost signs be applied to commercial vehicles, do you think?

For those that don’t know, ghost signs are the defunct, redundant or barely legible remains of signs on buildings advertising long gone places of companies, and spotting them is quite a thing in some circles. I’ve been passing this red box van in Shelfield for months and wondering.

The legend on it once said ‘Another bun run from: Riverside Bakery – Tel Middlesbro’ 247181 – Tel N’Castle0191 271 4874′ – but it’s since been removed, and only the non-faded shadow of the text remains.

Interestingly (or perhaps not) the bakery seemed to make the news for all the wrong reasons in 2006, but I think it still might exist.

The trivialities I notice when cycling really do trouble me sometimes…

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.