People are asking, with a raised eyebrow, why our round picnic benches and mugs are “world-famous” as mentioned in last week’s blog. Well, in my geeky little world of facts and figures, the blog stats tell me that no less than 184,179 people across 92 different countries have viewed the blog and checked us out. I go on a huge number of forums that focus on mental health, men finding friends, loneliness, finding purpose in one’s life, etc, etc, etc, and I show people what we have done to combat these areas, with a link to the blog. Little did I know that the thing has gone half-way around the blooming world!!!

Anything shaded pink or deeper shows where the blog has been viewed from. Disapointed that nobody in Greenland has bothered to look, based on the size of the place, and that bit just to the south of Russia. Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Iran to name but a few in that middle belt could do better. Sadly, Central African countries are really letting the team down. Work to do… hold my beer!

So the next time I use the term “world-famous” keep your eyebrows unraised.

Today began as an incredibly relaxed start at the Underpass. Until, that was, I noticed that someone unknown has put a wider seat on the Underpass bench to make it slightly higher and, more surface area to, err, spread one’s buttocks a little more comfortably…

Sadly, my OCD had me climbing the Underpass walls, so I had to change it slightly. Sorry, not sorry.

After I had finally stopped hyper-ventilating, we realised that the wildflower clearing was awash with Ox-eye Daisies. It looks superb and really put a smile on our faces.

So we then marched onwards, or rather southwards, snipping any bramble growing into the path. We made it to the Bethel bench where we enjoyed a cuppa in our world-famous (watch those eyebrows) all-terrain-mugs.

The view of Lawford Heath really is superb. We could’ve stayed here for ages chatting about random man-stuff, but there was work to do, so onwards we marched.

We got to Charlie’s wildflower clearing, the one that he created for his Duke of Edinburgh Silver award and good news!! Wildflowers have finally started popping up!

It’s called Buckwheat, but isn’t wheat at all, but we’ll take it. This is the start of something great.

We pushed on to the new old-recycled picnic bench, litter-picking, and that really was that. Another superb morning that flew-by so quickly.

Mick’s funeral was yesterday and was a lovely celebration of his life. A true inspiration who impacted so many people. His final resting place is at a natural burial ground in Temple Balsall and is so fitting for him.

We will dedicate a wildflower clearing to him, so his memory lives on with us.

Until next time!