This week, in fact, today, we celebrate May Day.

The time of the year where young ladies and Morris Men dance around Maypoles up and down the villages of the UK, a May Queen is chosen, and green men lurk about doing something or another.

Here is the maypole from the village where I live.

May Day is also a celebration of worker’s rights, a shorter working week and bank holidays. I didn’t actually know that and I’m pleased that I did a bit of research.

Bench Shuffle

The Council had a word in our ear about the new JLR bench. It was very polite and friendly, basically they suggested that it was a little too close to residential houses and if there is a problem with raucous noise from hedonistic squirrels, late at night, we are setting ourselves up for a lot of problems.

They suggested a shuffle, so shuffle we did.

We also took the opportunity to stain the bench, and not the usual poo brown colour. So basically we shuffled the JLR bench to where the recycled bench is, and shuffled the recycled bench down the path. It works well and keeps the Council happy.

We then had a protracted conversation about the shade of brown and came up with some, err, creative ideas. Somehow vindaloo came into the conversation. I cannot think how!!

Anyway, let me steer this back on track with pictures of the views, up, down, and across the heath.

Dunchurch Bridleway

We have started working on the Dunchurch Bridleway, which connects to this path via a public right of way.

It’s important to me to make this connection for a couple of reasons. The bridleway connects to the National Cycle Network, so opens up the path to the larger local area. The National Cycle Network goes past the bottom of the road where I live, so I can literally hop on my bike and cycle to workdays. It also allows me to give something back to the village where I live, which is a pretty good feeling.

We have some really exciting news to share about this trail in a week or two, so watch this space.

Cawston Guides Bench

I stuck the Girl Guide sticker on the Cawston Guides bench and it just gives it a bit of an identity.

I quite like it.

Buy Me A Coffee

We had a wonderfully generous donation from a chap called Rich who bought us five coffees. This is very welcome and will go towards a bench formation towards the northern end.

Thank you so much for your support and we look forward to you joining us on workdays when you can.

Next Week

We are at Berrybanks next week just easing the path back a little. It is still incredibly muddy and all the rain over the weekend has set back the drying-out a bit.

As usual, pop along if you fancy a chat and a coffee. We seriously have some going spare and we really are a light-hearted bunch.

Helping each other to look after our mental wellbeing has always been a big part of why we do this. Go back to the start of the year blog post (actually it’s the second one of January) and look at our three core values – A Path For Everyone, A Wildlife Corridor, and A Safe Place for Mental Wellbeing.

And I know that walking up to five blokes sitting at a picnic bench swigging coffee and laughing about random stuff might appear to be a little bit weird and a little bit intimidating, but if you bring biscuits to help break the ice, you will probably find that you become our most favourite person for the day and we will love you forever.

Until next time!

Paul