Diary - 7 to 10 May 2025

Millie the Minx. I've spent some of the week from 7 May keeping her provisions topped up while her owners have enjoyed a week's holiday.

This involves cycling or driving to Didsbury. Mostly I've been driving past for one reason or another, but on 8 May I cycled. An indirect 14 km route from Timperley avoids all but a few hundred metres of roads.

From Didsbury there are lots of walks into Fletcher Moss and other spots in the Mersey Valley. The variety of green foliage is rapidly approaching uniformity.

"I want my food?"

She doesn't really. She just wants to sit on my lap. At one point she decided to jump off in a hurry, puncturing the back of my hand. The hand swelled up so a call to NHS 111 was needed. I'd got antibiotics within an hour, and the swelling has now gone down a bit.

Meanwhile, time was spent in the 'office' sorting out plans for the 'GM Ringway Trail' project, with dates set for the remaining 16 stage over the rest of 2025. See here.

I reported recently on the vast amount of debris on the weir at Northenden. Work was still ongoing this week, but the debris has now been removed. There's a lot more work needed to sort out the flood defences though. (Not really urgent giving the current drought!)

May 9 was the day for GM Ringway Stage 4. A lovely walk - see next diary entry.

Today, May 10, I braved the attendance of Millie, who as usual insisted on sitting on me. Luckily no more scratches, despite my wearing shorts.

The shorts were needed for Wythenshawe parkrun #618. There were 458 finishers, a good turnout. Full results here. I took a few pictures at or near the start before jogging round with Beth, who was telling me about her 84 year old father's current Offa's Dyke walk. There's hope for us all... I was in position 313, out of the 458 finishers.

Meanwhile Sue was running fast in Birmingham (24:26 for 5km), and the TGO Challenge backpacking event across Scotland has started. We will see folk at the finish in Montrose in a couple of weeks. Good luck to everyone taking part, especially those whose routes I have vetted. I'm not aware of any easy way of following participants' progress these days other than dipping into the random entries in between advertisements on Facebook. Which I find exceptionally tedious...