And yet the plant, which I look on fondly as a nice nibble and a regular feature of British springtime has become a very troublesome invasive plant across the Northeast, Midwest and Northwest of the United States. The plant was introduced to North America in the mid 1800s for its herbal and medicinal qualities and as erosion control. Garlic mustard is a threat to the biodiversity of many native ecosystems.

This plant spreads its seeds in the wind and gains a foothold in fields and forests by emerging earlier in spring than many native plants. By the time native species are ready to grow, garlic mustard has blocked their sunlight and outcompeted them for moisture and vital nutrients. This advantage is only strengthened as climate change continues to alter seasons faster than native plants can adapt. Invasive species that crowd out forest ecosystems inhibit trees, which store large amounts of carbon dioxide, from growing.

Because the understory of a forest is so important for insects and other species at the bottom of the food chain, invaders like garlic mustard can weaken the entire ecosystem.
Further, garlic mustard’s roots release chemicals that alter the important underground network of fungi that connect nutrients between native plants, inhibiting the growth of important species like trees.

Another common plant at this year is Galium aparine (‘aparine’ from Greek ‘apairo’ [απαίρω < από «from» + αίρω «pull to lift»] – “lay hold of” or “seize”) with many common names including hitchhikers, cleavers, clivers, bedstraw, goosegrass, catchweed, stickyweed, sticky bob, stickybud, stickyback, robin-run-the-hedge, sticky willy, sticky willow, stickyjack, stickeljack, grip grass, sticky grass, bobby buttons, whippysticks and velcro plant. Dioscorides reported that ancient Greek shepherds would use the barbed stems of cleavers to make a “rough sieve”, which could be used to strain milk. Carl Linnaeus later reported the same usage in Sweden. In Europe, the dried, matted foliage of the plant was once used to stuff mattresses. Children in the British isles have historically used cleavers as a form of entertainment. The tendency for the leaves and stems to adhere to clothing is used in various forms of play, such as mock camouflage and various pranks.

Riding into a village, I saw that today I was back in the land of huge houses, double garages, blossom trees and fountains on the lawn. One home had a beautiful cedar tree whose boughs spread far across the lawn. Next door was a tall monkey puzzle tree. Cedar trees are native to the mountains of the western Himalayas and the Mediterranean region, occurring at altitudes of 1,500–3,200 m in the Himalayas and 1,000–2,200 m in the Mediterranean. They always remind me of the flag of Lebanon.

In 1943 Lebanon gained independence and adopted a flag made up of a white field with two horizontal red stripes at the top and bottom with a green cedar tree in the centre. The red represent the blood shed and white represents purity and peace. The cedar represents the Bible. (The cedar of Lebanon is mentioned 77 times in the Bible.)

During the Phoenician era, between 3000 BC – 200 AD, the main flag was the blue-red bicolour flag. In 200 AD the main flag was that of the Tanukh tribe. A white-blue-yellow-red-green vertical banded flag. In 750 a plain black flag was adopted under the control of the Abbasid Caliphate. Part of Lebanon was part of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1099 and had a flag made of a white field with a large gold cross and three smaller crosses.

Between 1119 and 1697 part of Lebanon were controlled by the Banu Ma’an tribe. The flag was a white-red diagonal bicolour with laurel wreath. In 1282 the Ayyubid Dynasty had some control adopting a plain yellow field. The Mamluk Sultanate had control of the area from 1250 and used a flag featuring a Egyptian yellow field with left facing crescent moon. From 1697 the flag of the Chehab Empire adopted a plain blue field with right facing crescent moon.

The Ottoman Empire ruled Lebanon between 1516 and 1918. The flag features a red field with white crescent moon and five-pointed star. After the fall of the Lebanon Empire there was a new flag adopted featuring a white field with a green Lebanon Cedar tree in the centre. In 1920 the French took control of Lebanon. They adopted three flags featuring a blue, white, red vertical tricolour with a green cedar tree, one with a black cedar tree and one with green leaves and a brown stem. I wonder what will be next?

Meanwhile, the monkey puzzle next door originates from central and southern Chile and western Argentina. It was first brought to the UK in 1795. It became very popular during the Victorian and Edwardian era and is now widely planted as an ornamental in parks and gardens. Distinctive and spiky, the monkey puzzle has been making strong impressions since dinosaurs roamed the earth. These days, jays and squirrels feast on its nuts. This species has been around for 200 million years. Its spine-like needles acted as protection from ancient grazing animals.

8400 miles away from Lebanon’s cedar tree, the flag of Chile is a white and red horizontal bicolour with a blue square in the top left corner inside of which is a white five-pointed star. The first flag flown in Chile was the war flag of the Mapuche. The flag is a plain blue field with a white eight-pointed star, called guñelve in the centre. At this time the burgundy cross flag was flown by the invading Spanish army in Chile.

When the Spanish took control of Chili in 1785 the country adopted the Spanish national flag. At the time it was a horizontal banded red-yellow-red flag with the Spanish coat of arms in the centre left.

When Chile gained independence in 1812 ‘Patria Vieja’ flag was adopted. This was a simple blue, white and yellow horizontal tricolour. The English translation of Patria Vieja is ‘our fatherland’. An alternative Patria Vieja flag was also chosen that reverses the white and blue bands and adds the Chilean shield and Cross of Santiago in the top left hand corner.

In 1814 the Army of the Andes were holding military campaigns in Chile. The flag flown was a white and blue bicolour with the coat of arms of Argentina in the centre. In 1817 the national flag of Chile was changed again to a blue-white-red horizontal tricolour and in 1918 a new tricolour was proposed with the blue and white bands swapped and a white five-pointed star in the centre.

In 1818 the flag was changed again to feature a white and red horizontal bicolour with coat of arms in the centre and a blue square with white five-pointed cross in the left hand corner. The coat of arms was removed in 1934 and is still flown today. The flag can be displayed either horizontally or vertically. I wonder what will be next?

The homes in the centre of the village were not big, but they were very old and charming, clustered around a couple of appealing pubs (‘it’s too early, Al. It’s too early’.)  One was called ‘The old chemist’, another the ‘Old butchers’. It’s a nod to the huge change in usage of village buildings over the centuries. Today’s occupants probably work in IT in London and have their food delivered from a supermarket warehouse somewhere Also, I presume the old butcher wasn’t rich, yet now his quaint old building is worth a fortune.

There was an antique watch restorer in the village, with his window displaying the perfect A Single Map ephemera. An unusual pair of antique pliers had an attached note asking ‘Does anyone know what these pliers were used for? Let me know if you do. Thanks, Mark.’ Alongside a strange spiky thing a note asked simply, ‘WHAT IS THIS?’

Updates to the mystery had been added: a note from December 2018 informed us, ‘Thank you to all who have taken an interest in these pliers and their use. Unfortunately we still don’t know what industry or for what purpose they were made. They are a production made, quality tool, the fine jaws have not been added, they are part of the original manufacture. Maybe they were a lot thicker for metal working and have been thinned down for a specific reason? Best wishes, Mark.’

Fortunately, the mystery of the strange spiky thing had been solved. ‘Thanks to a customer I can now tell you that this is a LARDING needle used to inject fat into lean meat. Look up larding and barding. 🙂’

OK, Mark, I shall!

Larding beef means to artificially marble the meat with fat. The fat is introduced in the beef’s cut using a larding needle. The fat injected can be beef fat or more likely pork fat. Barding beef engages wrapping the meat in two or more strips of fat which have the purpose of protecting the meat from drying. There are people who confuse larding beef with barding beef but the difference is very clear.

I pedalled out of the village, down a grassy byway towards a patch of woodland by the motorway. The big oak trees had their first blush of unfurling green leaves, and a little wren was blasting out its surprisingly loud song. Plump, short and loud-mouthed, the wren is one of our most common breeding birds. Though it’s small in size, it makes up for it with its powerful song. Wrens are small, short birds, measuring just 6-10cm in length. Each male uses moss and twigs to build a selection of domed nests for females to consider when they enter the male’s territory. If a female chooses a certain male’s nest, they will begin breeding once the nest has been lined. More often heard than seen, your best chance of identifying this little bird is by listening out for its loud song. For such a small bird, it has an incredibly powerful voice! The loud song from such a small throat is possible because birds have an organ called a syrinx with a resonating chamber and membranes that utilise virtually all the air in the lungs and can produce two notes at the same time. I began to notice it once someone told me that each burst of song ends with a machine gun-like trill.

Tiny patches of woodland nestled against motorways are fast becoming one of my favourite features of my map. The soft subtle shades, the stillness, the birdsong; they all lull you. And then you step out to the roar of metal, bright primary colours, the tang of burning fuel and the harsh open sky.

I crossed the motorway on a narrow footbridge. I was impressed by it, for it must have cost a fortune and seemed little used. It would have been easy for the government to simply have ignored this ancient footpath and made the right of way a redundant dead end once the motorway was built. But instead in England and Wales there are estimated to be 140,000 miles (225,000km) of public rights of way, consisting mainly of footpaths, but including bridleways and other types of byways. The figure for Scotland is estimated to be 9,300 miles (15,000km).

Rights of way are a network, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says, comprising “a mix of age-old routes, including those created statutorily as part of the process of enclosing the old common lands land into private occupation and those created more recently, either through long public use, or under statutory powers, or through dedication by the landowner”.

Rambling became popular in the 19th Century among town-dwellers keen to get some fresh air and exercise, escaping their often polluted home environments. The romantic poets, who emphasised the power of nature, encouraged walking. William Wordsworth and John Keats were among those who took long strolls for inspiration.

As long ago as 1949, the government began documenting public rights of way in England, their origins and exact whereabouts sometimes murky, in an effort to make sure those less well documented didn’t die out. “That process proved far more difficult than originally envisaged and remains unfulfilled to this day,” the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has said.

In 2000, the government set a 2026 cut-off time for rights of way to be registered – 77 years in total after the process started. And, in 2012, the coalition promised to make it easier and quicker to register paths, so that fewer would miss the final deadline and be lost for good.

But the RA says monitoring efforts require still greater urgency, in case some of the undiscovered rights of way become null and void. It has launched the Big Pathwatch scheme, asking members to compile a full log of the state of public rights of way in England and Wales. An app allows people to share their experiences as they walk every right of way within a specific grid square.

Fixed to the motorway bridge were notices advertising The Samaritans. ‘Talk to us, we’ll listen,’ they say. ‘Whatever you’re going through, you don’t have to face it alone. Call free day or night on 116123.’ On their website, the Samaritans say, ‘Whatever you’re facing, a Samaritan will face it with you. Every day, Samaritans volunteers respond to around 10,000 calls for help. We’re here, day or night, for anyone who’s struggling to cope, who needs someone to listen without judgement or pressure.

Samaritans is not only for the moment of crisis, we’re taking action to prevent the crisis. We give people ways to cope and the skills to be there for others. And we encourage, promote and celebrate those moments of connection between people that can save lives. We offer listening and support to people and communities in times of need. In prisons, schools, hospitals and on the rail network, Samaritans are working with people who are going through a difficult time and training others to do the same.