Yesterday was the annual 'Ronde van Vlaanderen' - RVV race in Belgium, one of the hardest one day races in the cycling calendar, filled with brutal climbs on narrow cobbled farm tracks where falls and crashes are the order of the day and only true champions can win. The story goes that if the weather is good the crowd is 1/2 million - if the weather is bad the crowd is a million! This year's race was won by Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara from Slovak Peter Sagan after an epic duel up the last climb where Sagan broke under relentless pressure from Cancellara who went on to win by over a minute.
A bold plan to host a 'Round of Bowland' race in 2 years time would not only enhance the cycling credentials of the area (already boosted by Sir Bradley Wiggins) but also necessitate major improvements to the pitted and rutted tracks that pass for roads around Newton, Slaidburn and through Gisburn Forest. Local residents are hopeful that miles of new cobbles and setts will return these vital routes to a condition last seen in mediaeval times - cutting journey times and speeding progress.
Many hidden benefits will soon begin to flow from this visionary infrastructure project. Laying cobbles is a skill that is nowadays rare so local experts will be fully employed on generous bonuses whilst armies of navvies will be required for unskilled work. They will need food, accommodation and entertainment. Money will flow into local businesses and opportunities will be virtually limitless. A new golden age of commercial opportunity is dawning as the icy fang and churlish chiding of the winter's wind gives way to the fragrance of spring sweetly scenting the air.
Here's a cross section of part of my wood store - alder, birch and hawthorn in the middle and ash at the top. I do so hope that there's nothing nasty in there. 
It occurs to me that not only will you have a roof over your head but also, and unlike Glastonbury, tickets are still available. 
If you're old enough to remember Diana Rigg and George Lazenby then you will also know that Diana is pointing a 
Our feudal friend, William Bowland, has arranged an autumn event in the ancient courtroom at The Hark to Bounty. Manorial courts were held upstairs at the famous hostelry well into the 1920s and for many centuries before that. Leet Court or Head Court Baron, my lord? I tremble to think: is our ever inventive grandee really intending to drag before him bemused locals charged with antique offences such deer rustling, cabbage gelding or breach of frankpledge? … What on earth next? Frog-jousting?
It is hard to think of anything else linking the communities of Mytholmroyd, Hebden Bridge, Todmorden and Darwen other than the misery caused by overnight flooding. If it was divine revenge on the excesses and immorality practised in the 
