Last Sunday, we completed stage 5 of the Capital Ring, from Streatham to Wimbledon Park.

It was overcast the whole day, but we still got pretty lucky with the weather. It didn’t rain until the end of the walk, just as there was a pub in sight.

The walk starts at Streatham Common Station. After a moment of uncertainty, we managed to cross under the railway. Jon and I found the first major difference between our guidebooks. (Jon’s was published a few years before mine). After crossing the tracks, we were greeted by one of the highlights of the walk — Streatham Pumping Station (pictured left). It is very grand building for what is effectively a waterworks. It was built in 1888, but I wasn’t able to find any information on the architect. If anyone knows anything about the designer of this building, let me know in the comments below.

After this, it was on to Tooting Bec Common, where the rest of the walkers got ahead of me because I was too busy taking pictures of trees. We didn’t visit the lake, which may or may not contain terrapins. Jon’s guidebook claimed the terrapins were an urban legend, while mine seems in no doubt about there existence — it warns that they will bite if handled!

After a brief detour through the wilds of Balham (look out for that pram!), we were walking across Wandsworth Common. Joanne and I had been here before. We took Barley, her parents’ dog, for walk here a few months ago. It would seem that we chose the wrong side of the railway that runs through the common, because we completely missed the ponds. We got to see them this time, and once again, I took photos of trees — willows this time.

We decided to take a detour through Wandsworth Cemetery. We spent time reading the headstones. One headstone with an angel pointing to the rapidly darkening heavens stood out.

As we left the cemetery, the skies became darker and darker. We put on our rain gear, quickly crossed the River Wandle and made our way through an industrial estate.

Just as it began to rain, there was a pub in sight. After another moment of indecision (was there another pub closer to the station?), we went in, narrowly avoiding a downpour. It didn’t last long, however. Within 30 minutes, there was a rainbow outside the pub.

Sugar Kane is an unabashed ukulele player. She sings an great little ditty about a dancing bear that makes me chuckle each time I listen to it. But SK had a problem. She had a beautiful uke, but nothing to put it in. So she made herself a ukulele bag and posted the results on flickr. That generated a lot of interested from the thriving ukulele community. So now she’s made a whole lot of bags, and she’s selling them over on MySpace. You should go there and check them out now. They’re mighty fine.

We returned the the Capital Ring today, after a few months off. It was the perfect day for it. It was pretty amazing to be wearing a T-shirt in early February (and a bit disturbing as well).

The highlight of the stage was definitely the dinosaur sculptures at Crystal Palace. Technically, these were a part of Stage 3, but I missed them because I bailed out early on that stage.

The most enjoyable part of the stage were the hints that spring is fast approaching. Aside from the splendid weather, there were a number of plants in bloom, including the cherry tree you see here, with Jon and Wendy squinting into the sun beneath it

There is a photoset on flickr for those of you who are interested. It’s not a huge set, since this was a pretty short stage.

After a few months off, we completed the second stage of the Capital Ring last Sunday. This stage took us form Falconwood to Grove Park and is one of the shortest stages of the Capital Ring (only 4.2 miles from station to station).

The day started off well. The weather was great, and everyone met on the train. Matt was kind enough to bring squeeze cheese, and there was much debate about the merits of this quintessential American foodstuff (or is it a petroleum product?).

The highlight of this walk is definitely Eltham Palace. We didn’t actually go in. In fact, we only hung out on the moat bridge for a short time, but the grounds looked beautiful. Joanne and I will definitely be going back to get a peek inside some time soon.

Shelf Fungus
Originally uploaded by Jeff VC

The other highlight of this walk (for me, at least) was a mushroom we saw growing on a nearly dead horse-chestnut. I tried to identify it using a £3 guidebook that I bought in the Lake District, but had no luck. Once I posted the photos on flickr, the mystery was solved. My friend saw the photo and pointed me to her friend’s recent blog post on artist’s fungus. Based on this, I was able to narrow it down and am pretty sure it is a Ganoderma applanatum. It was this photo from Queens, NY that convinced me that this is most likely the correct ID. Artist’s mushroom is found all over the world and grows on dead or very old trees, such as our horse-chestnut. More importantly, you can draw on the underside of the mushroom. We didn’t do that this time, but I’m definitely going to try it out next time I see one. It looks like fun.

We ended the day with a picnic in Chinbrook Meadows. It was a nice little picnic until I was threatened with squeeze cheese!

I applaud Mike’s effort, and should make a similar effor. I should definitely avoid the junk food. I tend to be very good about this for around a month. After a month, I find that I’m sneaking a bag of crisps here and a can of Coke there. Coke? Why would I even drink this stuff? I don’t like the company. I don’t really want to support them. And yet, there have been some weeks when I have one every day. That certainly needs to stop. I’m right there with you Mike. No more Coke.

Mike also wants to get to the point where he is running again. Joanne and I have been doing this lately. I’m not going to lie. It’s been hard. One thing that has helped us along has been Podrunner. David, who knows a thing or two about running, introduced us to it. Joanne started using it immediately, but I didn’t. Let’s just say that it’s not the sort of music that I would listen to. Eventually though, I tried it, and found it really helpful. I had been listening to Modest Mouse’s new album. I absolutely love We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, but there were two problems. The first is that I was tempted to stop running when a song finished. The second was slow songs: I just didn’t keep up the pace. Podrunner helped with both of these issues. I’d definitely recommend trying it, especially if you’re just staring out running. I seem to be able to tune out the music and just focus on the beat (we’re up to 144bmp).

And finally, a shameless plug. Joanne and I will be running a 5k in less than two weeks. Hopefully all our hard work and podrunning will pay off. You can help us out by donating some cash (if you haven’t already), which will go to Trees for Cities.

Cheryl has also just started another blog: excerpts i love. She’s basically taken part of her approach to films — pulling out the best quotes from a film — and applied it to the books she’s read. I met Cheryl when we were both working at Book People many years ago, and I can guarantee that her taste in books (and quotes from those books) is excellent. Check out her blogs. I hope that you get as much enjoyment from them as I do.

As if that weren’t enough, Brittni, a good friend of mine from high school, found me on facebook. She was one of the core Hellions, as we liked to call ourselves.

Like Mike, I’m suddenly transported back to places like The Cannibal Club, Magnolia Cafe and Twin Falls. I really do miss Austin sometimes. I’m can feel the craving for a black bean taco coming on. It’s a good thing we’ve already made plans to go to Taqueria for lunch.

We’ve finally started the Capital Ring. The first stage took us from Woolwich to Falconwood. I’ve uploaded photos to flickr for anyone who wants to see more than just Woolwich Common.

Along the way, we got to see the Thames Flood Barrier up close, a run-down folly on top of Shooter’s Hill and a lot of ancient woodlands.

Given the amount of rain we’ve had for the past week, we were quite lucky. We have a few quick showers, but much more sunshine than I expected.

The walk itself was excellent. There was some street walking, but for the most part we were walking through parks, commons and woodlands. It was actually surprising that there is that much green so close to the centre of London. There was very little of the junkyards and industrial areas that we walked through on the London Loop. If this is any indication of what the rest of the Capital Ring is going to be like, I’m really looking forward to it.

Update: I’ve mapped most of the photos in the flickr photoset, so you can view a map of stage 1 with photos. A few of the photos are best guesses.

I love this photo of Mr. Fred. The Chewear outfit is actually meant for Eman and Brenna’s daughter. She hasn’t been born yet, so Brenna decided to use Mr. Fred as a model. It think it was the right choice. Mr. Fred quite possibly has a very promising career in front of him.