Thirteenth of February already. I'd better get a post in quick or you'll all be expecting romance and I'm right out of hearts and flowers this year.

The ride2stride festival is still consuming loads of my time. When we first had the idea back in September it was all fun and buzz and what if's. Then the hard graft started and the never again's kicked in. That's all behind us now as we have printed programmes to hold in our hot little hands and a functioning website to add news and views to.

The only thing left to do now is to make sure that people know about it (oh - and pray long and hard to the fair-weather fairy). The publicity machine kicked into action yesterday as 3,500 programmes were sent off to FoSCL (Friends of Settle Carlisle Line) members with their quarterly newsletter. FoSCL have an amazing system for packing newsletters and saving money. Four times a year on a Sunday afternoon a group of volunteers - yesterday there were 30 of us - meet to stuff the envelopes. The addressed envelopes are coded and sorted into post office delivery areas all over the country - Basildon, Burneside, Bognor Regis - and each pile is bagged and labelled. By the time the post office gets the mail half the job of sorting it has been done and they charge accordingly. FoSCL saves thousands of pounds a year thanks to the willing volunteers who do it for the love of FoSCL, the chance for a chat and a slice of cake at half time.