Another sunny day in East Cambridgeshire...

Three weeks ago, Ros and I were in Bottisham, where a by-election caused by the resignation of the recently elected Tory councillor was the impetus behind a well-organised campaign to win back a seat we had lost last year.

At the other end of East Cambridgeshire though, a County by-election had been called due to the unexpected death of the Tory councillor, coincidentally in a division part-held at District level by Lorna Dupré, the Regional Party's administrator and now leader of the Opposition on East Cambridgeshire District Council. Naturally, having been invited to come and help, it would have been wrong not to turn out on what looked like being a rather grey, wet day.

Fortunately, the sun broke through, and it had become a much nicer day by the time we reached our meeting point, in the village of Sutton, where Lorna lives. The task for the day was to do some canvassing in Little Downham, which makes up about a quarter of the County Division. Me, I had some walking to do, occasionally interrupted by other tasks, which seemed sensible, given my ongoing steps target.

There is nothing finer than walking around villages on a sunny day, and I was getting quite into things, discovering the local bus route - three times a day, Monday to Saturday, connecting Little Downham with Ely - and spotting the railway line between Ely and Peterborough at the eastern end of the village.

However, such fun can't go on forever and, mid-reverie, my phone rang, with instructions to return to the car. Gathering with the team, a photograph was taken, envelopes returned, and we headed back to Suffolk.

Lorna has a genuine chance to win on 18 February. We lost by about 250 in 2013, and with Lorna's strong support in half the ward, and no Labour or Green contender, it may not need much of a swing for her to overtake her Conservative rival. It would be nice to think that, should she do so, we will have made another small contribution to the Liberal Democrat recovery in a county where we have done well in the recent past.

And the fourteen thousand steps I managed today won't have done the 'Building a Better Walrus' project any harm either...