Lockdown starts gloomy... outside at least

I noted, a few days ago, that the inclement weather and the generally sodden nature of the countryside offered a challenge in the then circumstances of Tier 4 restrictions. Well, the national lockdown makes things a bit more trying, especially when you're restricted to a limited number of grounds for going outside.

It therefore shouldn't have come as a huge surprise that day one of the new lockdown dawned cold, grey, wet and windy. Luckily, we needed bread and milk, which at least gave me an excuse to walk the more than four miles to and from the Co-op at Stowupland. It isn't as close as Tesco cross country, but given that the footpaths, especially across fields, are a morass, it's a less perilous walk, especially given that it consists of a little used single track road with relatively good sight lines and then pavement along the A1120 (which, frankly, isn't that busy either). The alternative means dicing with the HGV's that journey to and from the concrete products factory to the A14 - I think not.

And the exercise is not only good for me, but the journey requires almost exactly 10,000 steps (and yes, I'm still doing them every day) and, whilst the cold and wet is a bit grim, I can listen to music and think about whatever needs thinking about as I meander across the gently rolling landscape.

I got back to find that Ros's bread baking effort had been rather more successful than she had originally feared, but on days like this, a nice piece of toast never goes amiss...