It is Week 17 of 2021 already. We have slipped quietly through a miserable January of floods and snow . February a cold a dismal month and then March with the feeling of Spring in the air. April with its inclement weather and now May. The fifth month of the year . As I walk I feel that the months have become very blurred as they run seamlessly from one to the next without me even noticing . Is that because of Covid when all days and months have felt the same ? I am not sure . I feel that sort of sense of frustration that the first four months of the year have felt wasted. No trips out and not much sign of changes . Although there are changes . As with the seasons ... read more

Week 17 of 2021. Day 409 of Lockdown - one more week left before April ends and May begins. Feeling fed up with walking locally I got up this morning with the intention of suggesting to the driver that he might like to run me up to Marchwiel. The idea would be that I would have a wander around a different village , a different church and churchyard and have a slightly different walk home . It was sunny and the sun was breaking through the clouds that looked liked streaky bacon. I was dropped off in Marchwiel . Did you know that there is a Marchwiel in New Zealand ? No that is a fact that had passed me by too. Its seems the story goes that in the year 1879 the Marchwiel estate was ... read more

"Are we there yet ?" Those words mean one thing to me . Sion knows he is off to meet his best friend Woolly. This meeting has been on the agenda for quite a few weeks . " Yes I knew that - I had been checking t he computer and had read that we were going to meet up. That would be me , my best friend Woolly Mammoth and his carer Jo" And there was me thinking I was keeping it secret . The best kept secret blown wide apart due to Sion peeking at the computer and working out what was happening . Of course Sion knowing what was afoot meant that for weeks he kept asking me if we were there yet , what he was going to wear and where we ... read more

It's April and I find myself looking back at last years blogs . I was asking myself then if Covid would be around for two years. I was describing Wingerworth to you. I was exploring its nooks and crannies and I should have been heading for Scandanavia . What has a year brought me to ? I woke up with the word old running round and round my head. Like an earworm it seemed to pop up everytime I opened my mouth . I was reading old blogs comparing last years weather with what we were experiencing now. We should have been heading down to Canterbury for an overnight stop before heading to France for a well deserved holiday . Somehow this April seemed exactly the same as last April . The only difference this was ... read more

Looking back . That is something we seem to do a lot at the start of a year. We perhaps do it less as the year progresses. If you keep a diary you can look back at this time last year and see what you were doing and be reminded of what you were thinking. I don't keep a diary so the blog has to suffice. It comes in handy to be able to pick a date from a year ago and see exactly where I was walking , who I saw and what I thought . My thoughts were all over Covid. The same as everyone at the same time I guess. Covid was on the news. It was being rammed down our throats at every broadcast and Boris appeared almost nightly dealing out a ... read more