Today’s walk was delivered in two chunks – a lovely 45 minutes this morning with both girls and the dog, and a longer hour-long session along the canal in the evening sunshine.

The woods this morning were sunny, and fairly dry underfoot. The air smelled of the shoots of wild garlic that are already beginning to push their way through.It felt properly like the beginning of spring. Unfortunately the weather forecast is for a massive blast of Siberian weather this week – snow, ghastly cold winds, sub-zero night temperatures. So it appears spring is actually quite far off, sadly.The longer walk was greatly cheered (and informed) by the Standard Issue podcast. Though they are very sweary!