Snippets from January - Part 1

Whilst I wasn't naive enough to think that on the stroke of midnight on 31 December Coronavirus would go away and all freedoms would be restored, but I did have some optimism as to the year ahead. On 4 January, with the announcement of another prolonged lockdown, the wind was whipped out of my sails and, in combination with the cold weather, I found myself lacking any motivation to do anything other than a bit of daily exercise. Excessive amounts of sitting in a chair have ensued ever since. I thus felt there was nothing to witter about. At the same time, I know that in the future I'll be happy to be able to look back on what was going on at this time, so rather belatedly I'm going to tap out a few posts by way of the briefest catch-up I can muster.

What follows is all based on photos snapped on my phone. You can read the word 'apparently' into most of the accompanying statements, as I've deduced what I did based on the photo, not based on a precise memory!

1 January

I ran along the canal and found it not to be as flooded as I'd expected:

(I'll be referring back to this snap on 22 January)

2 January

Another run along the canal. Must have been sub-zero because I wouldn't have been on this section if the mud hadn't been frozen!

3 January

A coffee and crossword date in Bertie. We'd plugged him in and put a heater on a few hours earlier, but such was the temperature that we still needed to wrap up warm.

4 January

After spending the previous evening reading not just the government guidance but also the Covid legislation, I decided that we could justify driving to Cannock Chase, so as to get some hills into our exercise (a run for me; a walk for Mick). As the snow had thawed at home and Cannock Chase isn't that far away, I'd not expected to find huge swathes of the tracks doing impressive impressions of ice rinks. The photos are deceptive; snow had been compressed, then thawed, then frozen again. I had a great time, but did a lot of tippy-toeing and arm-waving.

As we left the Chase and headed homewards our intention had been to return weekly. A few hours later the government announcement of a lockdown that was going to last until at least early March put paid to that intention. 

7 January

Another run in cold weather. Here's one of the local ponds, frozen over. (I also have two canal photos from this day and it took me a worryingly long time of staring at them to place them; they're taken from a bridge on what has lately been my most repeated route - it seems I don't usually look left or right as I cross that bridge!)

9 January

I remember this one! I set out before sunrise and in clear weather that wasn't as cold as forecast. It got colder and foggier as I went, such that when I got home the pavement, which had been ice-free when I'd gone out, had become a veritable slip-hazard.

13 January

We had pizza for lunch! This is not unusual (indeed, we had pizza today as well), so not sure why I took this snap.

(edit: I've remembered. It was because we used Stinking Bishop cheese. The snap was for the gifter of that cheese.) 

15 January

Every day Lidl sells off a handful of boxes of fruit and veg for £1.50 each. They contain a random selection of stuff, some of which will be on its last legs (or slightly beyond) and others will be perfectly fresh but victims of split packaging. We've had lots of these boxes since last summer, but the box contents in this snap win the 'best yet' award. 

Yep, all of this for £1.50!

As much as I love these veg boxes, they always present a challenge as to how to use all of the contents before they go off (I often spend the morning the box is bought 'processing' and freezing stuff). As you can see, on this day the haul included eight packets of asparagus ... and we managed to eat all of it in the space of five days. 

I'll be back soon with Part 2 of January...