Not a walking entry - an apology for absence

7th February 2009

My last walk was the day before yesterday, cold and grey and a blessing after the last fortnight. I followed a local route which I extended for a little way along the Itchen Way up towards the airport. Owing to the late afternoon and the light starting to dusk I turned back and found a delightful path across the water meadows which are part of the Itchen Valley Country Park. It made me feel very much that I live right on the edge of the countryside. Why would anyone choose the rat canyons of the city centre to living in the suburbs? I really feel my good fortune!

Now, you may be asking: where are my snow pictures? The recordings of the snowy walks I should have taken?

Well, thanks to the deterioration of the main cable carrying my telephone line I have been unable to access the internet. A nice man from the telephone company came and moved my line to the newer cable and now I'm back on track.

As for the snow pictures, I missed the opportunity for walking and photography due to frozen roads, accidents, sliding to a halt and then the "fun" (not!) of playing bumper cars with the traffic at 7 in the morning. The road became blocked (by the way, this is about 400 yards from my front door) by skewed cars and a stranded bus, with the emergency services having the same difficulties and only attending accidents where people were injured. What was quite interesting was my being the liaison between the police and the public, as I had called 999 and was in contact with a very pleasant woman who relayed information to me as she got it. In the end, those of us able to leave our cars at the side of the road were advised to do so and head on to wherever we were going.

The next day and driving through a blizzard coming home after work again at 7 in the morning, I ended up at my parents' house because they don't live on an "up and down" road that turns into a ski run at the slightest hint of snow.

So, why did I not get out to walk in it anyway, even around the local area with its parks and woodlands? I'm a night owl so my sleeping is during the daylight hours, and when not sleeping I was waiting for telephone calls and engineers.

Thank you for listening to my tale of woe. I am now on holiday and looking forward to getting out there again.