It wasn’t a long walk from our place. After posting our Christmas cards to Australia (in time, hopefully) Chris and I walked along the brook and onto the sea wall; we stopped at Boat Cove to look at the new artwork – a boy with a catapult – which has appeared on the brickwork by the railway tunnel; and we kept on going to the end of the sea wall at Coryton Cove. Few people were out and about, and most of them were accompanied by dogs. No sign of any fishermen, just a man painting the door where the mackerel fishing trip tickets are sold every summer.

On our way back the sun was setting, turning the clouds all shades of pink, and it was only about a quarter to four in the afternoon, a reminder (as if we needed one) that we’re fast approaching the shortest day of the year. Roll on summer, I say, but it was a pleasant walk for all that…it’s always good walking hand-in-hand with Chris.