Princes Crescent

Freya and I had a lovely walk down Bare Lane the other night. Bare Lane goes from Sirius's Park to Princes Crescent and then the prom. We didn't reach the sea because I thought it was a little too far for Freya's weeny legs. And since it's just houses and a wide road, I didn't bother with photos, so I didn't write about it. It was also one of those walks where I just didn't want to think about anything – sometimes it's just nice to look at things and form no opinions about anything at all, isn't it? It was that kind of walk. The day after, we took the same walk, but from the other end, starting at the prom. And we took Matthew with us. He's doing most of our evening walks because he's mad into Pokemon GO again, and he's trying to hatch some eggs – to hatch eggs, you have to notch up kilometres. He's hatched three eggs this week. 

Anyway, waffle waffle. This was the prettiest tree on Princes Crescent. I'm sure I look very dodgy, standing outside people's houses, taking photos of their front rooms. But it's not as if I'd do this in non-Christmassy circumstances, and I'm sure people put their trees by their front windows so they can be seen by other people, so I guess it's fine. Anyway, turquoise and purpley-blue – write that down for next year. We've got pink and white this year (Thomas's idea, not mine) and it's already doing my head in. I don't think I showed you ours, did I? 

I interrupt this walk to show you the top of our Christmas tree, complete with festive mogwai. Gizmo has since drooped forward on his precarious perch and looks sozzled.

Back on Princes Crescent, not much happened, except that we saw a couple of people out for their evening stroll. And then another couple came at us from the other direction. And then a jogger appeared from round the corner, and then a lady walking her dog crossed over to our side of the road. And before we knew it, it was difficult to stay socially distant and Freya didn't know which person to try to sniff first – chaos!

So we stood still for a few minutes and let everyone else go about their business. Fine, good, no worries.

'Shall we go as far as the level crossing, Matthew, Freya?' says I. Matthew was all for walking as far as possible to hatch his next egg, but we have to still bear in mind Freya's little legs, so not too far yet. We did pass the Dog and Partridge though. Every time we do, I wonder whether it'll be my local one day. I quite like this pub and have been in it lots.   

Freya's treats worked a treat today. She walked beautifully, and I even managed to distract her from a couple of other dogs with our new chicken-and-yogurt biscuits. They sound gross, I know, but Freya likes them. Matthew wanted to try one, but he couldn't bring himself to pop one in his mouth after he'd smelled it. Don't blame him. All dog biscuits smell like mouldy feet.

We made it to the level crossing ... which wasn't at all difficult because it wasn't as far as I thought. We took a breather here, on the alert for the barrier coming down. I have a mortal dread of level crossings, so it was quite brave of me to stand here for five minutes, I thought.

But five minutes was more than enough. I must say though that Freya just sat by my feet, looking around, listening to people's conversations as they walked past. She's very patient. I say that, but as I'm writing, she's shouting at the cat. I say shouting – it's more like talking. She seems to be saying, 'look, Narcissa [that's my cat's name], if you could just come down from there and let me chase you, we could have great fun. I won't bite you very hard, I promise.'

Look at her, back on the prom at the end of our walk – like butter wouldn't melt. 

You'll have noticed that the posts have become quite few and far between now. The walks haven't – they still happen every day, three times, but mostly they're just uneventful walks for Freya to do her business and for me to stretch my legs and breathe a bit. I still absolutely love every one of them, but there's nothing to tell you and we can't keep taking photos of the same Christmas lights, trying to find different things to say about them. So I've taken the pressure off us all by not taking my phone out for walks around our neighbourhood. Also, I think the winter walks are just not as interesting to look at because they're all dark! I really can't wait for it to be getting light again, which will actually be quite soon! Just a few more weeks and it'll be feeling springy – alright, quite a lot of weeks. But as we all know, weeks pass very quickly once you get past about fourteen years old. Lots to look forward to.

Until tomorrow, winter warmers,

WQ+M+F