Allied to the bottom of the river rather than the surface, by reason of the slime and ooze with which it was covered, and its sodden state, this boat and the two figures in it obviously were doing something that they often did, and were seeking what they often sought. Half savage as the man showed, with no covering on his matted head, with his brown arms bare to between the elbow and the shoulder, with the loose knot of a looser kerchief lying low on his bare breast in a wilderness of beard and whisker, with such dress as he wore seeming to be made out of the mud that begrimed his boat, still there was a business-like usage in his steady gaze. So with every lithe action of the girl, with every turn of her wrist, perhaps most of all with her look of dread or horror; they were things of usage.

Charles Dickens – Our Mutual Friend

Day 24. One of these days I’m going to lose track of how long we’ve been in lockdown…

Thursday is usually my walking day. I walk every day, but Thursday is the best day in my weekly schedule, and those of a small group of like-minded friends, to go for a longer walk. We try to go every week, but it doesn’t always work out that way, and our numbers vary between two and six depending on who’s available.

Most of our walks this year have been in the Clwydians or the Berwyns but, in mid-March, everything had to be put on hold. Normally we would take turns planning a route and, until the COVID-19 crisis, I had several interesting ones up my sleeve for April and through into the  Summer. I’m minded to share some of those routes on this blog. After all, one’s imagination need never be locked down.