The weather is set fair for Christmas Day – perfect walking conditions will ensue, despite the abundant mud. I seem to remember last Christmas Day was clear and crips too in these parts. Most of us of course will stay close to home and just wander out with the kids, as a couple or singly given the Covid restrictions. People living alone will have a strange Christmas and I wish you all the best. Zooms and phone calls should help and great books and films.

If you live close to enough to the edge of town then places like Lullingstone, Shoreham and Knole are brilliant in this weather. Getting out can be difficult of course with the demands of present-giving, board games and cooking but now we’re in much smaller groups it shouldn’t be too difficult and all this rich food tastes so much better and is much easier to get down the hatch after a good stroll. A walk will help you feel better come Boxing Day, when the weather takes a turn for the worse again. Sunday looks a bit brighter, however. Anyway, have a good one.