We’ve not really had much ‘cold and frosty’ time this year. It’s been squelching around in sticky mud! Halfterm means more to the English side of the UK and we haven’t done a huge amount but yesterday my other half took us to Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire.

The first casualty was the dog who almost made it to the car park before returning his breakfast to the back seat of the car. And I was the lucky one who got to clean it up with a chorus of ‘we’re trading it in’ ringing in my ears…

I know that believe me. A long time was spent on the first day of HT in the car showroom… but I digress…

We had a lovely lunch at the Visitors Centre and set off round the trail dogs are allowed on. This had caused us to reconsider our first choice of day trips (to a NT venue) as they don’t allow dogs at all. So my snow drop visit didn’t happen… and we set off for a dander round the squelchy mud.

I happily took some photos in the first 400 metres before I started feeling an awful sensation. I abandoned the others to return to the Visitor s Centre. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination but I was helped by a lovely lady. She supplied me with some volunteers waterproofs so I could return to the car with some dignity but it was not the best day out I’ve ever had.

I’m doing some research now to see whether I can understand why this type of thing is happening but yesterday I was caught by a story of how tick bites (mine was c1994) can cause an issue and then Covid also causes ongoing bladder/bowel issues. I am speaking to a doctor in March so I will have a pile of notes to make sure I cover all the things l need to. The joy of an autoimmune condition!