Cold day. Long walk.

At least it was dry today, if cold. 
We went off up to one of our local traders to look for a new front door. Ours is letting in water at the bottom. 
They had sent out one of their maintenance men before Christmas to take a look at it.
   It is past its sell by date, so hence the reason for the visit this morning. 
On our way I heard my first song thrush of the year. 
Such beautiful liquid notes! 
   Once we had finished at the showroom, hubby suggested we take a longer walk back home. A circuitous route. 
    We are not far from open countryside in several directions. 
As we had not clomped into the showroom in our walking boots, not expecting to go very far,(I was wearing ordinary boots) we kept mainly to the urban footpaths until we reached the outer edges of our neighbourhood. 
    There we were surrounded by fields and woods, hedges and bracken along the edges. 
There was the evocative smell of wood smoke drifting in the cold air. Eventually our usual farm cafe was reached and we had a welcome coffee. 
By the time we arrived home we had covered 5 miles! 
I was very pleased with myself! 
   Stephen used my camera to take a photo of me  after I had made the fairly steady climb up to the top of one of the lanes. Photo in extras. 
I spent the afternoon reading my French novel after lunch. Almost finished.