Closed

It remains cold. In fact, the temperate gauge has today even colder than yesterday.

As usual, I turned left outside the front gate and was greeted by a sign telling me the pavements here are closed.  Early this morning contractors working for Thames Water moved in and started to dig a hole outside each property on the street. The sign at the top of the road says that they are installing water meters.  I’m surprised because we have had a water meter almost since we moved into this house. I think we had it installed but can’t quite be certain - but it seems few of our neighbours have them.  Apparently, water companies are now at the phase where, if you don’t have one, it’s becoming mandatory.  These past few days I’ve noticed that there are teams of people working in all of the streets around here.

The pavement being closed is a bit of a blessing. What little snow we had is turning to ice and so walking in the road seemed sensible.  I thought I would be clever and, instead of trying to stay upright on the slippery pavements around here, I’d walk on Cannon Hill Common this morning,   Before I got there I’d imagined the common ground being frozen and, therefore, less risky than the paths. However, it turned out that the ground was still sodden, unfrozen and there were large patches of - very slippery - mud. I tried it and hastily recalculated a route back to a pavement to compete the morning loop.