Mermaid Beach from The Leas

It was a perfect afternoon for a walk around Folkestone, and although our starting point, The Leas, is a place where we've walked a number of times in recent years, we had not walked through the town or down the Old High Street since the first months of 2020, before we started shielding. We arrived fairly late on Sunday afternoon, and found the paths and streets reassuringly  quiet. Although we are now venturing out to more places, I'm still very anxious about J's vulnerability to infection. It was lovely to see familiar corners, shopfronts, art works and cafés again. We found many changes, not all of them welcome: some familiar shops and cafés gone, more empty ones than I remembered, and a few potentially interesting new arrivals. J enjoyed seeing it all, was delighted when her nurse shared ice cream with her, begged me to play in the harbour fountains and was hugely amused when my mistimed run between them left her rather wetter than intended. We will return another day to walk along the harbour to Sunny Sands and on the Harbour Arm.

The extras show probably my favourite Folkestone art work, one of Sophie Ryder's iconic hare woman and greyhound sculptures. I love the gentle, companiable affection of the two figures, as well as many of the details. It felt like revisiting an old friend.