One of the things that has been depressing me of late is my flumping towards unfitness. I’ve not been inside my gym in six months or more and I’ve taken almost no other exercise, other than walking the dogs and to be frank, with my work schedule and my other commitments, the walking has even been quite brief.


I’ve always prided myself on being reasonably fit – my gym membership has basically been so I can swim and I’m used to swimming around a couple of miles a week. I’ve not been in a pool since January.

With keen walkers, Mike and West here, we decided to take the opportunity to explore a bit of Cornwall hitherto unknown to us. We walked from Lerryn along the banks of the river that bears the same name as the village to where it joins the Fowey (pronounced Foy), along the Fowey bank to St Winnow and then back across land to Lerryn where the car was parked.

I didn’t struggle with the walk but I did puff and pant a bit up the hills, while West walked behind me and didn’t even break sweat. I know she’s ten years or more younger than me and I know she’s also supremely fit because she runs regularly, including half-marathons I think. It did, though, bring it home very clearly that I need to get my fitness back and quickly.

The whole distance was five miles and took just a bit less than three hours. The Cornish weather has been wonderfully kind and it has been glorious sunshine. This shot of DM was taken when we paused for a shot with a pinhole camera of Mike’s making. While he was sorting out his exposure, I put on my wide angle lens and shot this and two or three others. This one really shouldn’t be my shot of the day because it was a complete accident. I really meant to compose it differently but my heavy-handedness meant I squeezed the shutter too hard when getting focus and took a shot. Strangely, it was the one I liked best rather than the ones that were composed with the rule of thirds in mind.

Last year I was trying for patterns and two years ago, I was unexpectedly thrown into sadness.