This was a day when I was dozing until about 1:45 PM after a busy morning, and then the Knowle Teashops and Taverns walk was suggested, and we got ready. I was told something I forgot before putting my fleece and fur hat on, Soot the cat took over the warm spot left in my chair and it was 2:12 PM and 10°C when we got in the car. Two unmarked police Skodas manoeuvred their way through the traffic on the Kenilworth High Street that we were part of about 8 minutes later, and they stopped outside HSBC Bank (no-one was in the cars and no one was visible in the bank as we passed), and after going through Solihull, Balsall, Common and Temple Balsall, we reached Knowle, where a butchers shop called Eric Lyons had a large dead animal dangling in its window and as the only car park was a pay by phone one, we went and found a side road.

2:45 PM was the start time of our walk, it felt cold, 2 slobbering Bulldogs were coming the opposite way down the road, and on the High Street, there was a Thai massage place, a chocolate shop, an artisan bakery and at least four hairdressers, one of which contained a man tilted back in a chair having his beard trimmed. A road from there (which seemed to be Kenilworth Road) had a loud car that (said Rezvani on it) driving down and we turned left down Kicks Lee Lane, where a Church of England primary school had a banner on its gates with ‘no idling – young lungs at work’ on. We went down another lane; there was a big house called Kixley Meadows that said ‘CCTV in operation’ on the gates and a yellow house that was called The Cottage; we joined the canal path at Bridge 72 and a moored canal boat had smoke puffing out of its chimney.

Two pairs of ducks were paddling along when we reached the infamous bridge 71 (we had tried to clamber up the extremely muddy slope next to the bridge and nearly fell back down into the canal on a previous attempt at this walk), where there were 124 miles to London, and a boat called Unpredictable was moored, and up on the B4101 road we turned down Elvers Green Lane and saw a very odd big brick building with extremely thin windows. A house called Mitchells End (that said it had CCTV in operation) had daffodils sprouting up, an uninhabited farm had a planning site notice on a power line pole outside it, there was a line of huge electricity pylons with cables crossing Elvis Green Lane, which we turned off at 3:38 PM, crossed another couple of fields, went left along another path, passing a field with three little ponies in it.

The next gate had a ‘sheep grazing’ warning on it and a small notice saying improvements had been made to the path by the Solihull Ramblers Association, and at the top of that field was a massive pylon that could be heard buzzing, and a big pile of manure.

An incredibly squelchy muddy path had footprints on it from huge boots and paw prints from a big dog, and it joined the road by the Waterfield Farm gate; a white and orange plane was flying over, and we joined the canal again at 4:06 PM at Bridge 73. A field of sheep by Bridge 72A was making loud noises as bedtime food seemed to have been delivered. And we left the canal there at 4:15 PM, when the sun was beginning to set, a woman with an awful right hip and her dog were followed back to Godwin Lane, where more twittering could be heard, and Wootton Close took us back to Hampton Road and the car at 4:27 PM.