Notes from the country with Vicky Turrell

  I have done it! I have been cycling for the first time in a year. And I noticed many others had the same idea too. We are all suddenly taking to the road on our bikes. Admittedly, it was only a short ride but oh, how fantastic it was to be there on the open road. So different from being in a vehicle. I felt part of the countryside on our little lane. There were lots of wildflowers I had not noticed before when I drove past in the car. They are growing so fast, like a centimetre a second! Especially the huge hollow stemmed hemlock, it seemed that it was taller when I cycled back. We used to call it rabbit meat , but rabbits do not eat it (they eat our vegetables). The only thing that stops hemlock in its tracks is the farmer’s cutter. Something stopped me in my cycling tracks though, and that was the potholes. I had to steer round them and if a car was coming behind me, I had to stop and wait. The driver behind would not know why I was steering into the middle of the road so u...