We self isolated for two weeks after returning from Houston. Soon everyone around was in a similar boat due to the covid-19 lockdown. Walking in the late evening darkness has been very safe as there are few people around, mostly odd dog walkers, as indeed we are.

Remarkable is the silence, just the odd car or delivery van from time to time. Even the nearby M6 is mostly quiet. It seems bizarre to be able to walk along the middle of what is normally a busy main road.

Owls seem to hoot more frequently on the edges of town. Several hedgehogs have been in evidence, not normally seen. I guess the brave ones are usually soon flattened by traffic.

We have returned to the conditions of the days before mass motor traffic, maybe the 1950s or even earlier in this part of the world.

Personally, I like the darkness and the glorious night sky, while silently cursing that modern anti-nature trend of putting bright lights on the front of houses when there is perfectly adequate street lighting. Venus and the Moon have been quite magnificent these past few weeks. But photographs are not easy, and need a bit of adjustment!

One thing you miss on a night walk is the greens and colours of nature. This patch of flowering nettles looked attractive in the ghostly street light, and even looks a bit green after I removed a large amount of blue from the picture.

But really, it looks better in daylight. Night is now falling later, so we go out earlier to walk in daylight. There are more people, traffic and noise. Maybe from time to time we’ll go back to experiencing that 1950s night time!