Page 10 - Issue 67 Online

SILENT

It’s Friday the thirteenth and it’s No, Lockdown 2 is a distinct improvement on the
2020. What can possibly go wrong? original. There’s no horse’s head for one thing.
(The one in Woltz's bed..? No, I have to admit I
I shouldn’t tempt fate by waiting indoors so looked away as well.) Also, we know where it’s
instead I’m on the bike, one of my favourite rides going to end: on December 2nd. The word is
out of the village, to Purls Bridge and Welches that will be it, at least for 2020. We’ll gather in
Dam. I’m usually on my own down here; even groups of six or fewer and however big or small
the birders have left the place alone during the turkey is there will still be leftovers. Curry
lockdown. and the rest, to chomp through during those

Lockdown 2, that is. dark days between
We didn’t know the “… those dark days between Christmas and New
rules for Lockdown Christmas and New Year, a Year, a period a writer
1, having to make it friend refers to as the
up as we went along, period a writer friend refers Festive Deadzone. The
unsure how long the to as the Festive Deadzone.” description is a little too
road was or even Stephen King for my
where it was leading. liking.
If you’re a film fan you’ll know that Godfather 2 It’s the sight of the banner which literally halts
was way better than Godfather 1, even though me; that and the fence to stop me venturing any
the first was a stupendous achievement for further while work on the bank continues. Last
Coppola. time, 1990 or thereabouts, I was further up the
New Bedford in Welney watching
the same lorry movements
pummel the same roads, doing
the same damage, in a Canutean
attempt to keep back the waters
for a bit longer.

Francis Pryor, fen watcher and
lover, crosses his arms in front
of him as we talk about it. “They
won’t have a chance to do it again
in another 30 years,” he says. “We’ll
have been inundated by then.”
Francis is someone I have time for
and his recent seminal book – The
Fens – takes a long hard look at
the land we call home. He puts its

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