Day 16: A1

Road trip to Rutland on a white-out foggy day.  Striking out on the A1 past my favourite road-side emporium, The Adult Pit Stop near Tempsford, which never fails to entertain me - as anyone who came to my last Edinburgh show will know.  As the countryside deepens and broadens, suicide attempts by pheasants increase, and the hedgerows get wilder.  A roundabout centrepiece of graphic tangled teasels - no parks departmental lobelias and petunias here.  Through the mist, everything is sepia toned.  Like 1970s hand-thrown pottery, brown-speckled under a milky glaze.  Uppingham, Stamford - picture postcard market towns in mellow yellow stone.  Traditional butchers, with plaster pigs proudly bearing trays of herby sausages.  Tea rooms with doilies.  Dusty secondhand bookshops.  Parking for 20p an hour.   

Lunch at The Old White Hart in Lyddington.  Open fire, knick-knacks, utterly traditional.  Not gastropub, or stripped or retro.  Just comfortable.  Local families with sporty children - all rugby shirts and urgent requests for crumble.  The only thing missing was a sleepy dog by the fire that I could ruffle with my foot. 

Good to see different scenery.  A breakfast whim turned into a breathing space.