… been cycling down to the shops. Cycling everywhere, actually, but we’re enjoying the novelty of having shops in popping out distance. Of course I’m no stranger to cycling to the shops, but an 11-mile round trip to Papershop Village isn’t exactly poppable and the main weekly shop definitely gets done by car. Here, even the out-of-town supermarket is only about 10 minutes away by bike which means that in the three days we’ve been here we’ve actually visited it twice. The local butcher, greengrocer and baker have also been graced with our custom twice in as many days – there must be some sort of law of conservation of shopping momentum which proves that the time spent travelling to the shops is constant. Oh, and we’ve also done the statutory wander round Lidl to see what mad things they’re selling this week. It was only through the sheer good fortune of them being sold out that we’re not currently the proud owners of an electric chainsaw. How anyone lives within regular reach of a Lidl and doesn’t have a house full of random *stuff* I don’t know. Perhaps they don’t.
Anyway if you read this in time (depending on your time zone) you might want to take part in this. You could even combine it with a trip to the shops, if you’re pressed. In fact, if you hurry, there might still be electric chainsaws on sale in Lidl…
There is something rather odd about Dumfriesshire in the lack of shops. Most place still have a village shop, but when we were touring we were surprised that you had to go to the towns to find any shops.
The villages with big through roads still seem to have them. For the rest, they’ve been disappearing steadily for a while