December is a quiet month. I looked out over a rolling landscape of empty fields divided into squares by long, straight hedges. The only sounds were of distant cars. When did it become normal to hear more traffic than wildlife? Everything felt subdued. But I was glad to be beginning this project at the tail end of a year so that I could experience everything perking up in the brighter days to come. 

With practice, a map becomes as clear as a picture, and almost as full of imagined detail. This week’s grid square seemed to be as hilly as almost anywhere on my map, a rare treat for me in this flat, sanitised region. I adore land with contour lines, curvy and sensuous, filled with possibility.