Fresh air and vitamin D

Tessa Waugh focuses on the positives – and the useful effects of “liver-shaking” – at the start of the new year, banishing covetous thoughts of a friend's life in the southern hemisphere

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IT is usually around this time of year, in the aftermath of Christmas, that a sacrilegious thought comes to mind. The shortest day has come and gone and we are enjoying a creeping extension in daylight hours. But it is still winter and will be for a good while yet. To assuage any doubts, the temperature has dropped, snow is in the forecast and mud in all its many forms – ranging from wet and dilute to thick and sticky – is all around.