Ramsden's second shoe of the year, four months after the black boot on the north bank path. This one were a left boot, brown, on the dam wall itself. Laces in, one frayed to nowt — the notebook's exact words, and there's no improving on them.
Leaves down and the first proper cold of the autumn. Flask conditions fair. And then a piece of honesty I'm glad the notebook kept: didn't bring the stool, no feeling about it, and were wrong as it happened. Stood instead. The feelings are usually reliable but the record shows they're not infallible, and a register that only recorded the successes wouldn't be worth keeping. I stood by that dam wall long enough to regret the decision, evidently.
The photograph came out. Reading the entry back now, what strikes me is that both Ramsden shoes of 2016 were boots with their laces in, found on the reservoir's built edges rather than the paths above. I note that as a fact about the year, not a theory. Theories aren't the work. The boot stayed on the dam wall, the tea were drunk standing, and the register moved on to November.
Written up August 2026, from the notebook.