The notebook entry for this one ends 'a crackin' morning all round', and reading it back nine years on I'll stand by every word. Right boot, brown, cracked across the toe, no laces, beside the track above Wessenden Lodge. Warm, clear over the moor — and Wessenden clear is worth any six Wessendens in cloud.
Four photographs, two came out. Stool brought and used, and the ground up there takes a stool nicely, being firm and more or less level if you pick your spot. Flask conditions very good. Cheese and pickle. When all four of them lines come in positive on the same day, that's about as good as the record gets, and the book knows it — the writing gets slightly bigger towards the end of the entry, which is a thing my writing does when I'm suited.
The boot itself were an honest one. Cracked across the toe the way leather goes when it's been wet and dried too many times, no laces, sat beside the track like it had every right. I gave it a proper sit. Wessenden has given me more entries than anywhere bar the canal, and this were one of the good ones.
Written up August 2026, from the notebook.