The year opened at Milnsbridge, with the old camera on its last legs. Left trainer, black, laces still in but loose, on the towpath by the old packing house, toe towards the water. The notebook has it grey with drizzle setting in by ten, which is Milnsbridge in January doing what it does.
I took two photographs and the book says neither come out to speak of. That were the old camera all over by then, and I'd evidently had enough, because the new one were bought from Argos inside the month. So this trainer did the register a service in its way, though it weren't to know owt about it.
Flask conditions fair, tea kept its heat well enough. Cheese and pickle. With the photographs gone I noted the shoe careful in the book instead, and reading it back now that were the right call, because the written description is all that survives of it. Whether it were still there a month after I couldn't tell you. I don't believe I went back to check. The old packing house is flats now, I'm told, though the towpath is much as it were. Milnsbridge has given the register a steady trickle over the years and I've never once had a bad morning there, drizzle included.
Written up August 2026, from the notebook.