Easter Monday, and the book records it were the warmest Easter I could remember, which turned out to be a matter of record for the country an' all that year, though I only had my own memory to measure it against at the time. Digley car park were full by nine. Full by nine on a Monday is remarkable for Digley and the entry notes it with what I'd call mild alarm.
Right plimsoll, black, elastic gusset, no laces, on the wall at the dam end with the toe pointing at the water. Fair condition, sole coming away at the heel, which is the standard way a plimsoll goes — they don't weather like a boot, they just quietly come apart. A plimsoll is an honest shoe and I've always had time for them in the register.
Flask conditions good, though the book adds that tea and warm weather don't always agree, and that's a finding I'd repeat under oath. There's a temperature above which the flask becomes a duty rather than a pleasure, and Easter Monday 2019 were past it. Two photographs, then I left before the crowds got properly going. The plimsoll stayed on its wall being photographed by nobody else, I'd imagine, though I couldn't tell you now how long it lasted there. I didn't go back. Some you go back for and some you don't, and a plimsoll at a busy reservoir on a bank holiday is one you let go.
Written up August 2026, from the notebook.