Deer Hill, the conduit path, and a morning the notebook remembers mostly for the flask. The trainer first, because the trainer comes first: left, grey, the mesh sort, sole coming away at the heel, laid flat on the conduit path with the toe pointing towards Meltham. Laces present and double-knotted, which is always worth setting down. Overcast, close, midges about.
Now the flask. I'd not screwed the cup on square and a fair bit of tea went down the inside of me bag. The notebook has flask conditions as 'middling', which were generous of me at the time, and then a line I enjoyed finding again: 'Linda had words about the bag.' She did. I remember the words better than I remember the shoe, if I'm honest, though I'll not be recording them here.
The photograph came out, more or less, midges notwithstanding. A double-knotted lace on a sole that's parting company with itself — somebody had looked after the knots and not the shoe, and that's an observation of the shoe, not a theory about it, because how it came to the conduit path isn't the point of what I do. It were there. It's in the register. Number 189, and the bag never smelled right again.
Written up August 2026, from the notebook.