A smart one, this, on the grass verge opposite the church at Farnley Tyas. Right shoe, brown leather, the proper sort — five eyelets, laces in, and polished within recent memory. There were only a bit of dew on it, which the notebook makes a point of, because a polished shoe outdoors doesn't stay polished long and this one hadn't had time to lose it.
A fine still morning, and the church bells were going while I noted it. The notebook says the bells 'felt fitting though I couldn't tell you why', and five years on I still can't, so we'll leave it as written. Farnley Tyas is ten minutes in the car, so this were a short outing by the year's standards — some of them are all-day jobs and some of them are a verge opposite a church.
The photograph came out well. The smart ones generally photograph better, having edges. One of the smarter finds of that year, this, and a tidy village to find a tidy shoe in. I don't recall the sandwiches and the notebook doesn't give them, so they're lost to the record. What the record does hold is a good brown shoe with five eyelets on a June verge with bells going, and I'd say that's a full enough account of a morning for anybody.
Written up August 2026, from the notebook.