This were the week the big storms came through, February 2022, and the notebook records branches down all along the A640. I'd not normally set out in the tail of that, but a layby on the Nont Sarah's stretch is a quick stop rather than an expedition, and laybys on that road have form — number 263 came off the same road two years later, though I didn't know that yet, obviously.
Left shoe, black leather, lace-up, five eyelets, laces in. And here is the thing the notebook records and I will repeat exactly as recorded: the shoe were sat upright and dry under the wall, after a week of weather that had taken branches off trees. I noted it then and I note it now and I'll leave it at that, because leaving it at that is the discipline. Condition good, hardly worn.
The wind were still strong enough to lean on, the notebook says, so I didn't stop long and kept the flask for the car, which I count as a flask entry even though it were drunk stationary in a layby with the heater on. Two photographs from the layby and one from the wall side, all noted as taken though the notebook doesn't say how they came out, which usually means well enough. Scammonden in a big wind is a serious place — the reservoir gets whipped into proper sea conditions and the pylons sing — and I'd not recommend it for a first outing. The shoe didn't seem to think it serious at all, sat dry under its wall, but shoes rarely do. That composure is half of why I document them.
Written up August 2026, from the notebook.