The Milnsbridge stretch has been good to the register over the years and it were good again — that's the notebook talking, and the record backs it up. Left trainer, red, faded near to pink on the sun side, laces in, by the bench near the aqueduct. The fade is the detail worth dwelling on: one side red, one side going pink, which tells you the trainer had sat in the one position long enough for the sun to make a project of it. I don't date shoes beyond what they show, but a two-tone fade is the shoe showing you summat, and I noted it careful.
Still, mild morning, the leaves starting to turn along the water. The entry records that I sat on the bench itself rather than the stool, which I mention because the stool travels on most outings and there's a small judgement made every time about whether the site provides. A bench by an aqueduct provides. Flask good, cheese and pickle, the canal doing very little, which is what canals do best.
The photograph came out well. I'd guess the fade helped — a red going to pink gives a camera more to work with than most of what I point it at. Milnsbridge has turned up trainers, sandals, and the lost left sandal of 2021 that went within a fortnight, and I did walk along to that spot while I were there, as I tend to. Still gone. It keeps its number regardless. That's how the register works, and this one, number 253, went in under it on a quiet September morning with the year starting to lean towards autumn.
Written up August 2026, from the notebook.