Children's ones do often present on walls, and I record the placement without going into reasons. That sentence is in the notebook against this entry and it's as close as I come to a policy statement, so I'll let it open the report. Right trainer, child's, white with a blue stripe, velcro fastening, on the low wall by the paddling pool at Greenhead Park — set upright and facing the water, which is exactly the sort of placement I mean. Somebody stood it there. That's as far as observation goes and it's as far as I go.
Bright autumn morning, and the book notes the park were busy by ten, which Greenhead always is when the sun's out. A busy park changes the work. You photograph quicker, you don't unfold owt, and you carry yourself like a man doing summat ordinary, which I am, though I've learned not everybody sees it that way straight off. The entry says I photographed it and left it where it stood, and 'where it stood' is right — upright, facing the pool, the same as I found it. You can't interfere.
I had the flask in the car after, which is how the town-park entries usually finish. I couldn't tell you now if the paddling pool had water in it that late in the year — the book doesn't say and the memory offers nowt either way. What the book does say is enough: number 254, right, white, blue stripe, velcro, on the wall, facing the water. Some entries want expanding and some are complete at the length they were written. This one were near enough complete on the day. I've expanded it anyway, because that's the job I've set myself this summer, but I've tried not to add owt that weren't there.
Written up August 2026, from the notebook.