First proper dry Saturday since May, the notebook says, and you can feel the relief in the handwriting, which sits up straighter than it had all summer. Left trainer, white, size eight or thereabouts, laces in and tied, against the churchyard wall at St John's, Golcar.
Size eight or thereabouts is the first size estimate in the register. Laces in and tied gets recorded an' all. A tied lone shoe is always worth the extra line — untied you expect, tied you note. I've held to that ever since without ever writing the rule down. It just grew.
The photograph come out well, which for 2012 were nearly an event in itself. Churchyards have turned out to be steady ground for me over the years and Golcar were among the first. I stood a while by the wall in the sunshine, and I'd have been in no hurry, having had precious little sunshine to stand in that year.
Written up August 2026, from the notebook.