A good morning's work, this one. Right boot, black, on the path above the north bank at Ramsden. Laces in. The sole were sound but the upper had cracked across the toe — a boot that had been flexed a great many times, and I recorded the crack because condition is half the entry.
The notebook has more life in it than usual for this one. A fine morning, and a cuckoo going somewhere up the valley, which I put in the notes at the time and I'm glad I did, because reading it back I can nearly hear it. Flask conditions very good. Cheese and pickle. Stool brought and used. Everything about the kit performed as it should.
And the photograph came out well for once — the notebook's words, not mine, though they are also mine, if you follow. By June 2016 the stool were bedded into the routine and the entries from that summer read like a man who had his system settled, which I had. Ramsden gave the register two shoes that year, this being the first, and the valley were in good voice for it.
Written up August 2026, from the notebook.