The ritual continues

I walk across King George's Field every day.

Sometimes, I think that the ritualistic behaviour on King George's Field is a figment of my imagination, that I've taken random occurances and linked them tenuously together to make a bizarre, slightly compelling whole.

And then I'll come across things like this. Again, it's a 'Trolley In An Odd Place' -- but for it to have been placed here, in mockery and salutation of the rugby posts, leads me to beleive that the ritual is real, and that it continues.

I was walking to work, so it would have been about 7:10am when I took this.

Gummy Gravel

I walk along Dunstable Drive every day.

Along one of the houses is a thin strip of gravel, which seperates the property boundry from the pavement.

Someone has purposefully added a selection of multi-coloured sweets to this gravel.

I honestly can't think of any reason this would have been done, other than to brighten up the gravel. It's possible that the sweets had been dropped accidentally and then swept into the gravel -- but surely the natural thing to do in that situation would be to sweep them into the road, on the other side of the pavement?

And so, this was done on purpose. Perhaps it's part of the continuing, random ritual beign carried out irregularly by the shifting, amorphous groups of youths that control the landscape at this end of town. The group that drags trolleys away from Tesco even though the wheels lock magnetically as soon as they're out of the carpark. The group that scrawls bizarre and pointless messages up and down the lamposts of Braintree. The same group that furiously destroys every sapling tree in their path.

But what spell are they casting with their actions, what is this ritual, and when will it be complete?

I was walking to work, so it would have been about 07:10am when this was taken.

Hello, sky

I walk from the Braintree Freeport Branch Line Platform every day.

Some days, I don't walk home. I get picked up in the car by my wife. Invariably, she is anywhere between 5 and 10 mins late, and I am left waiting.

Normally, I kick gravel around the floor while listening to my iPod, or play with my phone, or find something comfortable to lean against (there is nothing comfortable to lean against).

And one day, I looked up, and noticed how amazing the sky was.

I was waiting to get picked up, so it would have been about 6:30 when I took this.

Goodbye Stubbs Lane

I walk along the path between Stubbs Lane and Millenium Way every day.

For a long time I was convinced that the path was called 'Millenium Way', and then took notice of a sign I'd ignored for 3 years, and started calling it 'Stubbs Lane'.

And then I noticed the sign that said it was 'Millenium Way'. And then I realised that the path simply connected Millenium Way and Stubbs lane. And the path had no name.

I was walking to work, so it would have been about 7:20 when I took this.

Non-Braintree Trolley Interval

This photo was sent in by Andy T Geezer, purveyor of the REAL Wall.

"Hello there Gareth... Today on the way home from the pub I saw a trolley on a balcony in Goldhawk Road, and only had my Sony handheld camera handy"

If anyone else sees a Trolley In An Odd place, and would like to see it here, email me at the regular address. As displayed by my previous 'Gurney In A Odd Place' post, don't feel constrained to shopping trolleys.

Always walking ahead of me

I walk across King George's Field every day.

By some remarkable twist of fate, as I walk to work my shadow lays in front of me, the sun rising behind me. And then, on the way home, the sun sets behind me, and my shadow is again laid out ahead of me.

When I was younger and more vital, my shadow was a source of great pride for me. It would thin out or disguise the parts that I wasn't happy with in real life, and because of the lengthening and foreshortening, it would always look like the silhouette of a superhero of some kind.

I was walking home, so it would have been about 18:40 when I took this.

Gurneys in odd places

I walk across King George's Field every day.

When I started collecting these photos and stories, there's been a proliferation of shopping trolleys dumped in odd places along my walk to and from walk.

Never did I expect that I'd see a gurney dumped next to a playground. I think it's the kind that come in ambulances.

Which suggests to me that an ambulance has been stripped, and that spread out across Braintree are the rest of its contents.

The kids who normally eat Pot Noodles in the park, haul shopping trolleys into bizarre positions, overturn bins and insult eachother in text on lamposts are getting bolder.

I was walking to work, so it would have been about 7:10 when I took this.