One Month to the Day

Horncastle, UK - Jamie - Tuesday, September 13th, 2005 : goo

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It is one month to the day that, in a bright uncomfortable heat, i took a walk along the disused canal. It was something i'd been meaning to do for some time, ever since reading about it's meteoric rise and fall whilst digging up some factoids about the town to accompany some photos i'd taken for a citynoise article about the town a few months back.

My motivation for the foray stemmed initially from an overwhelming need to think. Normally I do my best thinking on small jaunts to and from public benches where i go to sit and think some more. This thinkfest however called for increased solitude, and with all oter avenues of exploration exhausted i ventured across town to the local swimming pool where one can access a public footpath which runs an indeterminate distance along the canal.

The canal apparently runs all the way to the River Witham, which would have made the town navigable to the sea at one point. I'm not sure how far it is navigable, if at all these days, but it appears on most maps as Horncastle Navigation Canal (disused). I'm not sure how far it is walkable either. For the first few hundred metres the canal plays host to some fancy apartments, after this though it appears flanked by farmland and uncultivated common land, criss-crossed by signposted nature-walks, as far as the eye can see. Not a soul in sight. The perfect venue for some heavy-duty thinking.

I walked a long way along the canal. It is overgrown and when i say footpath what i really mean is dirtpath. I walked far enough to anger my clicky knee. Which seems to have rectified itself by the way. I sat on the bank in baking heat for what could have been several hours, staring into the clear water, listening for signs of a breeze in the reeds. And the water is clear here, not like the chocolate soup which flows lazily through the town. I heard grasshoppers. I sat and listened to them but i didn't see any. You never do. Very elusive creatures are grasshoppers. I saw Ruby though, a fair while before she noticed me. I spotted her far in the distance. I watched absent-mindedly as she larked around playfully with her friends, though paid little attention. I was lost in thought and was enjoying the sunshine. My reverie was broken abrubtly however, as i turned my head to see her bounding toward me. Headstrong with a look of fire in her eyes, her friends in tow. A moment of fleeting panic washed over me and dissipated as rapidly as it had begun.

I've always had a certain naive bravado when it comes to dogs. Even as a child. It is a false courage though. I am scared to death of spiders, and log flumes, but that is for another time. I've been known to scream and run like a girl at the sight of a tiny little squisable spider, but the sight of a bare-toothed snarling, angry dog phases me not in the slightest. I stood my ground (or rather i sat it) and looked her in the eye. Ruby and her friends circled me menacingly as their owner, mortified began apoligising profusely. I assured her it was ok, though she kept on apologising for a minute or so at least. She explained to me that Ruby has lost her ball again. She's always losing balls, it's her thing. She had bought her a miniature tyre with a peice of rag attached, but she had lost that too.

I sat and I wished that the battery in my phone was not so low. Too low to start the camera. Or that i had had the foresight to bring my real camera with me.

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Peter: exactly :)

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