Sunday, April 15, 2012

shelter nibble no hands

Apart from the effects of weather on paintwork, plaster  and metal objects, graffiti can also sometimes have an almost hallucinatory effect on the eye. Hazard in the first case. In the second intention augmented by hazard. I have photographed this graffito in a wooden Groombridge bus shelter before as well as, quite recently, its neighbour on a panel in the same shelter. Time has mellowed it. Discovered by an archaeologist a millennium from now it would seem a miracle.

In The Grove this afternoon, I watch squirrels. Nibble, nibble nibble. Their little paws hold a nut to their mouth which, as they deftly rotate it, they chew at speed as though it is about to be snatched away.Their eyes seem fixed in concentration though it is likely that they are also on the look out for dogs or humans. It strikes me that there is something manic about them.  Some human beings behave like that when money is at stake.

Someone is walking behind me deep in conversation. He is on his own. He walks quickly, his arms swinging loosely by his side. Wires descending from his ears give the game away. He is on the phone. I look carefully but cannot see a microphone in the collar of his jacket.It must be somewhere.  A few years ago before mobile phones became common place he would be considered off his head. Even now their is something mad about his animation given the absence of a  visible object mechanical or living at which it could be directed.

3 comments:

marja-leena said...

When I see interesting worn out man-made objects or marks, I have the very same thoughts as to what future archaeologists might think of them.

How well you describe this mad conversation, seemingly to thin air!

Roderick Robinson said...

I have not kept up with your peregrinations. Where is Groombridge and why do you find yourself there? Sounds like an Ambridge suburb (ie, a name fabricated for fiction by a writer) though no doubt you will tell me Ambridge is not big enough to have suburbs.

Unknown said...

M-L He was still talking when I passed hime 10 minutes later coming in the opposite direction.

Groombbridge is a village about 4 miles from Tunbridge Wells. There is rather a grand but not too large house with a moat, a lake and gardens open to the public. It is on a bus route. It is also the seat of a place called Burswood, a sort of hospital where you can recouperate, the sujbect of our recent competition.