Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Places to sit...

I've loved public benches for many many years, possibly since I was a teenager and we used to hang out round the bench near the public telephone box. Drive through every small English village, and you'll see teenagers gathering round benches, just doing nothing, except of course they're not doing nothing, they're doing the only kind of living they can until they 'break right OUT of there' and hit the big towns. Anyway, my heart must have got lost somewhere on those benches, because they still have the power to make me excited. So excited, in fact, that I started a small bench blog some time ago, just for me. But it seems people have been visiting, perhaps having a quiet sit down there, so I guess I'll have to start doing nothing on it properly.

In the meantime, here are two of the benches in Tunbridge Wells from my photo collection. I've picked them, not because I knew the people, or they're particularly beautiful, but there something so poignant about where they are both placed.

This one - 'it's all good' ...



... sits directly above the park basketball courts where I hope Aymen was able to enjoy playing once ...



And this one - 'someone special' - says nothing more than that, no dates or reason why she's special....



... although the view of the children's playground you get when you sit on Jane's bench somehow speaks of a love of life and gentleness to me...



And I'm away now for a couple of days, so just so I don't fall behind on prompts, here are two ...

Wednesday - ... Wave at the grey car ...

Thursday ... lay your head on my shoulder ...

3 comments:

Jan said...

THere is a bench , a solitary one, on the headland at Cape Cornwall. (This, if you don't know it, is the lovelier version of Lands End, minus caff, coaches, Kids etc)
This bench must certainly tell some stories.

Kathryn said...

About 4 years before we got together, my husband and I walked to the park to watch the sun rise after a long evening of chatting over wine. We didn't notice that it was facing the wrong way and we missed the sun coming up altogether. We probably should have noticed then that we got on quite well. He proposed to me on a bench in my back garden and we still have it in our present one although you have to sit with your feet firmly on the ground to stop it collapsing. Benches are good even when their orientation or structures are unreliable.

Sarah Salway said...

I don't know it, Jan. How lovely. You don't have a photograph of it, do you?
And that's sounds like a metaphor for marriage, Kathryn - keeping your feet on the ground to stop it collapsing!