Simply A Moment [May]: Don't Fall In

Hi, hi.

Have you got a moment? I've got one right here if you need one  ... it's my response to the 'Simply A Moment' meme created by Simply Alexa where once a month, you can stop, pause and record something which could otherwise have disappeared into the ether.

To learn more you can read Alexa's tips on how to record your own moments and visit her blog to read her latest, very touching post. And, if you do join in, there's a link box there for you to add your post.

Here's that moment I promised ...

Don't Fall In

Date: Wednesday 15th May 2013
Time: around 10:25am
Location: Centre Square, Middlesbrough

OK, two library books safely returned ... now just five minutes to get to my hair appointment. I'll cut through the square to speed things up.

The freezing cold weather will also hurry me along. No dawdling to take in the scene today.

To my left the sound of the fountains gradually gets stronger as the jets force the water higher and higher in stages. Maybe the water's just impatient, rising up eagerly to greet and merge with the rain that's meandering down, slowly, drizzly, towards it.

Where were you when I needed a photo of a fountain for last summer's scavenger hunt? Why weren't you switched on then? Mmm?

I decide against walking along the slabs of steel set into the grass. They're wet and I know, from experience, that they can be slippery. I follow the brick path instead. It's not yellow.

A phone rings, loudly, and I look around to see where it's coming from. The ring tone's nostalgic, like a 'proper', old, telephone. Like someone calling from the past . A man scrabbles about in his coat pocket and the ringing stops.

I  pause a moment, in front of the Claes Oldenburg's Bottle of Notes, phone in hand,... to grab this shot without looking:

Yet again I'm aware of how much I need a smart phone ... and how uncomfortable I am with taking photos when I'm alone.

In the presence of the sculpture I can't help but think back to the film I made, on a summer course, about the bottle and how I wanted to know what people would put in a message in a bottle. The memories that bubble up aren't all fond ... 

Passing the pond. I remember a cold, frosty December afternoon wandering about there. Killing time before going back to campus.

This place has echoes.

It's an open space crammed full of thoughts.

A lone duck [which might not be a duck,I'm too far away. Let's call it a bird. It's definitely one of those] sits on a rock in the centre. But as I turn I see some companions heading toward it from the side.

Outside the court a group of people dressed in black and white [the go to 'smart clothes' colours] smoke cigarettes while a security guard looks on. They laugh, making me think they might just be staff on a break ... rather than plaintiffs and defendants. But then again ...

Almost there now, and it looks like I won't be late after all.

I round the corner and have to keep to the right, close to the building, as there's road works on my left. A long, deep, pit gouged into the gutter.

Several signs, in red, tied to the safety fencing shout at me ...

 Danger. Deep Excavation. Danger. Deep Excavation. Danger. Deep Excavation.

Placed there to warn me against the dangers of thinking too much maybe? Of remembering too much? Of the dangers of digging too deep ... dipping too many toes into the past ... dredging too many memories to the surface? Or ... just warning me not to fall down a big hole?

But then ... maybe that's all the same thing ...

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Thanks for sharing my moment this month.

Don't forget to visit Alexa to catch some more.

Julie