Looking and not seeing

We drive past and use road signs so often that I'll bet no one ever actually notices them as objects in their own right (apart from the artist David Gentleman) who incorporated them into his lovely insightful paintings about Around Britain).
But I walk past this one frequently with the dogs at the edge of the village and like seeing the flaking paint, the mildew and the raised edges of the letters.
Permanently hopefully pointing, like a sentinel.