JANUARY DERELICT

After a good service at Church, we came out an d the rain, if anything, was harder, so we decided NOT to go out driving as it was not very pleasant.

I had seen this on a hoarding around a derelict part of the town a few weeks ago, and made a note of it so that I could use it for a shot for such a time as this - you may remember we used to go out most Sundays looking for dereliction, but today it wasn't that far from where we were.

Mr. HCB dropped me off on the opposite side of the road, so I had to wait to cross and got quite wet in the process.  The hoarding is next to a bus shelter, and there was a man, of Asian origin, obviously waiting for a bus, so we passed the time of day, saying how horrible the weather was and he said there was “Much rain” and I had to agree with him.  He looked quite perplexed because I was taking a photograph of this, so I told him that I had no idea who “Codger” was, but that I had come to take a photograph, as I took one every day.  At that, he looked even more perplexed, but I didn’t think he would understand even if I tried to explain any more, so I bid him goodbye and hurried back to the car.

I am grateful today for a warm and dry home and the thought of a lovely roast chicken meal this evening, with home-grown butternut squash, Savoy cabbage and Kaylettes, picked by Mr. HCB in the pouring rain. 

So, Codger, whoever you are, I hope that you do “Rest in Peace” and thanks to whoever painted this for a January Derelict blip.  Someone obviously cared enough about you to leave a memorial on this hoarding and these words came to my mind - “To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die” but I didn’t realise they came from a poem entitled "Hallowed Ground":

“But strew his ashes to the wind
Whose sword or voice has served mankind,—
And is he dead, whose glorious mind
      Lifts thine on high? -
To live in hearts we leave behind        
      Is not to die.”
Thomas Campbell : Scottish Poet - 1777-1844