The White post

The white post

There was a hideous sign put up to let everyone using the lovely quiet riverside that this was private fishing.

It was 2 metres high and long. Initially it had a red and blue vinyl covering that was very quickly vandalised.

It looked like this one, which is next. A few years later when the fishing rights changed a new sign was screwed over the old one. It was even more hideous but very vandal resistant. As I discovered.

One winter in the pouring rain and with the river a flood it was almost impossible to reach. With nobody likely to be around the metal sign got dismantled and swept away by the river. One of the posts went that way too but one was too stubborn and had to be left.

So a white post remained on the banks for a while. It was an eyesore but better than what had been there before.

Some Posca paint pens arrived, a blue one and a green one. The top of the sign was coloured blue and the bottom green.

Some more pens arrived a while later, some bright colours and some natural browns and more shades of blue and green.

Every time they went back something got added, some flowers and birds, some bees and butterflies.

A fox moved in to catch the mouse.

A buzzard few by and the trees flowered and fruited.

An owl sat in the branches around the back as the ivy spread up the tree.

So if you’re ever walking that way and you come across the post, you’ll know how it got there.