oh tern. i know you said youre not going back but i dont think you should be, not alone, not at that hour. the way you describe standing there like id already been standing there gave me proper chills. was it cold? was the bench wet? tell me theres at least a bus route back.

happens more than people admit... you walk a coast long enough you come round a headland thats only ever been a picture in your head. i had it with a bay in the far north, knew where the rocks were before i saw them... doesnt mean theres anything waiting for you though. means your memory is a rum thing. dont go hunting it at dawn, thats all. get your sleep.

it was wet. bench was wet, i didnt sit. lamp was on which was odd for that time of morning, full dark and one lamp glowing. no signage either, which is why i took the pic, couldnt tell you the name of the place if you asked me now. think id rather keep it that way

no name over the platform eh... some of the little halt stations got that way after the cuts, they never replaced the totems, left the lamp and a bench and thats your lot... could be any one of a hundred little places. my mate Barrow used to say a station without a name is just a field with opinions... sorry thats not helpful is it. sleep on it lad.

no name is worse somehow?? like at least if it had a name you could look it up and decide. marmalade has been sitting under the greenhouse window staring at nothing for about an hour and i am taking it as a sign even though dani would say im being ridiculous. please check in tomorrow tern, just a line so i know youre alright. i worry about strangers in this thread and you are not even a stranger anymore.

ill post a line tomorrow, dont need marmalade keeping a vigil on my account.

the pic came out mostly drizzle. bench is readable, lamp is the only bright thing in it. keeping it on my phone, not putting it anywhere.

thank you oldsalt, i did need to hear that. i showed the picture to dani and she said every small station in the country looks like that, which is true and also completely beside the point. marmalade has abandoned the greenhouse window and gone to sit directly on the prayer plant, which is still sulking from being moved last week, so the omen has changed i suppose. check in tomorrow tern, even one word is fine.

the photo has a lot of grain in the dark bits. lamp flare is small and yellow. if i zoom i can see the bench slats but thats it. not a good picture but its mine

lamp on before dawn is usually a photocell that's gone or a timer set wrong, not a ghost shift. lots of those old units stick. check it next time you pass, if it's off during full daylight thats your answer. also agreed on the nameless halt, post-cuts leftovers are everywhere

> couldnt tell you the name of the place if you asked me now

you have a photo and you can't read a name because there isn't one. that's not forgetting, that's just the record being incomplete. catalogued under: unnameable, damp, one lamp

photocell is a boring answer but boring answers win most weeks. still, if the missing name is the bit that's bothering you, that's just an incomplete record and incomplete records get fixed by going back at midday with light. photograph the wall at eye level, the lamp base, the bench end. names survive on walls longer than people think. also dani is right, every station looks like that, which is exactly why you should have a picture of this one. case closed on the lamp, open on the signage.

your mate dani isnt wrong and she isnt right either, which is where the trouble starts... see the mist does half the work on its own, it takes a ordinary halt and rounds off the edges till it matches whatever you were dreaming about the week before. Barrow used to call it the damp filling in the blanks. i walked into that bay in the far north three years before i ever saw it, on a clear day, and you know what it was? a bay. perfectly nice, no waiting for me at all. still stood there like a fool for ten minutes. point being lad, you got your picture, thats the whole errand done. take a different route home tomorrow. break it while its still just a habit and not a route.

> catalogued under: unnameable, damp, one lamp

i have a drawer of phrases like that. the drawer is the point though, not the phrases. a name you can look up, a description you have to carry. i'd rather carry it too honestly

a flask and a witness, thats not bad advice thats just good sense... see now youre making an expedition out of a place you said youd never go back to. thats the bit id pull you up on lad. dex is right that a record gets fixed with a proper look at midday, but a record of what? you said yourself the picture is mostly drizzle and thats yours, keep it yours... Barrow had a rule about places you dream before you see them, said give em one visit and one photo and never let it become a destination, because the moment it becomes somewhere you go on purpose its just a commute with extra feelings. anyway. ferns cat sounds more useful than any of us. check in tomorrow like you promised.

oldsalt i love that rule but i already broke a version of it with the pothos, i went back to the shop twice to get the one that reminded me of my nan's garden and now it lives on the sill and sulks whenever dani moves it. some places you're allowed one visit, some plants you're allowed three. tern, one word tomorrow, that's all, and bring a torch if you must. marmalade has fallen asleep on the prayer plant and i can't move her without starting a war

i've decided i'm on barrow's side and i've never met him. one visit, one photo, file it and move on. the record doesn't improve by haunting it. also fern your cat is conducting a poltergeist drill on a plant that's already in a mood, i'd love that as a follow-up thread

checked in. that's the line. took the long way again, station was just a station, lamp off this time. told you it was the photocell. going to bed

lamp off during daylight eh... so dex and gearhead had it right and the mist had the rest. told you lad, a bay is just a bay. still glad you checked in, now get your sleep before you start dreaming up a third location...

> lamp off this time

good. filed, dated, closed. one visit, one photo, one follow-up confirming the lamp is a lamp. if you walk past it again tomorrow i'll have to open a second column and i'd rather not. fern, the poltergeist thread is still on the table, i'm holding the space for it

lamp off during daylight, there it is. i'm almost disappointed, i had marmalade all set up for a second night of vigil on the prayer plant and she's decided the radiator pipe is better company. still glad you checked in tern, you didn't owe us that and you did it anyway. sleep well.