Every picture tells a story, I'm not sure I can tell this one in words but it's all good exercise.
E17 Art Trail, a list of contributors as long as your arm and then...
Number 66
Abandoned Umbrellas of Walthamstow
and with a sinking feeling I think I recognise the umbrella.
Now for some reason Michael is very partial to " free stuff " particularly the sort given away on Liverpool Street Station on a Friday by bright young things with straightened hair and lots of makeup. Usually it's cereal bars or the odd mini-carrier bag but once it was the Evening Standard giving away umbrellas. In our household, umbrellas need to be handbag sized, as Michael is incapable of looking after an umbrella of his own. I once brought him one for Christmas knowing he was off to Rome with friends in the spring. I even wrote a warning on his gift tag. I think they parted company about mid January.
So although this rather large, red almost golf sized fellow was not really our style, but there was some discussion about it living in the boot of the car which at the time made sense. I don't know how things had sunk to such a low ebb, but somehow the Big Umbrella appeared under the stairs, so one can only assume that every other single umbrella must have left home, including the one in my handbag, and the Evening Standard freebie had to be released from the boot.
I remember that unfortunate Wednesday when Michael arrived home, soaking wet, after his traditional Wednesday outing involving two pints and a crossword in the Nag's Head. It seems that this time he had taken the umbrella but there had been some sort of incident with it on the way home and it had been ditched. It seemed wise not to enquire further.
The next morning, as I walked down to the station I spotted what I took to be our umbrella looking very sorry for itself propped against the litter bin at the top of the hill, by the girls' school. I considered trying to squeeze it into the bin, but in the end discretion prevailed and I scurried by.
I have to confess that there was a sharp pang of guilt when I spotted the picture in the Art Trail booklet. Of course, E17 is a fair sized area, and the Evening standard must have given away loads of red umbrellas, many of whom may well have deserved to be abandoned if Michael's encounter was anything to go by. But it did make a sorry sight, and I'm gutted that I'll be away on holiday and unable to see the other pictures taken "over two wet,windy days in E17" because perhaps that would to something to salve my conscience.