WEST>>>

Our semi-detached house was built on a hill. Consequently, as you step down the street the houses also step down. The neighbours above look down on our garden and we look down on the other side's garden.

Above us there's Tony and Jill - a lovely couple who are now well into their eighties. They have lived on this street for fifty years. Between our two houses, near the back doors, there's a brick wall with a concrete panel on top of  it.

Recently, I repainted our side of this rough-textured panel with white masonry paint. In idle moments I have often thought about adorning it with a mural - perhaps sunflowers or a giant robin but a month ago, a much  simpler idea came into my simple mind.

The garden is west facing so I thought of painting the word "WEST" upon it followed by an arrow. I know the idea is slightly bizarre but as I said to Tony and Jill when explaining it, "I am a bit mad". The design I had in mind would be reminiscent of the painted directional graphics that may still be spotted in old football stadiums.

In any case, the word "west" crops up quite a lot in our culture. "The west" is where most visitors to this blog reside and Percy Shelley wrote "Ode to The West Wind" in another October - two hundred and six years ago...

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing...

And once young men were advised to "go west" to seek their fortunes. In contrast, the expression "gone west" means to have met with death or disaster. So "west" isn't just a cardinal point, it has plenty of other connotations.

Anyway, anyway beyond the dark midnight I have hatched many wild plans. Mostly they are not followed through but this time, this time I did it as the two pictures prove - taken I might add on a rather cloudy afternoon.