At first I wasn't sure whether to spend time at The Cemetery, just because it isn't strictly a part of the Common. However, on reflection, it used to be part of it and it has been somewhere that I have regularly visited all my life.

For the sake of practicality (and confusing borders) I looked at all 4 squares that encompass The Cemetery over a number of days.

Compelled to walk slowly and cautiously on the footpaths of The Cemetery. Seems to be traditional respect. Fallen, mulching leaves in some areas make it impossible to walk without lifting up my feet like a show pony. A man who keeps disappearing behind headstones with a rake is working hard to free up the horse's movement.

I find it strange how seeing someone walking it the distance it is almost impossible to tell whether they are moving towards or away from me. It's only when I look up from writing or staring or wondering that I can see them as ants.

"No More Alone, When The Day Dawns
And The Shadows Flee Away"
Lost at sea Feb^y 1885

What I think about:

• Broken gravestones
• Green glass chips
• Being extra careful not to stay from the path (thanks to my 'hypersensitivity' towards the dead, as a child I could never walk over someone's grave.)
• Missing gravestones
• Never really knowing exactly where I am
• Yew trees

INTERMISSION
I just sat down on a bench to write lists. The sun is above and a little to the right of me, blinding and making it difficult for me to see my paper and what's in front of me. The sun clouds over, and as I look up I find myself in front of a gravestone. "In Fond Memories Of Kate" I feel momentarily in awe. Take a picture. Then it's back to the lists.

• Dogwalkers
• GCSE black and white photographs of gravestones
• Constant sound of traffic
• Creaking trees
• Ivy covered stones
• A fenced section for Jewish families (also Polish?) that I can never find
• Dad's stories of a little mausoleum
• When I was a child wanting to be buried there
• Realising I never could be; consecrated, full-up, no family buried here previously
• Brambles shrouding whole sections and groups of gravestones
• Pampas grass outcrop acting as a headstone for one grave
• Boy who was struck by lightning
• Drug pickups
• Walks with Dad, looking for sections we could never find
• The grave of 'Jelley'