Watchman

Walking through Hughenden Park this morning, I came across this tree carving. It's one of five placed around the park; the project is directed towards the Air Ministry who were based here at Hughenden Manor in WW2, when it was a Top Secret centre for mapping. Hughenden's codename was Hillside and the project's title is Watchmen.

I found it very moving, in a way that was hard to pin down. It suggested a tree spirit, rooted (perhaps trapped) in the place where he had served as an airman. And was it fanciful to imagine, as I stood there watching in the rain, that those might be tears trickling down his blank face?