until it almost disappears

Uploaded 13/09/2010

Deep in the woods (though some of the fake manually-planted woods, in this case Ostler's Plantation off Kirkby Lane) near Woodhall Spa there's the remains of what was a temporary wartime airfield, though I've never got round to checking if this was in addition to or instead of the nearby and still-existing RAF Conningsby. This meant a large amount of interesting stuff to poke about at as a child, including lots of semi-concreted paths to race around on on bicycles, lots of little tumpy ridge things to race over on bicycles and a few discarded shed-things which always smelt of a combination of pine needles and wee but which never contained anything discarded and explosive no matter how many times you looked inside them. Some of the old buildings are now home to little colonies of nice little bats, some of the buildings have either been knocked down or boarded up but the place is much as it was back when I was small, and certainly was back in 2005 when this was taken. I'd hoped that the picture I remember asking Nicky to take was in better condition but I'm glad I managed to find it as it complements a similar picture from the mid-1990s which I shall one day find and scan and upload. The graffiti was fading even then, but has always seemed mysterious and exciting as it was by far the most colourful and large and unintelligible piece of graffiti in the village, which lent the area in which the wall rests an air of mystery and potential terror, as when we were small we thought that people who did graffiti were all extremely dangerous and criminal. They probably even rode motorbikes and smoked. Never really saw anyone else around here, though. I think I managed to get along to it on the most recent parent-visit but can't remember posting a picture of it, possibly because it was the same day we met my sister's fiancé. It shall be blipped again, if it's still there.