Graffiti

Sorry not to have posted for a week. We've had visitors staying, and it was a heap of fun but it left no energy for writing.

I cycled up the Trail yesterday in the early morning (to beat the summer holiday tourists) and when I stopped the bike to pick up a discarded energy drink bottle (grrrh) I glanced in the window of a nearby tiny brick-built shed that is all that remains of Monsal Dale station. It is the only unlovely thing on our deeply rural Trail, with an interior of 6 x 8 and no doors or windows remaining. This is what I saw:

At first I thought "Oh, that's sweet. Some kids have had a nice holiday and are saying goodbye to the Trail." Then I noticed the stars. Of course. Europe. And I liked it just as much, not just because of the sentiment but also because of the tone. I liked it despite the fact that graffiti is visual litter. You had to look, to find this graffiti. You wouldn't see it if you were just cycling down the Trail, looking at the view. I've not seen any other examples of graffiti on the Trail, though Dave says that two names have just appeared on a bridge, and he hates it all.

The whole thing has made me think, though. If it had been written in a different tone - an angry tone, perhaps - I wouldn't have liked it. And if it was expressing the opposite point of view in a gentle tone, I wouldn't have liked it either. Would I have liked it if it had been a Banksy? I love Banksy graffiti, and to have had one appear on the Trail would have been special but....actually, I think graffiti are for an urban environment, and that includes Banksy. What do you think?

I'm writing about it here, but I don't feel like publicising it locally in case we get loads more graffiti appearing on the bridges (the only other spaces where anyone could draw graffiti.) As it is, it's a sad, lone, goodbye, which fits in with the whole awful Brexit disaster.