The most stationary of all stationery items, scissors hate to be hurried. I learned this as a child. You did too, probably. Don't run with scissors. A clear and simple instruction. Pencils, glue, staples... no problem. For them, like us, it's a finite existence. Time is short so don't dilly dally. But don't run with scissors.

Friday, 22 April 2011

of statues, castles and spooky apparitions

I took this photo on 8 April 2011. It shows the statue of Queen Victoria, with Windsor Castle in the background.

It's a popular choice for tourists taking photos of their visit to Windsor. I was on my lunchbreak and - struck by how blue the sky was, and the lack of people in the vicinity - I decided to take some pics.

It was some hours later when I looked at them again, and when I looked I saw something that quite literally made the hairs on my arms stand on end and my scalp tingle.

And not in a good way.






I was standing partly in the road to take that shot.

















In the next one you can see how close I am to the statue - right next to it.

I decided to move close up to the statue, as I'd been standing in the road to take the two previous pics and a car was coming toward me. I stood next to the statue looking at it from a few different angles before taking this shot. When the car had gone I walked back across the road, pausing to take one final shot.


























In the final pic you can see the figure of a woman standing next to the statue.

She is dressed in a rather unusual, striking manner. The kind of figure I think most people would agree you would notice. Especially if they were stood right in front of you.




















I can't make you believe what I'm about to write. But when I looked at that pic, a few hours after I had taken it, one thought - and only one thought - ran through my mind... she wasn't there when I took that photo.

I would have noticed.

One of the reasons I took those pics is that it is rare to see the statue without people milling around it. The time that elapsed between the close-up and the final shot is literally seconds. Seconds after I had been standing next to the statue examining different angles for an interesting shot.

Surely I would have noticed if there had been someone there.

And how could I have failed to notice someone dressed like that?

Did it freak me out? Yes.

Spook me, put the wind up, give me the heebeegeebees? Yes. Yes. Yes.

Perhaps because I still feel sure she wasn't there when I took the photo. And perhaps because the figure in the photo bears more than a passing resemblance to my mother.

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