home
archives
photographs
writings
about
gay pages
links
contact
notify list
 
barbellion
 

Thursday March 17, 2005

All the tea in China

"Where did you find that?" he demanded.

"Oh, in one of those boxes."

"Chuck it in the bin."

"Nope."

"You're not thinking of selling it?"

"Absolutely not."

"What, then?"

"It's a treasure, and it's going into my small treasures box. Seeing as how you won't let me frame it and put it on the wall."

"Just you try."

Do you know, I cannot for the life of me understand why he dislikes it so much. He made it sometime in the winter of 1978, shortly after our first visit to Milton Abbas in Dorset, and I loved it on sight. Every time we've moved house he's tried to lose it, and I know he'd lose it now if I'd only let him.

Well, Milton Abbas has changed in the intervening years. Graham has changed, too, and goodness knows I've changed. But this little plaque has remained the same, and I'd not part with it for all the tea in China.

Graham's plaque, Milton Abbas, 1978