July foggy dawn, NW England.

On the train from Aberdeen to Oxford this morning, in seated accomodation as they call it. Better than a coach, and I’m tall enough so that the beds (which cost £50/night at best) are a bit too short for comfort. After Preston, where the various we in seated all sat up unsure, most everyone slumped back into sleep. Opposite me was an older man, khakis, navy blazer, and regimental tie who’d got on with his wife at Arbroath. Somehow he maintained dignity even when asleep. I stayed half-in, half-out. The train was running late and I didn’t want to miss my connection at Crewe. We escaped the grim Lancashire houses and found ourselves meeting goods trains in misty farmland. Being summer in the north of the world, the sun was somewhere below the horizon but the sky was lightening, and then there emerged the bowlegs of a morning rainbow in the mist. Amazing.