Sign of the times

Quiet scenes always seem to attract my lens. There's something oddly poignant about what happens to places designed for boisterous activity when everyone goes home. It's like watching empty baseball stadiums, hockey arenas and swimming pools. Somehow, places like this don't wear their silence well. They need life, and the gloom of a setting sun doesn't seem to fit the scene.

As autumn's chill deepens, I look at pictures like this and wonder how long it will be before we can return here with our kids. After a few months of winter, the warmth, and the children it attracts, will no doubt return.

Thinking longer-term, I wonder how many more years they'll be young enough to want to return at all. I guess we have to enjoy it - and them - as long as there is enough of the child in them to want to come back to this place.