The grand plan...

The idea for this blog began about 40 minutes ago as I sat on a bench in the centre of Covent Garden London. Most of my best ideas have come while sitting on benches in all manner of places. I walk a lot and I daydream a lot. A scruff in a long coat and woolly hat. Striding with purpose, but headed absolutely no where. Nearly always the highlight of these wanders is the discovery of a place to sit.

When I stop marching and plonk me bottom down that’s when the ideas seem to come. I think probably the exercise gets the blood flowing, the repetition of the walk is a meditation, and the constant change of environment stimulated the creative juices. But it's sitting that lets you focus on the swirling mixture in your head and out plop the ideas.

Any old bench will do me, and I'm always amazed and delighted to discover the myriad of place people bother to erect public seats: Up hills, in secluded town squares, on the centre of a roundabout. So many seats are dedications: "In memory of bob 1925 to 2004", "Beloved Granma, who loved to sit". How great is that! A gravestone is a fine thing, but how much greater to say from beyond the grave, I came here, I loved this place, so take a seat and rest a while just like I did.

I love Benches. I love the idea of them. I love the moments I spend on them. I love that there are these function statues that say - stop, look, remember, rest and think.

So... I'm not an experienced blogger, put here's the grand plan. A bench blog. A place to celebrate the places we sit and the things we think about when we're sat there.

I'll do my best and your input is more than gratefully accepted.