we never went away

As you may be aware, I spent Wednesday at Snape Maltings, which was a pleasant day.  The sun was shining, offering us a view of a big Suffolk sky and, on the whole, all was right with the world.  In a day or two's time we would pack up our pens and laptops, glance nostalgically around the classroom for the last time this year and, stifling a chuckle at a rather amusing incident*, we'd shake our head and wander out into the glorious summer awaiting us with nary a problem left to curtail our pleasure.

However, I was rather taken with this sculpture I spied across a field.  After the students in our charge got bored with clambering over it and ran off to find something far more interesting, I managed to take a photo of it.

Now, I don't know about you, but it rather struck me as a sort of rustic, pre-lapsarian version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". I imagined some old farm hand rushing in to the local inn in the manner of Kevin McCarthy in the 1956 version screaming, "They're here already! You're next! You're next!" What on Earth are those giant grey,concrete cashews/marrows all about?  Where is the sense of scale?  What else can they be but pods being carted off across the wilds of East Anglia? It would explain so much . . .

I remember my mother having a similar porcelain horse and attached wooden cart on a shelf in our house as an ornament. This one, however was a life-size Suffolk Punch and cart (plus pods). It stands as a reminder that this planet has indeed been visited before.  We're not alone.

*"Sir! Sir! (referring to some amusing graffiti) There's a knob on this chair."
"You really need to improve your self esteem, Smith"