iron · stock lock · leather strap · the gardener
the lock is a stock lock screwed to the inside of the gate, the gate being painted iron, six feet, in the wall between the garden and the lane. the lock is older than the gate by a generation; it was moved across, with the hinges, when the wall was rebuilt after the cypress fell.
the key has been outside in all weather since 1953. it lives on a leather thong nailed under the eave of the potting shed, where the rain doesn't reach unless it is the kind of rain that comes sideways. it has corroded by stages and acquired a small green of moss along the bow that the gardener does not scrape off, considering it a sort of badge.
the gate is opened daily in summer, occasionally in winter; once or twice a year the lock stiffens and refuses, and the gardener works it with a spoonful of cold goose-fat from the kitchen. then it gives, and the next week it gives again, until the cold returns.
field-note — the key is colder than the gate. it is one of the few objects in the house that lives outdoors on purpose.
key museum · garden · postbox key · garden shed · rain