The diggers have gone. The cupboard is bare. The place is quiet; strangely quiet after the bustle of the excavation. There are yellow ghosts in the grass where the tents stood for two weeks.
The strict regime of the training excavation served its priorities: to train the students and to find and determine the use of the lost building. We found the footings of the building, but it what it was is still a mystery. To be solved next year perhaps.
As the fortnight progressed, we all settled into our roles and a daily pattern was established; friendships developed and we became an integrated group. So there was a sense of melancholy when the dig was over, and for me, a frame round a collage of special memories.
And then, after the last visitor had left; the soapwort showed its flower.
