This image contains, in its own way, a little miracle. For as long as we have made art, we have tried to capture the beauty and fragility of nature. Here, the blacksmith has done something remarkable - but, somehow, the loss of part of the hinge has made it more beautiful still.

In the presence of absence, it is as if nature has taken over from the blacksmith’s hand. The missing ironwork has left its own delicate tracery upon the wood: curlicue forms, faded and nuanced, yet seemingly bursting forth. You might return in a month or so and half expect another frond to have grown.

What makes this moment more precious is its ephemerality. The door may since have been repaired, the missing ironwork replaced. That delicate balance between the skill of the human hand and the indomitable beauty of chance may already be gone.

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