Sneakers. Look in your closet and you will probably find several pairs in various stages of wear. Some are worn in the toe – okay most are worn in the toe – some in sole (I had a pair where the sole just peeled off), and some are worn a bit (or a lot) all over.


Obviously, you cannot wear those sneakers to the store, not unless it is very very local and everyone knows you are a gardening fool. It’s time to buy new sneakers (which can be a trial if you have big feet) and this time you promise yourself that you will not garden in the new shoes.

You have had your new shoes for almost two months and everything has been going well. Then, on the way home from breakfast, you see something new by the side of the road and far from anyone’s property.

Maybe it’s an orchid on a fallen tree limb or a small plant you have never seen in a flower. No matter, you have to have a look. You pull over and climb out…. and step right into a patch of mud. With both feet. Well, it doesn’t matter now because your shoes can’t get any worse, so you slog up the couple of meters to the plant, harvest it, and slog back to the car.

Sock-footed, you walk to the house, holding the sneakers from their laces and far from your body. You know what you have to do. Wash and scrub and let them dry in the sun, then maybe no one will notice that your new sneakers aren’t quite as “new” anymore – but at least you didn’t “garden” in them. Not on purpose anyway.

Well, that’s the story of my closet. There are 4 (and a half - where the other “half” went, I don’t know) pairs of sneakers in there all in various stages of decay. I pulled them out this morning and realized that 2 (and a half) pairs needed to go so they did.

Now, let’s talk about those nasty old blue jeans.