I’m a recent discoverer of the Meet Me At Mikes blog. There’s a thing they do, and a few other blogs do – I’m not sure what it’s called – where they nominate a theme, and people blog about it, and then enter a link to their post on the Meet Me At Mikes blog post.

Yesterday the theme was “The ‘Me’ Wardrobe”. The idea is to post about that thing you wear that you love most. You dread the day it finally falls apart. Reading this: “…maybe you could even draw it! That way if it dies you’ll have a lovely souvenir… “, I knew exactly what I wanted to do – blend Sketch Sunday with The ‘Me’ Wardrobe, and make a record of my favourite shoes.

(Which was great because I was supposed to go camping this weekend and had planned to do my weekly sketch en plein air, but it was cancelled due to predictions of rain.)

I have wierd, long, narrow feet and very sensitive skin. It’s not just a problem getting shoes that fit, but shoes that don’t rub my skin off within a hundred steps. I’ve actually demonstrated this to overly pushy shop assistants by walking up and down the store a half dozen times with the shoes they insist fit perfectly, then showing them how I’m bleeding.

The shoes above are that rare miracle – a comfortable shoe that looks ‘evenish’. I’ve had them for nigh on twenty years. They’ve had extra soley bits added to them, and I even had them mailed back to me after I left them at a painting retreat once.

I dread the day they die. When they do, I’ll probably bury them in the garden with a simple and solemn ceremony, and a tear of regret.