Getting serious about footwear for work.

These boots are made for working, and that’s just what they’ll do….

Andrew and I are fed-up with the inferior footwear that we’ve purchased over the last couple of years. Five years ago, we were able to find relatively serviceable, reasonably priced work shoes, a cross between a boot and a shoe,with the Clarks brand. No more. These have held up for approximately 3 months, splitting at the join between the last and the sole. Three months at $ 40.00 – $65.00  x 4 quarters = a rough average of $150.00 per year for bad shoes for each of us, and this doesn’t include the  value of the time wasted for purchasing these inferior products, which would bring the cost up to about $450.00. Basta with the bad shoes! We’ve done some research. It seems that the USA is unable to provide us with the rugged, durable, well-crafted, quality, slip-on footwear that we require so, we’re going to give the Australians a shot in the market. Blundstone, a former ‘quality’ company that is now uber-chic, with the sad result that it’s manufacturing in Thailand, has, uncannily, disqualified itself as a source for high quality footwear. That leaves us with Rossi, our number one choice. Tonight we ordered the Endura 301 in Black for Michelle and the Parka for Andrew. Both of us have very wide feet and M, has extremely high arches. Our research gives us hope that our requirements will be met by  these boots. We’ll keep you posted………..

Volunteer Fun

Dill volunteers

Dill, poppies and a few cosmos

Assessing the grounds after a strangely mild winter, it was fun to come upon the valiant and vigorous volunteer seedlings in the gardens. Last month, while clearing the old kitchen garden fence, we rolled up the plastic deer netting and set it into a corner of the garden with the a stone on it to re-use for the new garden fence. Setting the new posts a week or so later, we noticed some seedlings around the netting pile. We moved the netting and discovered a large, vigorous patch of dill seedlings clustered in approximately 5 or 6 square feet, and interspersed with a few poppies and cosmos around and beneath the netting and near the south facing foundation of my studio. Meanwhile, in another section of the garden we noticed quite a lot of cilantro, some lettuce, and a few mustard greens. For me, the lesson to be learned here, is to pay attention when nature decides it’s the right time to start growing certain things.

Self-sown, red-leaved mustard green ‘Senposai’