Goodbye old friends

I bought these in 1998, at the Barbour shop in Hanover Street, when I was working in Edinburgh. 24 years on, they can’t be repaired any more.

They’ve walked in the Cheviots, and the woods and nature reserves of Sutherland. They’ve helped me restore a Borders farmhouse, build a new one in Sutherland, refurbish one in Cromarty. They’ve saved a panicking puppy in a Loch Fleet quicksand. And when no longer waterproof, been relegated to indoor repairs and painting.

Now the soles can’t even be attached properly, a bit of a trip hazard up a ladder. So it’s time for the great recycling centre in the sky. But the memories remain.