First one of the year after the Outlane Oxford, and a quieter affair all round. Right trainer, black, on the towpath below Lock 21E at Slaithwaite, up against the wall like it had been set there — that's the phrase in the notebook and I'll stand by it, because I remember thinking it at the time. Sole coming away at the toe, laces gone altogether. It had the look of a shoe that were done being a shoe, if that doesn't sound fanciful, which I hope it doesn't because I don't go in for fanciful.
Grey morning, and the canal were high after a wet week, running brown through the bywash. I photographed the trainer from three positions and the notebook says all three came out, which for a January towpath is decent going. Then I sat on the lock beam and ate half me sandwiches — cheese and pickle — and saved the other half, thinking I might carry on up towards Marsden and see what the day had in it. I did carry on, and the day had nowt in it, so the second half of the sandwiches were eaten in the car at Marsden with the heater going, and I were glad I'd held them back. That's not a shoe observation but it's in the notebook so it goes in here.
The trainer itself I'd rank mid-table for the year. Sound find, properly recorded, no complaints. Some entries are the register doing its steady work and this is one of them. Twenty-four more were to follow before the year were out, though of course I didn't know that on the lock beam.
Written up August 2026, from the notebook.