Right shoe, brown, lace-up sort with both laces gone, on the towpath near the mill bridge at Milnsbridge. Mild for March, the notebook says, and I believe it, because 2012 didn't stay mild for long. This were about the last decent weather before the taps came on.
Both laces gone is worth a note in itself. You get one lace missing often enough, but both gone and the shoe still sat there tidy is less common than you'd think. I didn't speculate on it then and I won't now. That's not really the point of what I do.
The photograph come out reasonable, which the notebook records almost with surprise. I've had a look for it in the shoebox of prints and I can't put my hand on it, so reasonable is how it'll have to stay. Milnsbridge has been good to me over the years and this were an early instance.
Written up August 2026, from the notebook.