Update – Urgent Footwear Recommendations

Well I went into Cotswold Outdoors in Keswick today and tried to get some Scarpa Maverick GTX as recommended by some of you and also in the article Alli furnished me with.  However, at the start, I complained to the salesman that I’m having a lot of trouble with painful toe ends and am wondering whether my feet could possibly have grown (I thought it both unlikely and impossible).  So, he measured my feet and… I’ve gone from about a 7 and a half / 8 to a size 9!  That rules out women’s shoes for me now.  Apparently your feet can get longer with age!

He only had size 12 and above in the men’s Mavericks so I had a look around the men’s section and found some synthetic Merrells (in blue-grey which is a bit weird).  Anyway, these fitted a treat so I bought them.  They also come with a 3 year guarantee which I thought pretty good.

So, I’m good to go on Thursday when my friend comes to take me hillwalking 🙂

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Urgent! Footwear Recommendations Needed!

After having my third set of footwear fall apart on me in my third consecutive walk, I’m desperate to know if there is any non-leather/suede walking footwear out there where the sole will stay on for more than a year.  Someone must know of some.  It doesn’t have to be ‘vegan’ as such but I don’t wear dead-cow!  In fact, I’m wondering whether my sole-glue problem is because vegan footwear is likely to be using vegan glue and I’m wondering whether it actually works?

I think one of the problems is likely that all my hillwalking footwear gets excessively wet on every single walk due to where I live and walk and I don’t think modern glues are prepared for this (possibly because many are made abroad where they don’t have our climate).

If any of you can recommend anything, please leave a comment on this post – thanks 🙂

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Sympathetic Robin!

photo:
taken from the Natural History Museum website –  Image courtesy of pxhere (CC0).

Anthrax O2 City Hall, Newcastle

These guys have changed!

Probably Can’t Post For A While Yet…

Hi everyone,

I’m truly sorry about the lack of posts but another month has come and hit me!

A couple of weeks ago, we were informed that our shop was to close in a month and so we’d all be made redundant…

Government’s Mistreatment of Key Workers

No photos – just a rant!

I haven’t been posting on my blog lately as you may have noticed (I’ve also left a lot of forums too).  I’ve been trying to push myself into at least writing a post on why I haven’t been posting but the reason I haven’t been posting has stopped me!  That reason? Sheer naked anger at the Government and their mistreatment of key workers during the pandemic! (excluding the NHS of course who’ve been looked after – I think the Government think they are the ONLY key workers!)

Mooching at Long Meg, Lacey’s Caves et al

Wed 24 February 2021

As I had to spend a whole day away from my house while some disruptive work was being done I decided to hunt the only area with a survivable weather window to walk for several hours in – our area was going to be deluged with heavy rain and all my nearby mountains were too.  It looked to have a small area of light rain all day around Langwathby so (lockdown notwithstanding) I set off over there.  Before people get too upset, I really don’t think I had any other choice and it’s only around a 25 mile drive anyway and I drive 20 miles each way to work many days each week.

Merry Christmas

A merry Christmas to all my readers – hope you have a good one and manage to stay safe from the plague! (still hate this new bloody editor!) 😐

Whinlatter Round aka ‘Caught in the Forest’!

Tue 7 April 2020
This was during lockdown but, as I’d had to travel to Keswick anyway, I did the walk on my way back. I knew all the Whinlatter Forest carparks were shut (and so the Forestry people thought that Whinlatter Forest was also shut) but I also knew there was roadside parking. There were a couple of other cars there and I bumped into one girl just coming back from the hill (although, of course, at a 6 foot social-distance!)…

The Black Lagoon Strikes Again!

A few years ago, I was walking on Uldale Common (my local common) when I found a sheep stuck in a bog and successfully rescued her (here) Now, whenever I walk there, I always call by the dangerous bog and check there’s no-one there. The other day, yet again, there was a woolly body sticking out of the bog… I went to investigate…