five minute friday: story

Tie ir mani zābaki*

These are my wellies. Pretty ordinary, green wellington boots. I've had them since I was 14 - that's 20 years! I don't think I have any other pairs of shoes, or indeed clothing that I've had for that long and am still wearing. (Well, OK there's the Eden Burning Brink tour t-shirt but it's too holey to wear now) Last time I wore them was at Greenbelt 2012, when the mud reached as high up my legs as the wellies did. My wellies and I waded through fields to meet friends, to hear great music and other acts, to evensong and compline, to communion, to food vans or to the contrib lounge for free coffee, to rehearsals and to the art gallery and room where I was working. Whatever I saw at GB2012, my wellies saw too. We share the same story.

Over 20 years, those boots and I have been to many places together. Camping all over the UK, youth events, festivals, celebrations, gardening and car washing. We've been there. They got wet and muddy. I didn't. Grateful for that!

You'll notice the tops are folded down. Last year I finally admitted that my calves are now wider than the top of my boots. I guess my legs were skinnier when I was 14? The only comfortable way to wear them was to fold down the tops, only allowing them back up to wade through the deepest mud.

So, sadly, this year is the end of the story of me and the green wellies. Today, for the first time in two decades, I have ordered new boots, hoping that these too will serve me at least 20 years of muddy stories.

This blog is part of Five Minute Friday - a group of bloggers who write about a given subject for five minutes without, stopping, overthinking, editing or backtracking. There's rules:

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* Last week I had 48 blog visitors from Latvia so I thought I'd welcome them by translating the first line of today's blog into Latvian. Sveikt.