“A
pair of what ?”
“Gaiters
- you know those things you wear around
your legs to keep the snow out of your boots,” she said pointing at her manure-and-mud
covered legs.
Smugly,
I snorted a laugh, shook my head, and went back to scraping off my boots with a
stick. I
thought she was funny for two reasons.
First, it amused me to see my wife struggling to keep her clothes clean
for a change. I’m usually the one who has
spilt something on his shirt or has slipped on something messy.
But
on this trip, I was better equipped than her.
With new water-resistent hiking boots and zip-leg pants (the kind that
covert into shorts), I was able to wipe off and zip off the muddy bits with
ease. Michele was envious because I
could make myself instantly presentable at places like the refurbished Old Mill
Inn on the edge of Shipston on Stour.
The
other reason I found humour in Michele’s gaiter-buying plan came from our day’s
walk and my limited knowledge of this new town.
For most of the day, we would have had trouble buying a stick of gum let
alone a piece of equipment that I associate with cross country skiing and
winters in Ottawa.
After
leaving Halford, a place where the Gulf Station and store proudly announces “No
Toilet,” but has tons of things to drink, we passed through points on the map that
might be better described as "cluster of trees," "old bridge," and "sewage station." Not a great shopping area and not much different from the other towns we had seen so far.
But
this is not true of Shipston on Stour.
It
turns out that this is a fairly busy little crossroads and has a
lively commercial area around the town’s “Market Square.”
Oh yeah, and
it has different places to eat and more than one good pub.
We spent a couple of hours at one, first sipping our beer and then
sipping our dinner (literally, I had, for the first and last time, a meat pie drenched
in suet – the liquefied mutton fat drawn, I was told, from around “the loins and
kidneys.”)
What
was I thinking ? Not sure.
What
was I saying ? Oh yeah, the Market
Square and the stores.
So,
as it turns out, within a block of the Mill Inn, Michele entered a store, the
very first one we came upon, and within minutes bought a pair of low cost gaiters to cover her
legs. I was stunned.
As
I said, I underestimated the diversity of the commercial centre in Shipston on
Stour. This is understandable given our
experience to that point.
But,
really after all these years, I should not have underestimated my wife’s
ability when it comes to shopping.
