PaulB, my sympathies for your loss. I recognise those pangs: I had a pair of trousers, my favourite pair, an old pair that had belonged to my Dad, taken up and belted to fit. They felt like sitting in clouds, light, baggy, gossamer casings for the legs with huge pockets, that allowed me the movement to paint pictures, paint walls, dig the garden, play the banjo, bake bread, walk the dog, clean the kitchen. They were stained and grubby, daubed with all the reminders of the pleasures of hobbies and family life, cotton coverings for a blissful life. They ripped, I mended; they tore, I repaired. One day - it pains me to say this - the zip wrenched itself from the trouser. I wrestled with it, used different needles, different thread. No good. Gone forever. It took me weeks to throw them away, as if I thought they might regenerate themselves if I waited long enough.
I still miss them...............
Plant you boots, Paul - spray paint them and stencuil them abd get a few bulbs in them. they will keep you company like a trouser never could!!!!
