From the Archive – April 2011.
It’s been a while since I’ve blogged barefoot or rather blogged about being barefoot but rest assured, it’s not due to a lack of unshodden experiences, more a preference of being barefoot than of blogging!. I spent a fabulous 3 days at the RHS Flower Show at Cardiff as a barefoot bee-keeper (although Health and Safety insisted my digits were wrapped in steel toe caps for the building of the garden – and that’s fair enough.)
The show was a huge success and as well as promoting Be-friending Bees, I had a huge amount of support for my unshodden journey. I also persuaded Welsh tenor, Wynne Evans (who plays Gio Compario of Go Compare fame) to dress in a bee-keepers suit as The Sting for a competition …. and he was also ‘papped’ barefoot.
The brilliant Claire Raikes stood in for me for a few hours whilst I went to a ‘posh’ lunch at one of Cardiff’s top hotels – in my beekeepers suit and barefoot. I sat next to Radio 2’s Lynn Bowles who was particularly impressed and promised to share with her listeners the fact that running without shoes uses 4% less oxygen.
And as only a true friend could – Claire stepped into my shoes by kicking off hers and spent her time at the show barefootin’ too. The unshodden movement may be about ‘baby steps’ but there are huge strides being made …
I have been back on the Radio, on TV and given numerous talks unshodden and have become fabulously un-phased about it. Whilst being shoeless is not particularly getting easier (grit has become the enemy), it is feeling more normal. I have only had encouragement, praise and interest; no negativity whatsoever.
The primary school children I spoke to during their Eco-week even showed their support by removing their own shoes and socks to listen to me. That was special!
Next week I am speaking to 200 women at a Ladies Luncheon Club in Stratford upon Avon. They have told me they will all be wearing hats, to mark the royal wedding, and have asked that I wear one too. I readily agreed, adding quickly that I will also be barefoot ….. it’ll be first (for them and me) ……. big hat and bare feet.
On a practical level, I am going for little barefoot walks every evening, just up and down the country lane which is fine until a car comes and I have to step into the hedge!
And another footnote – walking downhill shoe-loose and fancy-free is trickier than walking uphill; as I walk down the hill, the contents of my feet kinda scrunch up into my toes, it’s weird and comical at the same time.
I still have to get a pair of Vibram 5-fingers but am struggling to decide on the design and would really prefer to try them on before I buy though can’t see how that’s going to happen as there are no local stockists. I also want to get a pair of those little ‘roll-up’ shoes that will fit into my back pocket. It will give me a bit more confidence to walk a bit further afield.
Another unexpected challenge has been hot tarmac. As difficult as the cold weather made my unshodden steps a little while ago, walking barefoot on hot tarmac has proved equally as tricky. I was reminded of my chiropodists words, “We may well have been designed to be barefoot but not on tarmac and concrete slabs!” Give me cool moss and wet grass anytime; walking unshodden through puddles and wet grass has definitely proved to be one of the unexpected perks to getting my pinkies out – try it, it’s bliss.
Leave a Reply