Indeed, according to the weather man's definition - the meteorologist's one - the seasons turn on the beginning of the solstice or equinox months. Therefore, summer began on June 1, and ends on August 31. This definition is purely for statistic reasons, but on news programs, the weather people emphasize this.

So, this day not only marked the middle of the working week, but also the end of a season as meteorologists know it. Nevertheless, it was just this final summer day, when I encountered another barefooter - and a "real" one, too, not someone who just shed his shoes for whatever reasons. With temperatures just around 20°C, it was normally too cool for the mainstream to bare their feet. Even flip-flops were a rare sight. And then, just after work, I cross the street in the middle of the town, and a male hippie type, looking like having spent his childhood in the 1970s, like me, passed me by, silver toe rings glistening on clearly visible and nicely tanned healthy bare feet. We did not exchange any greeting, just a quick glance of mutual acknowledgement as we went by each other, and walked on, as if what we did or rather what we chose not to wear on our feet was the most normal thing in the world... well, actually, walking barefoot is something normal, and I guess we showed that to the onlookers present at that moment.

OK, I must have appeared like some tourist, whipping out my cell phone and snapping a picture of him casually waiting at the ped crossing. Hoewever, encountering other barefooters has bacome a rare thing, so that I want to document the barefoot people around me.

Other than that, there were no further barefooters around but myself. Last weekend I went on my usual barefoot laundry trip - since the laundry room in our house still has not been repaired. With the weather changing to cooler temperatures, not only the ground where I walk, but also the sky has become a regular field of observation, since there were rather impressive cloud formations to marvel at recently. That also applies to sunrises before work. With the nights getting longer, as we move towards the fall equinox, happening in three weeks from now, my trip to the office, where I start the work day at 7 am, takes place at dawn. At least the days are still long enough to make me get out of the office in daylight... In a few months, I will be working from dawn till dusk again.

But gazing dreamily at the clouds is something a barefooter should only do when standing, as not to step onto unsafe objects - ironically, I happened upon an unsafe safety pin on the sidewalk on that Saturday, while standing outside the laundromat:

Inside, the floor was clean, without such objects lying around...

Since a bit of pain on my right hip and my knees returned, I forfeited my Sunday barefoot walk and tended to those by resting my legs and applying pain-killing medication to them...

By Monday, I was back to taking barefoot steps on the way to and from the office, at times marvelling at the sight of again quite impressive sunrise vistas...

Monday:

But even with the summer season now "officially" being over, according to the definition mentioned initially, this is not the end of summerly warm days... right on time for the weekend, forecasts in my region are telling me of rising temperatures and true summer weather going to happen on Saturday and Sunday. Certainly, this coming Saturday will be an all-barefoot day at the office (it's time for that Saturday shift again), followed by a barefoot trip to town and, hopefully, a Sunday barefoot trip to the park, too, if my hip and knees are playing along. Perhaps I should engage some extra self- healing powers by autosuggestion powers, telling myself that I don't want to be in pain... Sometimes, such suggestive concentration exercises work, indeed.

And now, let's hope for a warm fall season... we had that last year, when I was able to even be skyclad outdoors as late in the year as November.

Aug. 26, 2011 - Looking back on work-day barefooting

After a nice and sunny barefoot weekend, the transition to the working week came with thunderstorms on Sunday evening, coloring the evening sky with hues of dark grey mixed with orange to purple.

The new week started with changeable weather, but mostly sunny in the morning. Before making my way to work, I resumed my morning ritual of having my morning coffee skyclad on my balcony on dark early mornings around 5 am. With the bus to work departing at 6.30 am, I want to have a little time to enjoy my breakfast without hectic. I also take my time to get to the office building after departing the bus, making sure to take in the mood of the sunrise as well as gathering a little energy from touching natural surfaces with my bare soles before entering the world of office work.

On Friday, the day filled with happy anticipation of the time to drop the pen, turn off the computer and head home for the weekend, this anticipation was for me filled with looking forward to getting my feet wet - a change of weather from the warm and humid weather to cooler conditions was forecast, predicted to happen with heavy showers and thunderstorms.

The morning looked nice, again with a special mood of pink lining the blue morning sky:

By late morning, approaching noon, clouds began to billow up, forming the first quite impressive towers, ranging in color from white to dark grey:

At 2 pm, the predicted shower front hit the place where I work with powerful rain, hail with grains of more than an inch in diameter and very strong gusty winds. After about 15 minutes, the cataclysmic downpour was over. About two hours later, my office day came to its end, and I went out to enjoy the cool sensation of wet pavement while looking at the sky which was showing very dark and threatening shower clouds to the south-east. While I was hoping not to get too wet in the showers to come, I was delighted at feeling the freedom of my bare feet touching the ground, now released from shoes until Monday morning...

The temperatures have now dropped about 10 degrees centigrade after the shower front had passed. I am facing a weekend of occasional showers - meaning more puddles to happily splash my bare feet in - and temperatures just below the 20°C mark. For me, that's just ideal barefooting weather.

And, for sure, the barefoot stroll on Sunday is going to be very Earthy (meaning: lots of mud) after the rain... More barefoot delight to come.

Aug. 21, 2011 - Having a boggy barefoot ball at the park...

As I wrote on the previous day, this Sunday was forecast to be a very warm and nice summer day, even though there were possible thunderstorms predicted for the late afternoon, too. In the morning, though, I doubted that forecast, since the sky was at first hazy, then turning darker and darker and thunder was heard in the distance - it seemed that those thunderstorms were running early. My original plan to spend a few hours skyclad in sunny weather in my favourite park seemed to dissolve in the grey clouds looming over my place.

Well, at least I could enjoy a nice after-rain barefoot walk there, I thought. However, luck was on my side, as these grey clouds went past my place without dropping their watery load, and the sun came out after all. According to the radar pictures on a weather web site (modern technology at its best), the shower clouds had indeed passed the town I live in, and there were no radar echoes of more rain visible. So, I packed a little shoulder bag with a bottle of apple spritzer, a little box of fruit (a pear and some grapes), something to read, put on my Sunday barefooting outfit - red sarong and a black t-shirt with my namesake Ganesha printed on it - and went down to the park on my bare feet.

On entering the park and gazing over the duck pond with its fountain turned on, I could see that the sun had again created a picture postcard scenario. I took that view in, my bare feet standing on damp grass and having a great time, to be sure. That intensified a little, when I went a few steps further, now feeling damp and cool soil underfoot:

These few steps already helped in making me a very happy Sunday barefooter, indeed.

Since it was around noon, it was quite warm already, and the sun promised to heat up the place even further later on. The dampness felt underfoot was everywhere, since all of the grass was still covered with dew, glistening in the sunlit spaces.
With that much moisture around, the air felt almost tropic, when walking through the park.
I was very much looking forward to feeling that delightful blend of cool dew mixed with warm sunlight on my bare feet. When walking on, I came to a spot, where something new was waiting for me. On a part of one of the lawn spaces, there was no grass but plain soil showing, with bits of round gravel strewn in. It looked like someone had dumped a large heap of topsoil onto the lawn and spread it around:

Since I am a huge fan of feeling Mother Earth's bare skin beneath my bare soles, I just had to step onto that and was delighted at the cool and damp sensation I felt immeditaly. However, even though it looked like not too wet or unstable, that surface was treacherously boggy in some places. Without warning, my right foot broke the surface and sank in a few inches, cold mud suddenly oozing up between my toes.

I was surprised, and then overjoyed, a childish grin on my face, as I wiggled my toes in the quite cold mud. And it took only a few steps to have my left foot sink into that soft and cool mud, too.

I then stepped off that stretch of soil, back onto the grass and observed my thoroughly Earth-colored toes, wiggling them and feeling the cool mud between them now warming up in the sunlight.

I looked back at that stretch of muddy soil and the tracks I had left there, grinned again (I must have looked quite silly to any onlooker who might have taken time to watch me closley, doing this), and stepped back in, now finding some really deep holes, where my feet sank in ankle-deep.

After getting my feet literally covered with Mother Earth up to my ankles, I took a few steps through the soft grass, wet with dew, and sat down on one of my favourite benches, to observe my feet as well the scenery, and sat there for a while, feeling already quite relaxed and energized at once, as it should be on a barefoot Sunday day-out.

But my plans for this Sunday went beyond that. I had in mind to use the sunny weather to spend some skyclad quality time there, too. So, after reclining on that bench for a while, I stood up and walked a bit more over dew-covered grass which had now warmed up in the sunlight, but still felt delightfully wet beneath my bare soles.

On reaching a nice place beneath a tree, with sunlight blinking through the canopy (it was too warm for my taste to sit directly in the sun), I squatted down, cross-legged, took off my t-shirt and unfastened my sarong, which now became the blanket to sit on and do a perfect naked Hindu God act. I opened the aforementioned box of fruit I brought with me and had a nice little frugal snack, while taking in the scenery and feeling a warm breeze wafting over my bare skin.

I know that people might think it "unmanly" for a man to wear a skirt or sarong, but those people certainly never tried wearing one in warm conditions. There's hardly any other piece of clothing more practical or liberating. Things can dangle freely and unconstricted, air flows around the lower body while being literally barefoot to the waist, and as I demonstrated today again, a sarong can be clothing as well as blanket to sit on - the ultimate naturist alternative to pants!
OK, there's also the kaftan, which can be worn nude underneath, thus making me barefoot up to my neck, without anyone noticing... I have worn that on hot days outdoors quite often, too (and also pulled it off when reaching the spot where I wanted to spend time in the nude).

After spending several hours of relaxing, while listening to some chillout tunes, the sun began to disappear behind clouds beginning to form - the billowy sort, which portends thunderstorms later. I put by sarong and t-shirt back on, and went over the grass to the exit of the park, ready to board a bus, taking me back to near my place. As it was now rather hot and humid, I did the lazy thing, but also wanted to show other people my delight in having played with Mother Earth.

I am hoping for more sunny and warm Sundays to come and thus more occasions to spend lots of time outdoors, barefoot all over.

Aug. 20, 2011 – Barefoot and breathing again...

After experiencing slight difficulties with breathing as reported in my last entry (see below), my little self-medication has helped in regaining full capacity to my breathing apparatus. Highly concentrated essential oils, distilled and put into capsules, was the magic mixture helping me in releasing the blockage to my bronchia. Barefooting was way easier with more air available, to be sure. And with a little help from my two friends to tend to my hip and knee ailments – diclofenac gel and ibuprofen pills – walking was also painless.

The only unstable factor was again the weather, since summer has been an on-and-off thing happening over the last two weeks. One week started humid, with snails and slugs taking their chance in crossing wet sidewalks and therefore putting themselves in danger of being crushed by unsuspecting (shod) pedestrians.<

The barefoot walks to and from work, interrupted by equally barefoot usage of public transport, provided various tactile sensations according to the different weather conditions. In any case, feeling either dry or wet grass and soil underfoot between my daily hours at the office was (as usual) a nice way of being in touch with the living world as a contrast to the mechanistic and machine-like world of work and schedules. On some days, the changeable weather painted some nice pictures into the morning sky, making the start of a work week at least aesthetically pleasant. Feeling the ground underfoot was on some occasions surprising, too, especially where temperatures were concerned. One prime example was Friday, August 19, when I expected the ground to feel rather cool after a front of quite violent thunderstorms had passed through the evening before. Those thunderstorms with heavy rain showers were strong enough to flood roads in some places of the Ruhr Megalopolis and strong winds had shaken branches, twigs and leaves from the trees. Storm chasers such as Elmar Grüwel from Dortmund had a great time taking pictures of an almost apocalyptic quality...

Before hitting our region, the storms had wreaked havoc at the Pukkelpop open-air festival in Hasselt, Belgium, resulting in five visitors dead and many injured. Two stages and one tower with large audio equipment collapsed. Several trees were uprooted by the storm, too.

On the morning after, the wet pavement felt lukewarm, even after large amounts of rain water having doused the place. And although the sun had come out later that day, I had the opportunity to happen on a large puddle left from those showers – of course I could not walk by it without splashing my bare feet in it and then leaving trademark tracks on the sidewalk afterwards.

Sightings of other barefooters were non-existant, since the temperatures were on most days only creeping above the 20°C (68F) mark... and since I was again the sole barefooter in the places I went to, several people gave me "The Look"® again (including at supermarkets, a tech store – necessary again, since I had to purchase new earphones for my MP3 player and also finding several low-price DVDs – and the laundromat). With some people making it their business to not only stare at my feet in disbelief, but also locking eyes with me, I again played the male dog dominance game: staring back into their eyes, until they averted their face. When standing somewhere, I always won... it's hard, though, to keep up the staring routine when passing people by. To be sure, my self-confidence about my barefooting has not suffered from being virtually alone on my bare feet in the place where I live.

With weather forecasts telling good news of a summerly weekend, there is a chance of spotting other barefooters around town or in the park. Especially the Sunday, with day temperatures forecast to get close to the 30°C (86F) mark, might lure people to release their feet from the usually worn foot coffins. In my case, I will make sure to spend that day out of doors as long as possible, including my long-forfeited barefoot walk to and in the park together with a skyclad picnic on the lawn. The forecasts also tell about possible showers and thunderstorms on Sunday late afternoon and evening... which are not frightening me, since a rain shower on a hot day is a prime chance of taking a nude rain bath – something that surely is on my top ten list of most enjoyable naturist pastimes.

Saturday was a sunny day already, with temperatures as high as 24°C (75F). Of course, I would run my errands barefoot only, including my recurring Saturday shift at the office.

After spending the usual five hours there, I went to the center of the town, ready for the first errand, which was picking up a freebie. My power supplier has sent me a letter, announcing that the prices for the eco-electricity product I am using, are lowered effective from October 1 on. (Yes, this barefooter is using 100 per cent regenerative power only – one of my computers may run with an Intel Atom CPU, but it's not running nuclear...) Along with this letter came a voucher to pick up an energy saving set, consisting of a mains socket plug with a switch and a plug-in power meter to check the consumption of appliances. Hey, if they give those away for free, why not go to their shop and service place and pick it up – barefoot, of course. The man working at the place commented only on the fact that these sets are going like hot cakes, since the customers received their letters and vouchers. No look at or word about my bare feet. Next stop was my favourite café with its outdoor sitting area for some capuccino and soda, while typing away on my netbook and surfing the web... Can you believe, that the guy owning that open and uncoded WiFi access still has not secured it? I'm starting to believe that he's doing this on purpose, providing free access for the sakes of free information for all... or he still has not made bad experience from people surfing the web and/or downloading miscalleneous stuff via his IP.

Next stop on my little barefoot Saturday tour was the supermarket for some necessary shopping plus a few extras, such as picnic food for my Sunday plans (see above). Even though the weather was fine enough, I spotted no other barefooters, as usual. Flip-flops and similar thin sandals are still too fashionable for people to lose them and enjoy the ground with their bare soles. Occasionally, people would give me "The Look"®, as usual, but nothing out of the ordinary. Of course, the greatest surprise for people spotting a barefoot guy sitting in a café or the subway was observing him typing away on a portable computer, which is most likely not on the mind of the mainstream, when they see a barefoot person. The line of thinking "barefoot = poor" still seems to be the prominent one. And yet again, I love shattering those typical and cliché expectations. The most persistent example of "The Look"® was an elderly woman wearing sunglasses, passing me by after my little supermarket shopping trip, as I was standing outside the mall, having a cigarette. While walking to the mall entrance, she gazed at my feet, up into my face, then back at my feet. I was tempted to yell something in the line of "eyes straight ahead before you crash into someone!", as she was paying absolutely no attention to what or who might be in the way as she walked all the way looking sideways. I'm glad that there was no accident, since that woman was looking at my feet with a mixture of scorn and disgust, so that she might have been spiteful enough to look for someone to blame, had she walked headlong into something or someone. Such a behaviour might occur in the US, where some people are all too happy when being able to sue someone for the silliest reason. Bare feet causing an accident would range among the top ten of silliness in that respect, I'm sure.

To sum up the counter of other barefoot people during the shopping trip and on the subway: zero. Still, no interesting encounter with other barefooters yet.

Aug 7, 2011 - the first week of August: barefoot and breathless

The title might sound cryptic, but it is just the plain truth. Breathing trouble while walking has evolved during the last week, as a side effect of an acute bronchitis which I caught from someone spreading nasty germs in the office - the shifty and sometimes relatively cool weather last month has helped summer colds spreading and even my health insurance magazine, which had pro-barefoot tips in it (see entry below), had an article warning about these summer colds and offering prevention advice.

After a week of suffering dry cough and a feeling of tightness in my bronchia after even a short walk, I decided to go to the pharmacy and purchase some cough-loosening pills and syrup... on the second day of taking that medication as suggested on the patient information leaflet I already feel my condition improving.

But even this condition could not keep me from going barefoot whenever possible, including my Saturday shopping trip. Since the weather was still unstable at times, I had the occasion to take in impressions of quite marvelous cloud formation, such as on Friday morning before work, when I had to pause on my barefoot way to the office, catching my breath.

On the positive side of illness and ailments, I can report that the pain and symptoms from my snapping hip have gradually decreased, now just pincing me occasionally when sitting down and standing up again. While keeping a position, be it sitting, standing or lying down and while walking, the pain is practically gone. Now, after getting rid of the bronchitis, there might still be a nice barefoot late summer in stock for me. A few sunny and warm days to also enjoy some skyclad quality time outdoors would be perfect as the topping on this cake.

Aug 5, 2011 – Looking back on July... the month when summer went on strike

Normally, July is the hottest month of summer, especially towards the end, when the so-called days of the dog begin. This year, however, was going to be different. The spring and early summer months up to June had been too dry and too warm, with too little rain and sunny days well above average for a German summer. It seemed, that Mother Nature wanted to even the odds by turning down the thermostat and pouring a few extra buckets of water onto her skin. In some regions of Germany, small rivers and brooks swelled to raging torrents, heavy thunderstorms with vast amounts of rain (in some regions up to fifty liters per square meter within less than half an hour) were too much for sewage systems and left parts of the Ruhr Megalopolis with flooded streets – in one case even flooding the tunnels of the subway in Essen, shorting out the electric system.

But even the cooler temperatures did not bar me from getting out on my bare feet. Enjoying two weeks of vacation, I often used the dismal weather as an excuse to stay at home and spend lazy days, reading or watching favourite movies. But, for sure, anytime I went out, I was barefoot. And a soon as the vacation was over – of course, when else? - the weather decided to turn towards the sunny and summerly side... therefore, I had a truly sunny barefoot morning on July 25, when I went to the laundromat before going to the office. Of course, I changed my outfit before going to the late shift, in order to appear more normal.

And as soon as the vacation was over, I resumed my usual pre- and after-work barefooting, too.

As can be seen in my previous entry, some crazy and sad events took place in the world, too. Concerning the murdered in and around Oslo, Norway, I spent a long time merely shaking my head in disbelief at the sheer madness driving the murderer (whom I will not name in order to bar him the pleasure of publicity, which is one of his motivations – erecting a building of weird ideology by using blood and death). Reporting the death of a sometimes barefoot soul singer who broke apart in the crazy cycle of publicity and drug abuse might appear like denial of the gravity of the Oslo and Ütøya Island murders. However, it is mostly my inability to grasp the urges and drives of a madman and put it in appropriate words.

Reporting Amy Winehouse's tragic death is reminscent of what happens in the ordinary world, as a song by Duran Duran is called, where towards the end the lyrics are as follows:

On the positive side of barefooting, I received the bi-monthly customer magazine entitled Vigo, published by my health insurance company, which contained a little list of tips for having healthy and beautiful feet.
The headline of that small article read (translated) "Off with those shoes! - how to keep your feet beautiful and healthy". The wellness tips include walking barefoot in order to tighten and train muscles and joints of the feet and to prevent malformation and other ailments, using lotion or cream to moisturize the skin of your feet, getting rid of exraneous callous, doing barefoot workout (like grabbing things with the toes) or taking footbaths for wellness and relaxation reasons.

Right above this list of tips is a small article, telling the readers about flip-flops not being healthy footwear, since the gait in them is different and muscles and joints are forced to work unnaturally, leading to pain in the legs, when worn for longer times. Quite a nice example of good layout, providing just the right answer (that is, right for barefooters): off with those shoes!

A PDF scan of the original page from that magazine (in German) can be viewed here.

July 24, 2011 - Notes on a tragic new member of the 27 Club

On Saturday, July 23, British soul, jazz and R&B singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London apartment at the age of 27. Since her drug and alcohol problems have been part of the tabloid news since 2007, she shares this fate of a too-early death after a phase of self-destruction with predecessors in the so-called "27 Club" such as Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain. Similar to these five musicians, she also was influential on a musical level, credited for revitalizing British music.

Historic predecessor and her tragic successor - Janis Joplin and Amy Winehouse, both barefoot on stage:

Her choice of walking barefoot at times - and being barefoot on stage, occasionally, too - has been targetted by the aforementioned tabloid press and paparazzi as just another sign of drug and alcohol delusion, serving them a chance to define her as "trashy".

Considering her appearance barefoot on stage or casually standing in front of her home talking to fans suggests, however, that she was an occasional barefooter for comfort reasons. She will be missed.

July 9, 2011 - Encountering one emergency barefooter

The changeable weather starting at the end of last month continued, still showing me great cloud vistas.

Since we had a considerable backlog of mail inquiries to handle in the first week of July, our employers asked us (or rather, blackmailed us by use of the threat of our client potentially withdrawing from using our services) to work overtime, I also opted to do an extra weekend shift at the office. And, of course, I did so wearing a barefoot outfit.

After work, I enjoyed the feeling of sun-warmed sidewalks while waiting for the bus.

I then went to the center of the town and on exiting the bus, saw two teenage girls exiting a different bus, walking towards the escalator. One of them was barefoot, carrying her highly fashionable high-heeled sandals in her hands. Not a real barefooter, but rather an emergency one, since I could see a small wound on her right heel, as she stepped on the escalator just ahead of me. Even though her walking barefoot resulted from her shoes chafing on her heels, it was nice to see someone else feeling the advantages of barefooting first-hand (of foot, rather).

June 2011 - Looking back on the first month of summer

By definition, June marks the beginning of summer and also has the longest day of the year at summer solstice. Of course, it also it the high time for barefooting. Nevertheless, I still was the solitary barefooter, whenever I was in town for shopping, using public transport or running errands like my visits to the laundromat. Since repairs after the fire in our house still are not finished, I have to take my laundry elsewhere – one of the errands I have run without shoes every time. I only received short puzzled looks and no comments. This was also a place not to meet other barefooters... the closest to being barefoot were flip-flops. These things as well as thin-soled leather sandals are still too fashionable for people to fully bare their soles to the ground.

My current walking impairment, snapping hip syndrome, is gradually receding, with the help of diclofenac ointment and ibuprofene pills. Walking barefoot, proven as one way to take strain and stress from my joints, has also helped in reducing the pain, although I still limp at times, when walking around more than necessary.

The weather was a mix of sunny as well as sometimes rainy days, giving me the opportunity to feel sun-warmed pavement as well as having barefoot fun splashing around in puddles and feeling wet grass underfoot.

On cooler days, I combined my new wine red sarong with my brown hooded jacket to make a less than normal but very comfy barefoot outfit (especially since I always go commando when wearing a skirt or sarong), which I wore going to the laundromat as well as on a barefoot office Saturday.

My bare soles also lived through the first real heat wave of this year near the end of the month, with high temperatures as high as 35°C (95F). Since I had to work a late shift from 11 am to 8 pm on those days, I spent the hottest part of the days indoors, and the heated pavement had cooled down to a pleasant warmth. The less the heat was a strain to my well-trained living leather soles, the more it was taxing to me in general, having to work in a large office without air condition, having to concentrate on statistics and reports as well as putting together the monthly invoices to our clients. Since this entails amounts of a few hundred thousand Euros, I have to be careful not to enter wrong numbers there. On those hot days I kept cool with hourly visits to the office restroom, dousing my lower arms in cold water from wrist to elbow and splashing several handfuls of cold water into my face and onto my head. It would have been perfect to have had a bowl of cold water under the desk to dip my bare feet into (of course, I slipped off my office flip-flops when sitting at my desk). Since the heat wave set in on dormouse day (June 27), the prospect of the summer was a good one. According to the legend, the weather on that day will last on for seven more weeks.

After those two very hot days, cooler temperatures set in with cloudy and often rainy days, which gave me the opportunity to again enjoy some puddlefooting and feeling some wet grass with soft soil underfoot. The changeable weather then going on up to the end of the month also presented some interesting cloud and sun combinations to enjoy after work, while waiting barefoot at the bus stop.

This month also marked a new advertizing campaign celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the introduction of Nivea skin cream in 1911, showing bare baby feet with a mother's hands putting some cream on them. The slogan on the poster reads (tranlated) "100 years of skin care, 100 years of trust".

Had I met other barefooters, it might have been a totally perfect barefoot summer month. Anyway, it was good enough nonetheless.