Black suede boots black jacket and tie...

[hawkwing_lb]

When I unpacked my boots, the pair I brought to the States, I discovered something strange and terrible.

They were green.

In the week between bagging them and taking them out (the four days in New York, and the three asleep afterwards), a curious green and white fungus had covered them nearly to their laces.

Well, said I to myself, this can't be good.

Today, I had both time and opportunity, so I brought them to the beach. Salt water and sand will clean nearly anything off boots, as I had cause to discover some years ago - and when you scrub with sand, you at least don't have to disinfect and/or throw out your scrubbing brush.

Possibly I've introduced interesting new toxins to the poor little crabs in the rockpools - terribly bemused by my cursing and stomping, they scrambled to hide under seaweed and rock - but I've yet to hear of a fungus not bred to saltwater that actually thrives in it, so hopefully I've done nothing more irresponible than feed the sandfish.

Still, it's an interesting illustration of the perils of a closed suitcase.