Keep On Keeping On...

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A long-overdue repair to an old friend pictured: the loop on the old belt in the centre gave way some years ago, and has been hanging on by a thread for the best part of a decade. As I wrote in my post of September 8th, 2020, "Greek Myth", Jane and I ended up by happenstance on the tiny Cycladean island of Siphnos in May 1979.

Just before we moved on to the island of Milos, I went to the local market and bought a fisherman's sweater of the coarsest and oiliest wool imaginable, a fisherman's smock/shirt, and the above trouser retainer. The shirt lasted about five years, the sweater a decade or so, but the belt is still in daily service after forty-three years, pretty much as I imagined it would be when I purchased it: it started life as sturdy as a piece of horse-tack. It was made of a pale-ish reddy-brown hide and stamped with patterning along its length: it's thickness some 5 mm. Over the years, it has darkened until almost black, and to an extent, thinned down; but as belts go, it's still pretty substantial.

I decided yesterday to reinstate the loop by patching in some leather strips, in order that the thing might continue in good service for years to come: anyone who knows me or reads this blog, knows that I like to repair and upcycle stuff wherever possible: these days, that should be the common aim, given the global waste and supply problems we face...

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