“Shoes off!” barked my slightly bossy friend Kit as I was about to cross her threshold. I was taken aback: was this a new habit adopted from social media or some lifestyle guru?
Kit is not obsessive, but she is house proud. She lives in the country, her house surrounded by muddy lawn near a beach, so it makes sense not to drag dirt on to her beautifully polished parquetry or scratch it with sand. She goes about barefoot year-round: slippers are not her style. She keeps a pair of rubber slides at the back door for putting the bins out, or going to the veggie patch.
