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I have actually worn pumps 5/7 days this week, and in each case, I wore them with slightly flared pants, which seems to be back in style again. Probably more radical flares are actually in style, but mine are recycled from the last time. Most of my stuff is super skinny, and I have adopted that style for the last 10 years to the point that my flared pants, of which I have only two pair left, are practically New Old Stock because they've been worn so rarely. I get by with skinny jeans better than most guys because I'm pretty small, but it is nice to have a little variety now that I've allowed myself. I will say that it is much easier to get flared pants on and off that it is skinny jeans, and pointy-toed pumps do go rather well with flared pants. One has to be careful with round toes and flared pants because under the wrong circumstances, it looks like you have no feet. I do not have my flared pants hemmed super long, They're an inch to an inch and a half off the floor. Certainly not the style of the early 2000s, where the ideal was to show just a tease of heel between the floor and hem. You could barely see little pins sticking out, leaving the gazer wondering whether the wearer had mere kitten heels or proper stilettos. In some ways it was alluring, and in others it was frustrating. Not so with the latest iteration of flowing legged pants. I have been mainly wearing Steve Madden single sole pumps this week, but I did break out the much neglected Nine West Plantera platforms also. My favorite pumps, from a fit standpoint anyway, are my Vince Camuto Carra stacked heel pumps. They are very pointy-toed, so they work well with flared pants. They are single sole with a slim, tapered heel about 5/8" wide in plain black leather. They are remarkably tall at 4 3/8". I say remarkably because when you glance at them, they don't look all that tall. It can take you by surprise when you put them on. They are pretty steep compared to what their styling would suggest. If you scroll back to my October 2nd post, you can see pictures of them. I haven't taken any new photographs since then. The crazy thing about these pumps is that they fit. When I used to see women who wore pumps every day, I think this is how they must have fit. Not tight in the toes, and yet I don't walk out of them with every step. It's like I can just slip them on and go. Or I could, were they 3/4" lower. I still have to warm up in them before I step out of the house. What I'm saying is, unlike most of my other pumps, I do not have to wait for my toes to rearrange themselves inside of the shoes for a few minutes after I put them on. And, they're the only single sole pumps I own that I've actually walked in for exercise. I may be wrong about this, but I believe they're the only pumps that I've worn for a full day all at once. Unfortunately, they are beginning to suffer from that flaky deterioration that so many non-leather linings exhibit. It's not that bad yet, but eventually I suppose they will become unwearable. I plan on wearing pumps again to church today, we'll see what I end up wearing. In the meantime, it's going to be clogs for my morning constitutional. I still prefer shoes that do not touch the back of my heel.

Totally agree with your comment about the rounded toes! I remember my feet looking freakishly small wearing round toed high heel boots mostly covered by my jeans...

I wore my chunky heeled ankle boots (3.5” heels) for a half miles walk down the towpath yesterday to get rid of some rubbish. It wasn’t muddy just uneven and I had to walk carefully. I was certainly noticed, and fair enough - nobody wears heels on the towpath.

As they say of Narrowboats, they don’t steer well going forward, they don’t steer at all in reverse and they have no brakes. It’s not really quite as bad as that - although they really do not steer in reverse. There are little tricks you can use to steer while going backwards but in simple straight out reverse, there is no steering. You can do whatever you like with the tiller, makes no difference. As @Puffer noted Narrowboats are less than 7’ wide (mine is 6’10”) for negotiating the very narrow locks on many of the canals - nearly all of which date from the 18th century. There are wide canals with locks 14-15’ wide capable of taking larger craft - Dutch barges or widebeams or handling two narrowboats abreast - while up north in Yorkshire the Aire & Calder navigation and the South Yorkshire Navigation have locks over 20’ wide and 200 feet long to accommodate the big commercial barges that still use them - usually tankers or barges carrying gravel. It’s an interesting life, living in The Cut

Oh, I see you get to have all the "fun" weather! 🥶

We have some weather in my locale, I was supposed to work today (yes, on Saturday), but the whole job is shut down. I needed to move my car off of the street, and I slipped into the heels that were closest, walked outside, and nearly fell on my backside. Freezing rain is so much fun! Walked back inside, got my flat boots to move my car, and still am fortunate to have remained upright. Advice to first timers: Do not walk on ice in heels. In fact, do not walk on ice unless it's absolutely necessary!