New Life!

This is a very old pic of a birthday party for my dog, Rose (centre) The cake was a Christmas cake, covered in marzipan, with marzipan roses, for the 'guests'.  There is a pastry figure behind the cake which, as I recall had Bovril in it, for the dogs. The relevance of this pic is in the word BIRTHDAY!

( I've just had a shock! when I went into blogger to post this noticed I have followers! I was just going to tell a few close friends I have posted this, and not bother with a pic, but I have put in an old pic in recognition of people looking at this! thank you, both!)

The blog has lapsed after a number of poorly attended fairs which caused me to cut back activities. Despite that, the Vintage Bazaar at Edzell continues to draw in a public that wants to buy and stall holders whose goods are attractive to buyers!

After a recent Series of (hardly) Remarkable Events, I realised the easiest way to recount the apparently never ending saga was to write it down in one place, where anyone who is interested can follow the instalments - or bypass the lot if they prefer!

Near the end of May I looked forward to a new, small, local fair, after I had endured a horrible week of sewage trouble, only made worse by a neighbour who doesn't feel he needs to share shared responsibilities. Annoyingly, his household has proved to be the source of our shared problems on a number of occasions, so I was keen to obliterate all thoughts of the irresponsible and disgusting man with the plans for an indoor / outdoor market. I believe in the 'layers of the onion' principle to blank out annoying thoughts with better ones - maybe the formation of a pearl is a better image, but onions have lots of layers and some irritants need a lot of covering!

The market turned out to be a lovely day out for me although it was very poorly attended and I sold nothing. The weather was good, the people were friendly and there were hopes for better advertising and organisation for future, regular events. I took JRT Tilly to the park for a 'picnic' on the way home and stopped off to post a birthday card to an - obviously - young, former schoolfriend.

After a day on my feet I often have an excruciating pain in two toes, and such was the case that day, so I limped along to the former post office to post my card. I knew that Royal Mail Sunday collections stopped some time ago, but hoped to be in line for first pick up on Monday. I discovered that despite being outside the RM sorting office, the post boxes were sealed and had belatedly followed the post office counters to a new venue, some distance down the street. I limped along to the new PO, only to find it it had no outdoor letterbox, and the indoor one was unavailable while the shop was shut, so I limped down another street where the letter box declared "next collection 5pm Monday". I posted my card, drove home and surveyed my purchases from the sale.

I had bought an unused, new style, 'flat' camping stove, which is more stable than the older, 'upright' style and came with five cartridges of gas - a bargain for £5! A 'caravan' TV ariel fitted with a booster proved to be another bargain - at £1, as it has magically overcome the interference my house TV experiences when leaves on trees break up the digital signal in summer months. I'll be honest, I also bought a 'Model's changing tent'. I had no idea the manufacturers knew they were for 'models changing' and I am quite sure Kate Moss has never changed in one. I think it was £1 or maybe £2, and can be used as a changing room or maybe for another purpose.

Sufficient unto the day, I think, so I will stop here on a happy note of practical purchases and high hopes of a new, local event with great potential. In case it crops up again, I should probably mention that earlier in the week, I bought a 'sun room' on gumtree. I have not yet seen it, paid for it or collected it. It is somewhere between a greenhouse and a conservatory and is intended to house solar panels and batteries and garden plants.