Life must be filled up

I know people like these posts but it’s ages since I’ve been down to the market. This morning, although it was cold and wet, I decided to go book hunting. There were few people about and even fewer masks. It was very cold. One of the weird things about the market is that one week everyone will be selling books, another week, stamps and another, records. Today, not a stamp to be seen and not many books but lots of plants. I bought a tray each of Nicotianas and Cosmos, good, well-grown plants. These are to fill gaps in my flower beds. The greenhouse is now full of plants, some of them from my own cuttings and seeds, waiting to go out when the weather is better. By the way, if you watched Gardeners’ World yesterday evening and saw Monty’s crisped-up hydrangea, you know what mine looks like. These late frosts!

I bought the books in the picture (see here), for £1.25. Not much of a haul and I wouldn’t be surprised to find that I’ve already read the Trisha Ashley. At that price, who cares? I was home before nine with frozen feet.

I haven’t been to the market for ages, due partly to bad weather and partly to the number of failed missions in which I came home with nothing. It was both foggy and frosty this morning and very cold at the market, yet there were plenty of buyers and sellers. I picked up two books very cheaply:



Jenny Colgan is always a pleasant, light read and I really like Sue Gee. I’m already enjoying Reading in Bed. My major purchase was a large box of ephemera: one person’s rubbish, hidden treasure for another. Gosh, what a lot of stuff (like I need more stuff!) and it weighs a ton. Lots of old greetings cards, which I now collect if I can get them cheaply, stamps and covers, old photographs and signed photos of film stars, postcards, travel souvenirs and some interesting wartime stuff e.g. letters which have been passed by the censor. I had a happy time looking through it all and there’s still plenty of sorting to do. A successful outing, except that my legs and feet still haven’t defrosted.


And there’s more!

The last book by Margaret Drabble I reviewed was The Pure Gold Baby, which I liked very much. I see I read it over a weekend. Her most recent novel, The Dark Flood Rises, took me much longer and is the reason I haven’t read many books this month. There it sat on the table and there I sat on the sofa not really wanting to pick it up again. This is because it’s all about ageing and dying, which is a pretty depressing subject for someone my age.

The main character, Fran, is in her seventies but still employed and hyperactive. Her work involves inspecting living facilities for the elderly, a useful way in to the main topic of the book. There is a large cast of characters, mostly comfortably off and many with a literary background. The sometimes tenuous connection between them all is very cleverly woven into the story. It’s a very clever book, written in Drabble’s characteristic style (give me a paragraph from one of her novels and I bet I could guess the author), and absolutely full of literary allusions which I think would pass many people by.

Drabble ponders ways of dealing with age: Fran busily fills every minute while her ex Claude (who is dying) gives in and makes himself as comfortable as possible. The book raises many questions for which Drabble provides no answers. Is it better to die young and avoid old age altogether? Can religion provide consolation? Is life so worth living that it should be clung on to? Call no man happy until he is dead. is quoted at least twice. It’s a good book but one which offers no cheer or hope.

At the market on Saturday, I bought some of those facsimile Crime Club editions of Agatha Christie novels. It was a relief to finish TDFR and turn to Poirot, where a body is just a puzzle and nothing you need care about.

In other news, Winifred Peck's Bewildering Cares is currently free for the Kindle.

There weren’t many sellers at the market this morning yet I did better than I have done for ages. I’d hardly started looking round when I found a box of old books and amongst them these by O Douglas. I tried for £2.00 but got them for £3.00. I already have a set of the Nelson Pocket series so they can go. Unforgettable Unforgotten I’ll be keeping as I don’t have it. A new cover needed for that one. I’m sorry to say, in view of my constant complaints about how I have no room for my books, that I’ll also be keeping the Yellow Jacket, simply because I already have two of the novels in the same edition and I like them.
( more bargains )

It was freezing cold at the market on Saturday, as it remained for the rest of the day and Sunday. Apart from fruit and veg, my only purchase was a bundle of old photographs. They’re mostly late nineteenth century and I like the fact that nearly all have the name of a local (to me) photographic studio on the front, sometimes with ornate detail on the back. I buy these to convert them to images for cards. The photo of this young girl is later than the others but I took a fancy to her. She reminds me of Winifred in Ballet Shoes.

It was absolutely freezing at the market this morning, but see what I bought.
I love the outward facing flower which means you don’t have to turn it up to see its loveliness. It's far too cold to go out and plant it now, so it's living in the porch for the moment.


( also )

Dark and wet this morning but there were still plenty of sellers. I bought rather a lot. For example


( ha ha! )

I haven't done one of these posts for a while. The market was heaving this morning. I drove down in murky weather with my lights on and back again in bright sunshine. It would be a beautiful, warm spring day here if the wind were less sharp. Even so I have the greenhouse open, the fleece off, the washing line cleaned for use (it was green) and plan to garden this afternoon.

I bought books today, the first time in ages. One of them was a very good buy for 50p.



An enormous pile of old knitting patterns and booklets. Not that I need any more but I love looking at them and even charity shops charge up to a pound each for them nowadays.



Sanctuary and other nice toiletries. The boxes are a little worn but that doesn't matter.



Plus the usual fruit and veg and I enjoyed some pleasant banter and haggling, so a good trip.

In spite of the foul weather, there were plenty of buyers and sellers at the market. Last week, I had to make an informed guess that the filthy, grey objects viewed in semi-darkness were actually lovely blue Whitefriars vases. No need for guesswork today as this one came with a label and was mine for £5.00. I think it needs a second clean-up.



Cheap sparklies, £2.00. I love the bracelet.



Five knitting magazines, £1.00.



Three DVDs for those long, dark evenings when there’s nothing on television and I want to knit.



Stamp album that would only interest me. I saved £10.00 off the sellers’ prices by haggling. You don’t ask, you don’t get.

While on the subject of shopping, let me recommend a product I’ve just bought: Uniqlo cord leggings. They look like trousers but they’re pull-ons (with belt loops), you don’t know you’re wearing them and they’re nice and skinny. And cheap!