Life must be filled up

I’ve recently rediscovered the joy of stamps, after ignoring them for a long time. So, I’m very busy sorting and mounting large numbers of stamps I’d forgotten I had. As a result, I needed a new album and bought one on eBay. Whenever you buy from a stamp dealer, the postage is made up of stamps which are old but still valid, as long as they are decimal and the values added up properly. I’ve got a lot of old mint stamps myself but seldom use them because so many stamps would be needed to make up the current rate. You can see above that my seller managed to get twenty-five stamps on his parcel (and to have them beautifully cancelled). I’m preserving this, as the highest number of stamps I’ve ever seen on piece. I don't think it's a record, though.

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


( ha ha! )

One of those ‘I’ll have to take this bag back to the car before I carry on’ days. They happen every now and then. Here’s some of my bargains. First up, I bought some stamps, which I’m *very* pleased with and can’t wait to go through. Next, these two vases, £1.00 each.



They were absolutely filthy but to the experienced eye they said, ‘might be Whitefriars.’ Now that I’ve scrubbed them up, I’m sure that they are.



A stack of knitting patterns, £1.50. From the same seller, some cheap and useful stationery and this Doulton ‘Watteau’ plate for my blue and white shelf, £1.00.



More china: Royal Albert ‘Flower of the Month’ for Christmas. £1.50



And how about this? ‘Free books. Please help yourself.’ So I did.



Plus some other quite ordinary things which were still good buys. Phew!

In other news, our mild spell continues. I have the stable door open and it’s warm enough for gardening. The trouble is, everything is dripping wet, which would make the gardening rather uncomfortable. That’s my excuse, anyway.

All these books from the same seller for £1.40. One of them is a very good buy.



A pile of knitting patterns so heavy I could hardly carry them, £1.00 the lot. Hours of fun ahead looking through them.

So why I am feeling like kicking myself? I missed a great stamp bargain. Looked through an album, asked the seller how much he wanted for it and got the response, ‘Haven’t looked at it yet, love.’ This annoyed me, I thought he was rude and replied sniffily that he wouldn’t sell it then would he? Later on, some old chap I don’t know told me he’d bought the album I’d been looking at it. Curses, it would have been a fantastic bargain at £40.00. Also, the same man who two weeks ago sold me Long Barrow for 50p. wanted £5.00 for a bag of mixed knitting yarn. I thought then it was too much and when I got home, that it would have been a bargain for odd pieces of crochet. Idiotically, I will be beating myself up about this all weekend.

In other news, what about our weather? Yesterday: thunder, lightning, hailstones rattling down. This morning: mega-frost and cold legs at the market. Currently: warm sunshine but a chilly breeze. Thanks to the storm, there’s thatch everywhere but it’s too wet to sweep it up. You have to love our climate, it’s never dull.

I might have bought these new Royal Mail stamps if they’d included Girl, School Friend or Girl’s Crystal.
Which of your favourite comics has been left out?

Sorry about the poor quality picture. This scanner is rubbish compared with my old one.

Freddie de la Hay, the dog of Corduroy Mansions

Anderby Wold, Winifred Holtby
Blotto, Twinks and the Ex-King’s Daughter, Simon Brett
The Music at Long Verney , Twenty Stories, Sylvia Townsend Warner
I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, Alan Bradley (Flavia de Luce)
Katherine at Feather Ghyll, Anne Bradley
State of Wonder, Ann Patchett
Humbug, E M Delafield.
Leave the Grave Green, Deborah Crombie
A Conspiracy of Friends, Alexander McCall Smith
( more )

It was a miserable morning yesterday but the market was heaving. I’ve never seen so many sellers there; everyone trying to make a bob or two for Christmas, I expect. My first purchase was these SG GB albums with pre-printed pages.




Hideous, aren’t they? I still haven’t decided whether to keep them or pass them on. This sort of album has a very limited use IMO. Next I looked through a lot of stamp albums but wouldn’t pay what the seller was asking for them. Book finds followed: four 1940s children’s books for 50p each (bargain!) and some less bargainous books for a present for someone. Phew, with all that trekking round and rummaging I was pretty tired and almost didn’t make it into the last hall. Just as well I did because there I snaffled
( my favourite find. )

Here’s something you rarely see: a letter with a so-called special stamp on it and a legible postmark. When’s the last time you received one? Almost every letter posted has a gold 1st Class or blue 2nd Class stamp on it, while packets and parcels have computerized labels. In spite of this, every year Royal Mail brings out several sets of special stamps (which I still think of as commemoratives) in order to exploit unfortunate collectors whose ambition is to have a copy of every British stamp ever issued. What’s worse, they claim that these stamps are highly collectable and will become heirlooms. Oh yeah? Like those ‘heirloom’ Millenium stamps everyone hated? Don’t they realize that as soon as an object is described as a collectable it ceases to be one? If only we all knew which ephemera we’re throwing away now would indeed be collectable one day!

I gave up collecting these stamps long ago and now buy only new definitive stamps and save postally-used commems when I’m lucky enough to get any. This booklet dropped into my letter box this week.



If you can read the print, note the use of the weasel word ‘products’. Since when did stamps become products? What earthly use to anyone is a cover with a coin attached to it? We are offered the Olympics stamps in every possible variation of sheet, any number of different covers, postcards, miniature sheets, booklets; you name it. With the help of a calculator I worked out that to buy every item on offer would set you back £834.11 . For that money you could buy a decent collection of British stamps or even blow the lot on one rarity. In the latter case you would have a thing of beauty which would probably increase in value, unlike these worthless Olympics products. Of course, if you really love these new stamps or are a collector of sports issues, go ahead and buy. You can see some of them here.
Otherwise, what a waste of money! I much prefer these:



and they’re cheap as chips.

A few weeks ago there was a question on University Challenge: which king was the father of the present Queen and Princess Margaret? No one knew. I related this in horror to a highly educated person who also claimed not to know. This afternoon I heard Steve Wright, obviously reading what someone else had written, declare that in the late eighteenth century King George VI popularized Brighton as a watering place. Words fail me.



King George VI 1937 – 1952

Here he is with Prince Charles. This is said to be the Queen's favourite photograph.

Outrage in the British media over the news that this cute little girl was not singing but miming at the opening of the Games in Beijing. Well, shock horror. How about the news that the chap seen here lighting the beacon at Wembley in 1948 was picked for his good looks? The organizer of the Torch Relay, Commander Collins, also specified that the beacon lighter should be blond! And this was how long after the 1936 Olympics? Collins gave strict instructions that the first man to pick up the torch when it arrived at Dover should not be bald or have a paunch. Oh, and drugs were available, too.

I learned this and much more from A Very British Olympics on BBC4 yesterday evening. Talk about Make Do and Mend; the male British athletes were kitted out by Simpsons but the women had to make their own vests and shorts. It was surprising to see so many people who had actually taken part in the games, people who must have been at least eighty yet were astonishingly well preserved. Does sport keep you young or is it the longevity gene which makes you good at sport?