An Outing With Alfie

Today my Westie Alfie and I went on a little recycling shop trip, going to both the furniture recycling warehouse and the smaller bric a brac shop. Alfie has loved going out in the car since he was a pup and he insists on leaning on the dashboard so he can have a nose at everything as we drive about. Our other dog Bettie has her own doggie high chair and seatbelt harness but Alfie has always refused to wear one, chewing his last one to pieces. After Alfie had had a good rummage through my handbag to check I wasn’t hiding anything delicious we pulled up at the bric a brac shop and I picked up a few pieces of mismatched china ready for when I finally move house, set up my craft room and set about making all my china oddments in to beautiful cake stands. I also bought a gorgeous stained glass window that will either find a home in my new garden or perhaps on my Bicycle Basket Bazaar stall. Oh, and a little cuddly toy for Alfie, after checking it had no plastic eyes or anything for him to tear off and choke on.

After giving Alfie his new toy (he spent the rest of his time in the car deciding whether to play with it on the seat or in the foot well) and a trip to the cash point to replenish my funds we went to the other side of town to the furniture recycling shop. I managed to resist buying any pieces of furniture and stuck to the books section. I love crime fiction and found a Ruth Rendell book I hadn’t read before and a load of Puffin and Penguin classics to brighten up my bookshelves. As I was having a final wander I spied a big box of children’s annuals hidden under a Flymo leaf blower.

Having nearly knocked over a tray of glassware wrestling the Flymo onto the floor I had a look through the annuals, the hoarder in me kicked in, and I decided that I needed to leave with all of them. Some of them were relatively pricey but I managed to get a good price for the job lot of 16 and was very excited to find there was a story with some really lovely drawings of a Scottie in one(our Jack being a Scottie dog). I love the illustrations, old fashioned hairstyles and the fact that the entire collection belonged to one person who had obviously treasured them enough to hang onto them for years. Her name was written in the front of most of the annuals, along with beautifully written dedications from her family wishing her a Happy Christmas and so on. The annuals range in date from the late 1920s to the mid 60s and feature all sorts of interesting characters in the stories. I had intended to put these on my stall but I’m not too sure now I’ve seen the illustrations and the beautiful and unusual colours used on the covers. Hmm, I fear another hoarding moment coming on. 

p.s. Having flicked through the annuals again and peeling off the price labels (grrr, who uses sticky labels on old books? , it’s ruined most of the covers!) I found a few family photos from the 50s inside one of the annuals. I’ve just spent the last hour on Google trying to find out if there is any way of me returning these to the family so finger crossed.