I Love Boot Sales

We have been out this morning to Walkington Boot Sale, one of my favourites.
I told one friend that I love going to boot sales, and she was amazed, 'What on earth for?' she asked, 'There is nothing but a load of tat!'

Well one persons 'tat' is another persons treasure!

The thrill is never knowing just what you might find. I have certain things I look out for, light reading books (why pay a tenner for a novel you will read once, when you can get em for 50p each, or less), glass beads  and jigsaw puzzles.
I do like a jigsaw, and I don't mind if there is a piece or two missing, in fact you often get them a bit cheaper if they are not complete - I am easy to please. Mind you it can be a bit of an adventure buying jigsaw's at a boot sale. I once bought one which was supposed to be a circular puzzle of a variety of wild flowers, when I got it together it was an oblong picture of an underwater action scene from a Bond movie - all frogmen with harpoon guns and sharks - and five pieces missing.

Recent bargains have been: a hand-made patchwork quilt for a fiver, a light fitting of gilt oak leaves with crystal droplets for 50p, a necklace and earrings with purple glass beads for four pounds, a teapot, cups and saucers in Willow pattern for three pounds, oh and a box of amber beads for a pound.

Of course you are going to have to look through loads of stuff which are of no use or interest to you - but they will be to someone! You should see the way the chaps flock to look at rows of rusty old handy man tools.

Walkington Bootsale is particularly good because it is only on once a month for four or five months in the summer, and is full of people who have come from all over the countryside, with genuine stuff they just want rid of - unlike some regular weekly bootsales which are packed with dealers selling the same stuff time after time.

So what treasures did we get today? I got some books to read and a puzzle of a painting of Venice. We also got a pile of books my grandson will enjoy when he comes to visit. I got a nice stoneware milk jug, and a long ethnic scarf, oh and a couple of big church candles and Graham got a thing.

I made the mistake of having a sit down on a handy bench under a tree, out of the baking sunlight (it is a beautiful day for us today) and letting Graham have a wander round on his own for a bit. He arrived back with something that looked like a stool which had been badly put together by someone who had never seen a stool before, with the seat on the ground and the legs stuck up behind it. It turns out to be an exercise machine. You sit on the seat (which is on the floor), hold the handles and lean back against a post with sponge rollers on and it leans back with you while giving you some resistance, then gives you support and aid while you sit up again.

He had spent a whole fiver on it.

The sellers were pleased to get rid of it, and Graham has a new toy to play with.

So a good time was had by all.