I was overcome with Springtime joy this morning so I drove to Hockley.
There really is something in the air right now, well there is around me at least. So bonkers am I with just about everything that I'm even leaning against railings talking to men on phones..
More on that later...Two charity shops and Four Acres garden centre was on my Hit List today so off I sped, window down hence frenzied hair. Loved it.
In my first shop I chatted to lady-on-till the caravan owning 65 year old Pauline, she's the one who wears leather waistcoats and has her mum in a 'home'. Anyway as she bagged two books, 'CAKES' by Barbara Mather and 'GROWING SOFT FRUIT' by the Women's Institute I looked out of the shop window wishing I could bottle how I felt. Right then, right there. My little grey head was stuffed full of good and excellent things like the weekend when I'll be doing not much with anything or anyone, Easter when cakes will be baked and guests will be kissed. So much to look forward to. And so that is why Pauline had to ask twice for the money, the 75p.
"Oooops in a far away world " I beamed
"Hahaha" noised white haired Pauline as she dropped my cash into her till.
I left feeling a million bucks.
And so as I passed the Homeopathic centre, and boutique of a thousand bad bags I wondered if today could get any better.
You betcha.
Next stop the other charity shop, the one rubbing shoulders with the Co-Op, which I hate.
I entered, nay, galloped inside wherein I drifted from books to bric-a-brac to...bags where I halted transfixed..by a tan tooled leather shoulder bag, shape not dissimilar to a barrel with a plain sturdy zip and no interior pocket for mobile phone. The bag was THAT old.
It was instant love, instant satisfaction I knew I had to have it. And as my fingers stroked the beautifully soft leather I thought I would faint.
'How can' I thought, 'a little secondhand bag do so much for me?'
Quite simple really I fancied it and it was within my power to have it, mmmm what a feeling.
And then as I approached the 200 year old woman manning the till thoughts of outside activities crept into my mind...
More on that later too...In the shop run by a coven of overly made up ladies I also found a watering can, rather pretty in eau de nil with pencil like sketches of flowers stamped on thereabouts. Immediately imagined me in straw hat watering roses.
Anyway I bought that too, along with a stunning small crystal jug, just made for cream...
I paid the lady, mumbled something about the weather and left.
So an excellent hour was spent with very little monetary outlay...
Talking of money...Before all that I saw an ad in a shop window, a local 'professional' couple needs a Domestic, so, like I said up top, I leaned against the railings outside the building society and phoned Eddie. Answerphone. Bugger. Message left...
On the way home I didn't want to come home so I did a detour and once again strolled like a lady poet around Four Acres, stopping frequently to talk to Tinkerbell the dog. After stroking her and chatting to the man who runs the place about fat pets I dreamily wandered between overladen tables.
And then, over in the corner, past the baby conifers, lavender and hydrangeas I spotted something a bit familiar.
And as I approached the willowy green thing my heart suddenly boom boomed. It was, the label said, a MAGNOLIA. A MAGNOLIA! And the picture on its label had me quivering almost doing a jig. I've seen many MAGNOLIAS on my trips to the post office only I didn't, and you have to forgive my gardening ignorance here, I didn't know they were MAGNOLIA TREES. But now infront of me stood one, well several actually but the one I wanted I already had my hands on.
Didn't want much else (apart from Alpine Arabis White, some Sweet Peas Spencer Mixed and Lupin Russell, The Pages) anyway I hugged the tree walked round the many tables and laid it ever so lovingly on the proprietor's desk.
And so after talking to Tinkerbelle, I paid up and the very kindly owner, with the hands of a nurturer placed my tree in my car.
The End.
* By the way Eddie phoned. The position has been taken. Blast. But knowing a thing or two about women workers and how fickle and ill they can be I decided to sell myself well, blah blah Henry, blah blah, WRVS blah...I finished by telling him not to forget me and that if it all gets too much for the other bird, then he's to give me a call:)He laughed.The End.
Really.
