Monthly Archives: May 2011

A lovely May morning today.  I met with two friends and we filled a car to take to a local carboot sale.  Parked under the trees we spread out a table with a coffee maker, crockery, books, a tile cutter, some cutlery and a craw’s foot wrench.  We hung a rail of clothes at the side. A strimmer and some boxes of bedding plants leant against the table.   Almost an ironmongers, I thought!  A very tiny, temporary one but a place where people might come to discuss and decide to buy useful items.  And so they did.  There was lots of discussion and a good few sales. 

I love carboot sales.  The pleasure comes not from how much I sell (although I always want to make a little profit for spending two or three hours, usually outside and not always in sunshine).  But I enjoy the observations and conversations with people who meander round the stalls.  I took some IntoIronmongers photographs and cards which clearly struck a chord with some customers.   Extraordinarily, one young customer had worked recently in Urquhart’s in Auchterarder and was delighted to find a photograph of the shop.  Another was interested in the whole IntoIronmonger’s project and suggested where the photographs might be exhibited next.  Two customers debated the uses of the craw’s foot wrench before one bought it.  Another pondered over the the tumbling tomato plants and them bought the lot.  But the coffee machine wasn’t sold and we couldn’t work out why.