Baskets, Birds and Bavarian Slippers

It seems to me that there are some days when there are a series of malicious events just waiting for you to get out of bed so that they can ruin your day. It is as though they have arranged it amongst themselves. And then there are some days that are filled with precious little delights that also seem to have formed, what I suppose one might call, a  ‘glee’ club and last Saturday was one of those.

Emmaus had an all day event on and, as I furnish my home and clothe my body with other peoples cast offs, it was too tempting to pass by. I was rewarded not only with a lack of crowds but, with two more dirty, broken and abused Charente baskets and a pair of seemingly unworn Indian woven leather shoes, that fitted, all for 5€.

Walking down the road with my treasures I bumped into Sam, owner of MaBootique a vintage clothes shop, who told me that there was a pair of slippers waiting for me at their house nearby. What a lovely present Miles had found for me. They were extraordinary, clownish,  plaited straw Bavarian slippers that just made you want to smile.

Onto the market where I spotted and chased down a blue coil-plaited strapping tape basket and its owner, neither of which I had seen before. She was in a hurry, or quite possibly I frightened her rushing at her brandishing the camera. But, she did tell me, just before she ran away, that she had bought it in Morocco from a man who usually makes the palm leaf version. I have seen similar ones in Spain but the colours, translucency  and  immaculate technique made this one particularly good, and brought back some special memories of learning the technique from a group of elderly women in Mallorca.

After this excitement the supermarket seemed more tolerable than usual and then became way better than usual when I noticed a sparrow tucking into the mushrooms. After gorging itself on the champignons de Paris and pecking tentatively at the pleurottes it flew up into the artificial orange tree that dangles its moribund plastic foliage over the produce counters. 

Sparrow and its reflection

Does it live in the supermarket all the time, does it know what life is like out of doors, or has it found a way to enter at will when it fancies something other than insects for dinner? Oblivious to the security gates, security tags and security guards with their punk collared security rottweilers, this little bird thieves at will and as it does so nibbles and pecks at the profit margins…. go for it little bird !