On Saturday, we (mum, her sister, me) headed up to Latrobe where they had *5* open gardens. Latrobe is at the start of the northwest coast, about N hour from Launceston i.e. a long way away.
It was in the 19th C the big town up that way, home to merchants and traders and all that goes with being a significant 19th town. Then the railway came, and it opened up the coast and the coastal towns at the end of the Mersey developed into the small city of Devonport at the expense of Latrobe. Which means that's there's a lot of late 19th C architecture still standing in Latrobe, because it didn't get "developed".
So, we went to the first garden, behind a antique shop and it was small but nice. We went to the second, around a bank turned into a house and it was lovely. We went to the third, a cottage garden sort around a cottage and it was, um, more lovely? With lots of plants for sale, so we bought some.
The bank turned house was also open. Lovely period decorating inside. Very nice.
Now the next one was an interesting old house but the garden wasn't. They did have plants for sale though, so we bought some.
Then we had a break. Hmmm. Oh, lunch at a takeaway and then a visit to a garden nursery across the road where they had plants for sale, so they bought some.
The fifth garden was rather ordinary, although there was some interesting roses.
Then because we were hot, tired and tired of walking, we went up to Bells Paradae and walked up along the riverbank.
Now, home to Launceston and I was dropped off at Nicquel's place, because we had MARKET THE NEXT DAY. Argh!!!!
Which isn't that bad but we have to load everything (isn't the point of selling stuff to reduce the quantity of stuff you have?) into the car, then unload it at the market site and set it up (an hour & 20 mins today), then afterwards pack it all up again and Nicquel gets to unload it at home.
It wasn't very busy but sales were average-good. It was hot though, not overly hot but we expected it to be cool like usual and there was a "skylight" in the roof just above the coins/cigarettes cards so they got hot. Interestingly though, we sold a lot of things that had been sitting there for weeks with no interest in them, inc. some thing that we'd had from the first week.
I did buy some records, the Best of the Goon Show (for a Christmas present), Greatest Hits of Elton John ('cos it had one of the songs on my list) and the Soundtrack for Against the Wind The first historical mini-series made in Austrlaia (1978/9), set in very early Sydney around the time of the Irish convict uprising at Castle Hil . I was 9 or 10 when this showed on TV and the episode showing the actual fighting was put on later and I wasn't allowed to watch it :( Never occured to me there was a soundtrack, but I do remember liking the music. Which is half the fun of buying LPs, the interesting things you find.
And then we have market again NEXT WEEK because the week after we will be at Evandale Market. Eep. But then we get two weeks off over Christmas.
