Dartmouth early morning Jaunt

Another scorching hot day in the South of Devon so we venture out in the Morgan 4/4 to one favourite watering place looking its best.
An early start enabled us to miss the worst of the traffic and park up beside the river promenade.
Helen has some presents to buy for up and coming birthdays while I enjoy taking these photos to add to the growing portfolio of snaps.

Arriving here at 8am ensures ample free parking

A beautiful warm start to the morning

The inner harbour soon drains of the ebb tide

The Butterwalk - built in Tudor times has granite columns and intricately carved doorways

Low Tide exposes the mud

Cream Tea at the Castle

Bandol is Buzzing

Market day today and we stock up with gourmet goodies not seen at home. All manner of wares are on offer from summer clothes, deck shoes and posh shoes, carved elephants, scents and soaps, foodstuffs, spiced sausages, whole hams and cooked hams,  battery bicycles, knives, photo-prints and printed T-shirts, audio tape and media films, local cheeses and very fresh fruit.

Amongst other things we came away with three bars of Donkey Milk Soap recommended for all parts of the body including the face. 

Super delicious fruit

Piella

Calamari

Bandol Market

The Inner harbour

Street Markets for the casual collector

Devon has a thriving and growing Market-Place economy. 

Farmers Markets flourish in city centres and at the farm gate.
White van man is seen at the crack of dawn each and every weekend heading to the fields of car-booters. Come rain or shine the car parks fill with the self employed making a living.
The advantages - No shop rent, no rates, no service charges, no V.A.T,  no heating & lighting, no pressure and no targets.
The till is a bum bag - the shop front is portable - the hours are flexible - the profits reliable.
If you want a Tibetan teapot I know a man who can help you.
If you want a caftan or a sarong I know a lady who can help too.
An axe or a saw or a chisel? Fishing tackle, porcelain, sheepskins, fresh meat, garden plants, antique brass, silverware, or just bling ? 

The popular BBC One antiques programme Flog It presented by Paul Martin, visited Powderham Castle, on Thursday 7th May.  Such promotions of the antique will inflate interest and prices  for certain.  Perhaps even the prices of curios and collectables at our local market.

Totnes Market

The Auction Room

The next boxed lot to go under the hammer

Two days before Christmas may be the best time to buy but the worst time to sell if the auction room is your market place. Prices were struggling and some bargains to be had today.
This was not an upmarket Auction House but a more down to earth Weekly Mecca for the market trader. 

Can I say 40, 45, 50, 50, 50, ?  Make no mistake - Last time. Gone !

Amongst the bric-a-brac debris of every day house clearances anything and everything must go under the hammer, but I am a novice-newbie at the game; only standing in for my son as a call of duty, while he holds a town market stall in the South Hams.

Quiet there at the door PLEASE

I am left with a wad of cash and strict instructions on which items to bid for, give or take a pound or two. Helen came with me this morning to look around and spotted a lovely watercolour and I was give yet more guidance on how high to go, if I wished and yes, I managed to bag it. A marine painting of rough sea and cliffs, dotted about with sea birds and a sailing ship on the horizon.

 It might just be me, or it may just be true, that Antique Dealers and their ilk dress down to a grass root level, rather than up to any smart dress code. The idea is clearly an essential pretence at being so poor that any old ragged jeans will do. A second hand charity shop sweater or drab camouflage garment from the garden shed is ideal.

And one from the Silver Cabinet

Relax its only money !

Checks and balances

Original Watercolour - Christmas present to ourselves

Ebony Elephants TV, fishing rods. Globe, toys, Capo d'Monte figures, 

A box of ceramic Elephants

Boxed toy cars, commercial vehicles, two painted watering cans etc. etc.

Don't forget the Buyers Premium.

No room in the Morgan for this little lot.

One of those Volvo moments when that workhorse machine will be most useful.

Last week it was filled with logs for the wood-burner. Now its essential transport for treasures from the sale room.