Monthly Archives: August 2017

The New Cafe

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In the last few years of our time on the farm there was a certain amount of conflict, which I hope I managed to conceal in the blog.

There were two schools of thought – one being that the kitchen had been built to deliver educational sessions and promote healthy eating. This was a view shared by me, Julia, the funders and several other people.

Then there was the view that it existed as a plaything for the farmer and his sister to hold family parties and loss-making social activities.

I think we know who won.

Corrugated iron bar
Looks like a bar…
That’s the old butchery table under the new wooden top

Looking at it now, it seems our (short-lived) replacements did a lot of work and appear to have transformed it into a replica of a South American shanty, including corrugated iron, re-used wood and coffee sacks. You half expect Indiana Jones to stroll in.

New shelves for playing shops
Where did all the work tops go?
Table and coffee sacks

Unfortunately, the kitchen, despite the extension,The End is not now a practical venue for teaching. It will, once they have staff again, be an interesting place to eat, but we will no longer be teaching a thousand kids a year to make pizza or scones.

Nor, I feel, will it host the bread group again.

The final photograph is a young Wren. There were five of them but this was the best I could do. They are so quick! It’s a cheerful way to end the post, and a reminder of all the broods the Wrens have reared round the centre in the last five years.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Wren at Screveton

 

 

Ebay or not Ebay…

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I didn’t post yesterday. You may not have noticed, but if you did, I apologise.

This was mainly due to hypnosis and poor time management; I spent so much time looking at Ebay that my brain started to shut things out in self-defence.  By the time I’d finished I was late, functioning on half a brain and feeling depressed. So I switched off and watched TV.

It was a learning exercise rather than a pleasure, as I have been examining the possibility of returning to the antiques trade. I have been given two opinions – one, from a person I trust, is that Ebay is the best place to sell and that quality pieces do best. The other, from someone I also trust, is that Ebay is the best place to sell and that average to low quality items sell best.

From that I deduce that Ebay is the best place to sell.

As to what sells best, I have always felt that the best selling items are always the ones sold by other people.

I’m also feeling slightly shell-shocked by the number of “rare”, “scarce” and “original” items being offered for sale. For one thing, I know much of the stuff isn’t rare, and some of it clearly isn’t original either when you look at the photos. The truth is that although I may have lost touch with prices I can still (mostly) remember everything else.

If you can push a button and see 20 more “rare” items I have news for the sellers – they aren’t rare.

There’s a suspicion at the back of my mind that if an estate agent, an Ebay seller and a mass murderer wanted to marry into my family I’d probably be happiest with the murderer.

However, beggars can’t be choosers, and if Ebay does the business I will have to sign up. Shops are expensive, markets are sensitive to weather and antique fairs require early starts. So greed and idleness are conspiring to make me into an Ebay seller again – how can I resist such powerful forces?.