What a Show!

Gordon Rigg Garden Centre floral display at the Todmorden show

Regular readers will know that we’re based in the Pennine market town of Todmorden, and today was the town’s annual agricultural show.

It was held in the lovely setting of Centre Vale Park – surrounded by trees.

There was all manner of stuff to see – a funfair and brass bands playing in the bandstand.

lots of local food produce – pies, preserves, meats, fruit, vegetables, honey and cheese…

…and stalls selling outdoor wear & country attire…

There was some great vintage farm machinery on display.

The stars of the show, of course, were the animals!

Some were being judged, some were racing…

…and some were there simply to be petted or appreciated for their beauty…

…horses, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, birds of prey and bees.

There was a really good crowd – young & old.

There were some dark clouds and drizzle in the morning and a few worried looks, but it brightened up nicely.

It was a really enjoyable afternoon – thoroughly recommended if you’re in the area this time next year!

Five Flea Finds

This week was a very one successful at our local flea market… with 5 excellent vintage finds for our online shop.

First is this original catalogue from the Festival of Britain held in 1951. We’ve really enjoyed browsing through this booklet. In addition to the run-down of the exhibition itself, there are some fantastic period ads.

Next up is this enamel teapot made by Finel. It was covered in dust and badly tea-stained inside, but it’s come up beautifully – a good wash revealed the lovely pattern and the inside bleached clean & white.

This 1960s coffee pot couldn’t fail to catch our eye. We’ve actually had a set in this pattern before – what a great design with its simple, stylised flowers.

This plate was at the bottom of a pile. We could just see the petal edges poking out. We’re glad we made the effort to dig down a bit! It’s a lovely vintage hand-painted sunflower plate produced by Arabia of Finland.

Finally, we have this tea trio – a set of six trios to be precise. It’s the Amanda pattern produced by Ridgway in the 1960s/70s – bright, cheerful and very usable.

All worth getting up early for!

In addition to the five finds destined for our shop, you may also have noticed some wine glasses in the background of the group photo. We were down to our last couple of decent wine glasses (and we do love a glass or two of red wine in front of the fire!). We’ve been looking for new ones for a few weeks now and were determined to pick some up in a charity shop or flea market. There they were – lovely wine glasses – large bowls, long slim stems, nice quality – £2.50 for a set of 8!! Now that was a great buy!

Growing our own

This year we decided to grow more of our own – and we’ve got no excuse, as Todmorden‘s the home of Incredible Edible.

We have a variety of crops to look forward to in the coming weeks.

Most of them are growing in containers as much of our garden is paved with stone cobbles. It also makes protecting them from the ubiquitous slugs & snails much easier.

We use lots of the old galvanised metal ‘dolly tubs’, buckets and bins.

The plants seem to like it!

Potatoes, beetroot, carrots, tomatoes, rhubarb, strawberries, broccoli, courgettes, squash, peashoots, salad leaves, a variety of herbs – and yes, those are figs.

There’s still a little room for some flowers.

Perennials like the hostas, astilbes and lupins return each year like old friends. Although this year’s harsh winter saw a few losses.

To these we add a few annuals – osteospermums, lobelia and the like.

We’ve enjoyed working in the garden this year, growing our own. We don’t think self-sufficiency is here just yet – but hopefully we’ll reap some rewards!

Perfect Pitch!

We recently decided to upgrade our space in Picture House Antiques from a cabinet to a room-sized pitch. It will enable us to sell a much wider variety of items. It’s our usual mix of mid-century modern, handmade objects and rustic antiques.

There’s enamelware, ceramics, glass and fabrics… we’ve had some fantastic vintage posters framed for the walls… there are clocks, lighting and larger pieces of furniture.

It’s been quite a busy week – there are slideshows below charting the move.

BEFORE
(Items cluttering up our lounge, waiting to go)

DURING
(boxes to unpack, shelves to put up & pictures to hang)

AFTER
(More tweaking will surely be done, but we’re happy with the result so far)

Come pay us a visit if you’re ever in the area!

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: Todmorden

What a Show!

Five Flea Finds

Growing our own

Perfect Pitch!