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Phrase, Fable and Proverbs
One of my favourite books for dipping into is Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. My best Beloved introduced me to it and if you too have not come across it, nip into your local Oxfam bookshop and they will have a copy (or several), trust me. So, it was originally published in 1870 and compiled by the delightfully named and bearded Ebenezer Cobham Brewer. It is described as a reference…

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Books and their private lives
As everyone knows you can’t judge a book by its cover, but sometimes covers are really rather more interesting than the contents. Having skimmed through the contents – Washington Irving was put up in the Governor’s apartments of the Alhambra, lucky him – and spent some of his time writing a rather flowery account of his time in the palace and surroundings. Flowery prose is not my fave. “The…

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A Justified Complaint
At the risk of spinning out holiday stories well beyond their sell-by date, this is somewhat different. It is about accessibility, public money and management speak. ( You can switch off now if the above is all rather alarming.) As a happy-to-admit-it-leftie, I am not convinced that all things public are bad, wasteful, lazy, and all things private are fast-moving, clever, better value for…
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Final Oddities - for now
I can feel you are getting a bit bored with Oxfam surprise donations, but I am going to chance my arm with just three more….. and there are more pictures than text, if that helps. But even so, I do warn you,, I am cramming in, so it’s a long read. Firstly, the humour and interest in alphabetising. Not a sentence you hear every day, I do know that. This made me laugh and I had to turn to the…

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A Few More Oddities
A few more bookshop delights and surprises…. Some (actually quite a few if I’m honest) books come into the shop in such bad condition they can’t be sold. Most end up in re-cycling but a few have such lovely plates (pictures) that the Best Beloved can make something of them. Because we get quite a few donations of paintings – yes I don’t know why they are given to a bookshop either – we have an…

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#Blackpool#bookshop#Katharine Cameron#Oxfam#Sheffield#Staniforth Knives Sheffield#Wakes Weeks#Water Babies#World War 1
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A Few Oddities
Like most jobs the work of an Oxfam volunteer has a lot of routine stuff in it – but oddities, strange things, little gems and surprises make it all worthwhile – well most of it anyway. So rather than bore you with an account of the routine, but necessary, stuff that needs to be done to keep the shop alive – though I could tell you about the alphabetical ordering of paperback fiction, the…

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Shipwreck Celebrations
Whilst we were in Malta, it was the celebration of the extended holiday on the island of St Paul who, perhaps unsurprisingly, became their patron saint. Apparently he got shipwrecked there in a February though it is not entirely clear which one( As I said before, we probably should have checked the weather before we booked a February trip – shipwrecking month). He was there, so it is said, for…

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An Afternoon Shooting Books
As I have said many times before, working in the Oxfam shop is a mixed bag, indeed box. Sometimes you have boxes and indeed bags of books which are just not saleable. They have been stored in a garage for years, they are what is politely called well-read and in fact means they have been trashed – by children. They are a collection of books about royal weddings – long divorced. They are dated…

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Nearly Jamaica Inn
A while ago we went back to Hawes ( in a lovely part of North Yorkshire in case you didn’t know). Years ago, we had ended up staying there in a last minute booking in a pub which took dogs. When we came downstairs ( after that delicious moment when you take your boots off after a good day’s walking) we found the bar was fully carpeted in dogs. Bigs ones, little ones, working ones, mutts,…
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Tailor of Gloucester - again
First of all my apologies for bringing you a bit of Christmas long past the time when it should be well and over. So, if like me, you are very happy to be in the cool zen-like calm of January, then please don’t read on, it is not a short one. Otherwise: The Oxfam bookshop. You will, probably, have read the preview for this. The Tailor of Gloucester. If you haven’t, you will catch up – at…

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A Winter's Tailor
In the Oxfam bookshop Petersfield, there are a few of us who take Christmas very seriously from August onwards. Yes it is depressing to see Christmas cards for sale from then – and yes indeed they are – but as for the display planning, August is not too early at all. After all, we have a tiny budget, actually no budget. We have to reply on what appears in the shop and with amazing frequency…

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#Books#bookshop displays#Charity Shops#old curiosity shop#Oxfam#tailor of gloucester#window displays
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Murder Scene
It is rare to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon looking at a potential murder scene – well in my life it is. I went to the local horticultural society’s summer show. The first time I had been as it happens. Yes it is a village event but runs to rather strict Royal Horticultural Society rules which can cause some upset. (When I entered a quiche in spring show, I was marked down for my edges not…

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The Life of Warwickshire Place Names
Just before the first lockdown, I took some old and interesting books from the Oxfam shop so that I would have something to research in the idle weeks ahead. ( I did leave a note of what they were, and that I had them in case anyone thinks I was half inching them.) Well, they got put in the Best Beloved’s study and I have to say I forgot about them until recently when I was clearing out my bits…

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Safely Anchored
You may, or then again may not, remember that I had a boat stolen from the Oxfam window display. I set out to find a replacement. Given that these model boats were individually handmade and each was different, it was never going to be an exact replacement but I did hope I could find one which would look as nice – in our sitting room I hasten to add, need again would I risk something as valuable…
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More than you needed to know
I got a bit interested in churches, monasteries and similar stuff whilst on Sifnos – not least because there are a lot of them. But it turns out that accurate and consistent information on them is hard to come by. Not least just how many there are – Wikipedia says 360, and rather inaccurately, the author says, ‘as per days in the year.’ Whilst the Sifnos website says there are 237. Anyway,…

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High Musings
‘Our’ Greek Island is blessedly peaceful compared to many others, and that peaceful life means the holidaymaker’s mind turns to the small things in life. In these days of contactless, is there still the ‘old woman’ who keeps the collections from the districts’ church services to offer the local bar owners small denomination notes for the 50 euro notes tourists proffer for two beers? Does the…

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Birds Of A Kind
One of the great things about working at the Garden Shows is the birds of prey. ( There are lots of things actually: enticing ways to spend your wages on everything from bulbs to handmade jewellery, clothes, sausages made by ex-offenders and I recommend the fennel ones. The great group of crew and organisers, the many nice stallholders and the generally appreciative visitors in their hundreds…

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