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An Afternoon in Stamford

February 6, 2013

Claire and I had talked about how much fun it is to go bargain hunting at charity shops but also how lacking the local ones are. So we ended up deciding we would go on a charity shop trip a bit further south to Stamford. Stamford is a nice little town, with a lot of old buildings and character, with a center comprised of mostly stone 17th- 18th century stone buildings. Carl ended up tagging along and there we went, the 3 of us.

The window of the British Heart Foundation shop was covered in hearts. Valentine’s Day is in the air everywhere!

Very cute dogs and very nice owner who let me snap a couple of shots. Unfortunately they were a little over exposed. Still so much to learn about my camera!

There is also a street market along the High Street and you can always find flowers and nice things to eat.

 I can’t resist hand painted signs.

The little houses were very cute.

One of the volunteers at one of the charity shops was an older dude, with a hippie rocker vibe – his long white hair and Led Zepelling t-shirt. I asked him for a photo and he allowed me to shoot his hands.

The High Street was fairly busy at times and sometimes the shops were quite full but we managed and found some great bargains. I don’t think I’ve ever been this lucky in charity shops as on Sunday.

The boxing hares bronze statue was a topic of conversation for a few minutes. We were deciding if any of us would actually have something like this at home. General consensus was that although it is an interesting piece (and I always like anything animal related) we wouldn’t have it at home.

This is Nick. When I approached him he was explaining to a girl his technique: as he works with pastels, he puts in the highlights first and then moves onto the darker colours. He also showed me a small Celtic art gouache and explained that’s how he got into drawing- doing Celtic art knotwork. We had a bit of a chat and he showed me some photos of some big pictures he’s done over the course of a few days, when the weather permits.

It was a very cold day and a lot of layering had to be done. Thank you Claire for being the day’s photographer!

Coat – H&M, Skirt – ASOS, Shoes – Office (all via Ebay), Black turtleneck – Zara, Beije Cardigan – from a vintage shop in Oxford, Bag – from Target (latest trip to Florida), Badge – ‘Read Yukio Mishima’ from Ebay, Scarf– It belonged to my Mum in the 80’s and I took over it maybe 20 years ago or so. It’s getting really old but I love it still, it’s got a lot of sentimental value. I remember there was a matching hat but that was lost even before I started wearing the scarf. Ring -can’t really see it but it was my great grand mother’s then my grandmother’s then my mother’s and now it is mine.  I also wore my Dr Seuss bracelet, it has become on of my favourites.

After taking pictures before all the light was gone, we moved to the London Inn to have some food. It was decent and not too expensive. I had a Greek Meze, a platter with pita bread, houmous, some other dip, olives, grilled halloumi and cucumber and cherry tomato salad. It was very filling and tasty.

The ending of a fun afternoon!

I tried to take some photos of the loot. They came out rubbish as the light was terrible but the finds were too good not to be shared.

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2 Comments

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