Tavistock

The buttons in the previous post were from a stall in the pannier market in Tavistock: a little market town on the edge of Dartmoor. I went to a huge comprehensive school there before I ran off to bigger cities at 16. I struck lucky on this everything £1 table - maybe a January clear out by the dealer - as I also got a cute technicolour jigsaw of Monmartre - wish I was there in the sun...

and two little jugs and some brooches - I already gave 2 brooches away as presents, probably the jugs will go the same way,

There's plenty more to tempt you here like home baking with the name of who baked them and where on the package,

Hand knitted dog and puppy coats - very very adorable no?

There's a great cheese shop called Country Cheeses where you can have a taste before you buy.

Tavistock got in the national news a few years ago because McDonalds (can't believe I'm writing their name in my blog!!) failed there and closed - YES - the local food triumphed, read the story here. And it's not a really posh place like the home counties or Cotswolds or the like.

Then recently I read this Guardian article telling that it's the only place in the UK apart from parts of London where women earn more than men, so it's clearly becoming a very cool place. 

So many places have a growth of independent shops and food ventures and are run by people who have a real passion for what they do so they should outlive what you could see as a trend, remember that when hear of all the closures in the news. One of the other great draws for me to visit Tavistock is the 10 charity shops within spitting distance of each other!



Little potted pale blue/grey iris were £1.50, I bought two. At home in London I rarely ever set off on 'shopping trips' but in Tavistock it's a real pleasure.

Folk Art

I bought these spectators on a bric-a-brac stall recently.
Sometimes it's hard to justify another acquisition when you already have alot of stuff. I couldn't resist these though, obviously handmade by a fanatic and completely charming.
The skylights are real glass and on the back there are adverts cut from a newspaper and stuck on.
I love the faces, the expressions, the hair shapes. The colours of the coats are so subtle and the variety of hat styles seem perfectly placed.
It didn't take that long to find an excuse to buy them as they are real folk art to me and worth plenty more than the £15 they cost in pure joy in my home.
I've put them at eye level on a rough wooden shelf in the living room and they look quite at home there overseeing everything.