Brocantes = Rusty Tools

How can there be so many rusted old tools? Where the hell do people find them? They MUST think they have value BUT in reality they take not a little bit of "brushing up" before any of them could be utilized for anything useful. I mean garden rakes that the handles are so eaten by beetles that the thing weighs nothing! Hammers that were used before WW2 by a 300 lb ANIMAL beaten to a mushroom and then the broken handle repaired by black tape from a WW2 GI. How? No part of these things can be used. I LOVED watching three men trying to get an ancient lawnmower's engine to run, no !@#@#@! chance, the last time this thing actually ran to mow grass/weeds was just after Citroen created the Duex Chaveau! We went to two such junk ales this morning, ringing about the rows of knick-knacks, rusted tools, baby clothes and such without spending a dime. We have become jaded, perhaps we bought ALL the GOOD STUFF over the years and this is the REST. May it all rot in a landfill somewhere. We ran into our friends A & R and shared a cuppa coffee and a stick of bread with ham and butter (what passes for breakfast hereabouts ) and examine their FINDS. Not a bad take, the REST of the GOOD STUFF! Never fails, timing is everything! They were there first. We are headed to their place and lick our wounds with a pig BBQ and wine later this afternoon. We departed #1 brocante to travel across the township of St. Amand to the Medieval section for another try at scoring some great thing. No luck, it wasn't there either! We did pick up some duck shaped aluminum candy molds for the hell of it. What for? I dunno, but they are cute and CUTE counts sometimes. In France there's a LOT of cute stuff, not useful...but cute. On the way home we stopped y the little house (our first abode in France) and I removed my oil painting supplies from the grenier (attic) and picked up a few empty flower pots for my growing collection of plants-that-will-soon-be-dead. The home to relaxfor a while amaid the squalor of the ruin, peice together the tile wall covering into the dining room and write thi blog entry. Now off to our friends to fill out the rest of the day with laughter and good food.

Another Day in a Lazy Paradise

Yawn...up at 6am, I looked out the window of the comp room where I slept last night to see a grey and cloudy sky. Oh well, off to the computer to read the emails, if any, and see what the weather sensors have detected overnight. It is a passion of mine, the weather is, I study the situation day by day trying to sort out the forecast for the next WHILE. Kelly's knees are far more accurate than any local forecast we get from the TV.
Mine , however, are more personal and I have INSIDE information, don't I? Today was not sunny, overcast and grey as could be all afternoon. We worked around the house this morning then in need of paint, nails and a few other hardware items we left at about 1:30pm bound for St. Amand's Brico Marche. I needed potting soil, some exterior wood glue and some wall fasteners, Kelly needed paint. We found our items and found each other and proceeded to the checkout cashier. As it turned out she had inadvertly bought MAT paint so after the discovery at the car returned to the store to trade in the 2.5 liter carton of MAT for the more desirable Semi-gloss. She also bought the black glossy she wanted to finish the mullions of the waiting room exterior.
The whole works is spectacular.