Tooth Paste and Cold Cream

I'm hopeless in charity shops...
I get disorientated by the muddle of them
and the claustrophobic clothes rails
Antique shops are quite different.
I don't mean smart, expensive galleries
but small, dusty shops with piles of old plates,
faded prints of unknown places
and cardboard boxes of miscellaneous items.

Unfortunately, MrM does not share my passion
and waits impatiently outside the door,
studying the opening times in the window,
and then cunningly suggests that
we could 'come back later'
knowing that the shop closes in half an hour.

Imagine a delicious morning with MissM in Cornwall
when MrM was safely 250 miles away!
We shopped to our hearts' content
and bought all sorts of frivolities
until our arms nearly dropped off
carrying the boxes and bags.

Finally, we went into an Antiques Emporium
and in the last wooden display case,
on the bottom shelf,
was a selection of porcelain jar lids.
I would have bought more
but I also had an armful of china
and MissM had some essential books
and I had NO MORE MONEY.

There is a post script to this story
because Diana lives in Cornwall
and I emailed her to ask
if she would mind going into the antiques shop
and buying any lids that were left.
Imagine! The nerve of it!
(Isn't it wonderful to have Blog Friends!!)
And that is how the Cold Cream lid
with the beautiful Gothic writing
arrived by post on a spring day last year.

This post is for Diana,
because I meant to write it last year
to thank her for her kindness
and for Cathy, who loves fonts.