As I have often said, there is nothing so sweet as the Sunday of a long weekend.  And when the Sunday dawns clear and cloudless and most importantly, windless, it is to be appreciated even more.

I'd no sooner crawled from the nest and had some breakfast, when the girlchild arrived, bright of eye and requesting scrambled eggs.  After she had demolished her breakfast, we re-upholstered the seats of two dining chairs, and I repaired two sun lounges.

For, it has been announced, she entertains a lot and needs to upgrade the furniture component of her soirees.  Luckily, as in most things, I try to be prepared.

Last year I got two wooden sunlounges from the boutique d'verge - they were each missing one bolt, but otherwise just fine.  One had been given one (bad)coat of white paint,but I anticipate that a couple of spraycans and the judicious use of some sandpaper will have them looking very smart indeed.  There's a red deckchair kicking around from the same collection, and some red and white cushions will tie the whole lot together.

I also have a 60's white metal lounger which I scavenged in Perth about 10 years ago, but I don't know that I want to let go of that permanently, yet. It's California-funky and a sentimental favourite, being that I was on foot at the time and nearly killed myself carrying it across a very busy road. 

Yesterday, the first real day of verge trawling for this year, turned up 2 dining chairs in need of TLC which met with the girlchild's particular specifications.  Get me the staple gun!  It literally took about half an hour to cover the seats and screw them back on.  Total cost was $zero - I used some fabric from the stash, my staple gun, and some long screws from a jar of screws, assorted, from the tipshop last week.

The annual verge collection of rubbish, furniture, etc has started, despite the late or non-delivery of flyers.  As a result, things have been a bit slow, but I expect it will pick up gradually.  There have been a number of finds so far, but I haven't had time to sort them or photograph them, due to getting home after dark. 

Those of you who have read past posts will know that this is my favourite time of year.  The sun is shining (mostly), the streets are full  of discarded items... what more could a girl want? It's like Christmas, without the cooking and the angst.

We filled the back of the 4WD yesterday (although the packing was a bit random) so today we unloaded halfway through, but managed to fill it up again.  The big item today was a stack of jarrah boards, perfect condition, assembled into -well, I'm not sure, lets call them panels - but my verging friend needed same for her daughter's back yard and there they were, already assembled and pre-painted. 

Some more of the enticing finds included a retro desk fan, mint condition; vintage binoculars; tools, various; a container for growing potatoes; a wooden rocking horse; a garden bench; brass drawer handles, 5 matching; glass louvres; fishing accoutrements; a quilt rack, wooden; wooden tables, various; a starburst clock, mint condition; and a small friction driven ride-on motorcycle, which has been claimed by a very excited small boy(his daddy asked us to pick him up a Harley).

Thumbs up to those who mark items as 'still works well' or 'please take this', but thumbs definitely down to those few individuals who deliberately smash everything into little pieces.  Apart from wantonly increasing their contribution to landfill, the broken glass and metal is dangerous for local pedestrians and kids and pets, and will lurk in the grass forever.
 

ooh, I do love a good rummage

First of all, Spring here is pretty amazing.  This is a view of Emu Point from Bayonet Head and it's all pretty spectacular.

As you may be aware, we are in the middle of my favourite time of year, when the girls go a-gathering.  And so we have.  Worryingly, the sheer amount of junk which people are putting out appears to have decreased.  It's either that people have stopped consuming and tossing out, reducing waste and living a more green lifestyle, or (much more likely) that the notices about the collection are confusing and the collection's too early in the year and at the wrong time.

 

There have been the usual furphies doing the rounds about who the junk actually belongs to, when it's discarded by the former owner and placed on public property - ie, the verge - for collection.  I would have said that the more critical question is what the contractor does with what's collected.  In the past, separate trucks went around, one for the reusable recyclable stuff, and one for the unsalvageable.  Nowadays, sadly, it all seems to go into a crusher-type garbage truck and straight to landfill.  Do not pass the tip shop, do not reduce waste. 

  

Anyone picking up stuff and giving it another go around is doing their bit for the community by reducing landfill.  There.  I feel much better.

With my usual collection compatriots enjoying the European Autumn, I started slowly and small this year with my neighbour, but a friend with a 4WD and I spent a happy 6 hours today combing the allotted areas in a grid pattern.  Obsessive?  Perhaps, but the haul was impressive.

I've been able to replace my wheelbarrow (from a couple of years ago, sadly no longer able to carry things) with a more sturdy model.  My baby will be going to live on a farm (literally) and be planted out with flowers.  2 wooden sunloungers, one for me, one for aforesaid neighbour. Oh, the suitcases.  I'm liking the 50's/60's streamlined models this year, very groovy.   I got some rusty containers for my tomatoes and some gloriously rusty but robust garden edging.  A meatsafe ( including the hooks still inside), with a very original hinge replacement.   You may be sensing that I like rusty rustic stuff.

 

 Wonderful picture frames, some old, some not.  A horseshoe.  A dome tent.  An old cutlery box.  A kerosene lamp base.  Wooden frames for a project which is beginning to take form somewhere in the back of my mind.

The sheer serendipity of it is stupendous.  Roll on next week!