Six word Saturday: in praise of small-town junk shops

/ Su Leslie
Perfect for indulgent afternoon teas. Found in a second-hand shop in Tuakau, New Zealand. Photo: Su Leslie, 2015

Perfect for indulgent afternoon teas. Found today in a second-hand shop in Tuakau, New Zealand. Photo: Su Leslie, 2015

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The Big T and I have been searching for a plain, old-fashioned gravy boat for several years now. This one is perfect; large, not too fussy and with a detachable saucer. Found in a second hand-shop in Tuakau, NZ. Photo: Su Leslie, 2015

Six word Saturday is a blogging prompt from Cate at Show my Face. You can see more here.

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26 thoughts on “Six word Saturday: in praise of small-town junk shops”

  2. Su – I like both of your finds 🙂 – and my husband would like the title “junk shop” ha – because that is what he calls antique stores – whereas my brother calls is “shit shopping” – but either way – you show us the treasures to be found – and the complete tea set is wonderful with the gold and there is something special about having a a classic gravy server – we used to have the insulated one – then one with the spoon and lid – and it was all clunky – so I know what you mean about the classic no fuss kind 🙂

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    • Thanks; I suppose I probably shouldn’t have called the place we visited a junk shop. It was a bit more upmarket. But generally we like the big warehouse-y type of place where you never know what you’ll find. There is one near us which has become a kind of hang-out place for lots of people I know at weekends. They’ve put in a cafe, and sometimes have guitarists and other buskers there. It’s like an un-curated museum more than a store.
      We’ve been using a bowl for gravy for years, and it’s so messy. I love that now having a roast dinner is going to feel like something a bit special. I’ll get to try it out on Thursday when my partner gets back from a work trip and my son will be home from his holiday. Cheers, Su.

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    • 🙂 I thought of you and your tea-shop job when I was looking at the cups. I drink tea out of huge mugs usually, and I was wondering about trying some new kinds of tea — that I might enjoy from a more delicate cup.

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      • It does makes a difference, believe it or not. Try drinking the same tea from a mug and from a china cup and I think you’ll taste the difference. Of course, if you’re drinking generic tea, it won’t matter as much but if you’ve got good tea, it’s worth it…and fun to use the nice cup as well.

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        • I will try Janet. I’m basically an English (or Irish) Breakfast tea drinker, and I do buy a fairly good brand because I’ve noticed a difference between that and the mainstream supermarket brands. But I’m not very tea-adventurous, so I may have to test my palate on something new now that I have the vessel to enjoy it from. I’ll let you know how I get on 🙂

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    • True. We have seriously been looking for a gravyboat for about four years. I figure if I’m going to all the trouble of making proper gravy, it deserves to be served from something nice, so we started looking at old style boats (rather than the pretty horrible new ones we’d seen). I’ve scoured shops the length of NZ (and a few in England). It was so nice to find this one, which isn’t perfect, but was inexpensive.

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    • Me too. It’s become something that we do at weekends. We’ve found a few that we really like and have made some really good finds lately (including a new tripod, which has been on the list of wants for ages).

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    • I hardly go mainstream shopping anymore. Partly because, if I’m honest, I don’t really NEED anything. But also because so much of what is available is mass-produced rubbish which falls apart as soon as it’s used. I also worry about the conditions under which it’s made. Though having said that, I have ancestors who worked in the Scottish potteries in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and their working conditions weren’t great. But I love the idea of beautiful things being used again and again instead of being thrown onto the landfill. Well hippy rant over … hope all is well with you. Cheers, Su.

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      • We had to buy a new electric standing fan and hubby hoped to use the motor for the old fan to keep that design, but nope, new one is so cheaply made. Then I reminded hubby when we got the old one he thought that one was too cheaply made. It gets worse all the time!!! Yes, the conditions the workers live and work under are horrible, I’m sure!

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