Another plastic rant...

I stood in the gardening aisle of our local hyper-market looking glassily at the rows of various sized buddhas and Easter Island heads, all made of plastic or resin - the same thing pollution wise I imagine. Duly took a picture so I could write this post and then found another absurdity which somewhat trumped (ugh, still difficult to use that word) plastic deities, (and I may well have ranted about such items before). In the pet section while looking for a bag of dog rice I noticed the area of dog toys/dog grooming, dog crossword books, etc, in which was probably the clearest message that humans have certain reached the point of stupidity beyond belief. 

lavender, rose and lemon flavoured dog poo bags

Dog waste bags . . . fair enough. I'd rather pick our dogs' poops up with a large leaf if available and hide it under a bush, but if one is in a city centre with no foliage of a usable size within reach, then, yes, poo bags, good. BUT, rose, lavender or lemon scented plastic bags . . . with appropriate colour coordination. Come on! Really? 

Imagine the product meeting on that one . . . 

'So, Barry, you're thinking colour . . . Like it, liking it! Appealing to the feminine middle age demographic? What about blokes - should we consider a more . . . powerful bag - explosions, car chases, war . . . thinking, silver, maybe sport orientated? Football team colours? Black? Oh, they exist . . . okay. iPhone shaped dispenser? Gun shaped?' 

At the other end of the spectrum, or at at least in that emporium, were the 100 percent bio degradable, eco-friendly, packaged in cardboard with a friendly poo illustration, versions. They are even organic. Seems a little excessive, unless you were planning on eating them. To my mind, these really should be the only ones offered, and it would give more space to buddhas and Easter Island heads.

Car Boot Booty

Or in this case - Vide Grenier Booty, (Vide Grenier = UK's car boot sale or USA's garage sale) and this one, last Sunday, was the first haul of the year.
We are total Vide Grenier (empty-out-attic) addicts. The first of the season and it was a good start.

For twenty euros:
A large, ancient but pretty bedcover, daft red shoes (rather a good make), two antique lace curtains, a retro board game for Ezra to study the elements of (into making his own board games), the oldest recording of the Carnaval de Limoux, a text book on Easter Island, a rather beautiful ash tray for our 'Workaway' guest, four porcelain ramekins, a bundle of old wooden and wire plant ties, a white mohair jumper and a wooden bench.
This was a particularly good example of how V.G's should be: friendly and no stupid prices - the concept being that you offload a pile of stuff you don't want, earn a bit of cash, have a natter with your fellow stall-holders, drink coffee provided by the village holding the event, and try not to come away with more than you had taken there in the morning.