Monday 10 June 2013

Magpie Monday - the great outdoors

After our incredible trip to Wales, we are loving all things outdoorsy more than ever before.  You wait, we'll soon all be wearing matching Kagoules and yomping over hills and dales like the Von Trapps.

Mooching round the charity shops on Saturday, I spotted a window display of books.  Being the lazy sod I am, I love it when second-hand shops group and order their books into themes.  I hate having to trawl through shelf after shelf of muddled books - cant they introduce the Dewey Decimal system or something?

Anyway, I gave myself a workout lugging around this selection I chose, particularly the mahoosive Natural History book.


I do think they were rather pricey for charity shop books, but I wanted them, so I paid up.  When we used to do pricing in charity shops, we had a straight forward pricing system of 10% of the RRP, it was easy for the volunteers to implement - a £10.99 hardback book was ticketed up at £1.99, a £4.99 paperback novel became 49p.

My books were priced at £5 for the Natural History of the British Isles, £3 for the Folklore and Myths book and £2.50 for the Woodland Walks.

I don't begrudge it because it's going to a good cause, but I really think some shops would do well to keep their eye on the price of used books on Amazon, and indeed new books in discount stores such as The Works.

Anyhow, mostly the books are great, and will be excellent for planning trips out.  The Natural History book is rammed with illustrated information covering everything from wild flowers and fungus, to natural geographical features and wild animals.



I can see many a happy bug hunt or tasty forage taking place armed with this!

The Folklore book really appealed to me, and it hasn't disappointed.  Covering all the weird and wonderful traditions of this isle from cheese rolling and morris dancing, to reported ghostly hauntings and pagan festivals.  There's a helpful calender of customs and events, so if the urge took us, we could scoot off around the country to catch whatever happens to be on.

The Woodland Walk book was disappointing.  Oddly, I didn't flick through like I usually do before I bought it, I just assumed it would do what it says on the tin.  It doesn't.  I was hoping for detailed walks and routes through the forests, and thought it would be the perfect aid for my reviewing work with the Forestry Commission.

The book was written in the mid-80s, and the author comes across as a sulky, miserable man.  He's very disparaging of the Commission, and writes nasty little reviews about places which simply don't fit with my experience.  Maybe things have changed in 30 years, but certainly I wouldn't recommend the book.  Not only do I not agree with the detail on places I am familiar with, the details are sorely lacking - a brief and miserable paragraph is afforded to one of my local sites, one which we have had many many pleasant visits to :

Maulden Wood:

on the A6 just north of Clophill has a picnic place away from the foul lay-by where you have to park. I suppose it's all right inside: there is a school trail, and a forest walk of 1 1/2 miles, described by the Forestry Commission as pleasant - rather faint praise.

Seriously Gerald - get over yourself!

Anyhow, moving on from grumpy Gerald, we popped to a car boot sale on Sunday - my first of the year!!  I picked up a huge bundle of OS maps, partly for crafty crafting (especially the really old ones), and partly for use on walks.  They were only £1 for 3, so I grabbed loads.

As I was perusing the stand, the Old Man whispered to me "I know that lady selling".  He promptly announced "I recognise some of these from my old Geography field trips", and she looked up and leapt across to hug him.  It was his old Geography teacher, and it was actually genuinely touching to see the recognition.  She was a teacher who had a huge impact on him in 6th form, and in his further education and ultimately his career.  She was chuffed to bits to hear that her subject was being used in his day-to-day work and has invited him back to talk to her students.  A really lovely moment!


Have you salvaged anything lately, or bought something second-hand?  I'd love you to grab the badge and link up.






19 comments:

  1. Oh I love finding books like those. Last year I made pumpkins out of woodland books, and although I felt awful cutting them up they made beautiful decorations! Glad you had a lovely trip away! xx

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    1. Oooh I have some old books I'm saving for making pumpkins this Halloween ever since I saw them on Pinterest.

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  2. Lovely books! I love the story of the geography teacher, how fab! x

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  3. It's always worth checking out the travel/outdoor books and maps in charity shops and it looks like you found a good selection - with the exception of grumpy Gerald! (perhaps you could cut his book up and use the illustrations for something?)

    Lovely that your bloke bumped into his geography teacher too

    xxx

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    1. Miserable old Gerald LOL. Yes, I may well take the scissors to him!

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  4. Oh those are lovely - I'm on the lookout for some nature books about wild flowers at the moment - I think those are lovely. I agree though that some charity shops are getting very silly with their pricing - clothes in local ones here are stupidly priced. I understand they need to make money but they're doing it the wrong way because they're charity shops, not fancy vintage stores.

    I have a thing for old maps too - in fact my entry today included a craft made with one too!

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    1. I LOVED your post Elizabeth! It turned out fabulously. x

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    2. Thank you - I had so much fun too - and I've a STACK more to do!

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  5. My husband is the charity shop bookaholic in our family, he's currently trying to make sure he's read the BBC's top 100 books and is adding to his collection in the best ways; cheaply, environmentally friendly and helping out good causes. Plus it gives him something to do whilst I'm having a rummage in every single shop we pass! x

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    1. Haha, I need to get my OH doing this, instead of muttering "I'l be outside" and pacing about like a caged tiger. It's most off-putting!

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  6. Ooh can't wait to see what you do with the maps! x

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    1. Well, after seeing Elizabeth's post linked up today, I think I might try that!

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  7. I love thrifting for books! I already have way too many, and Chris is always bugging me to get rid of some (which is definitely not happening), but I just can't help it. Looks like you found some good ones (except for Gerald of course)!

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  8. Books are one of my favourite charity shop items to buy, because they're such brilliant value - and often in great quality. All of F's Christmas books were charity shop purchases and they were BARGAINS! Love the sound of Gerald the grumpy woods writer - he sounds like a hoot! x

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  9. What wonderful finds. I think charity shops are the best places to find books. You never know what you will get.

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  10. had to laugh at the pic of the fungi, those red and white ones are popping up everywhere at the moment.

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  11. I really like the books you found. I am currently hooked on the Springwatch series on TV and would have probably snapped these up too if I saw them!

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  12. I like the look of that folklore book so much I *may* just have ordered a copy. Temptress.

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