Sport for all at the backyard-junk-sales.

"My haul"

"Lunchtime"

"The street with the best bargains"

"Views from other yards"
My house is behind that big tree

Saturday in St.Johannis was back-yard flea-market day

It sounds so much more romantic in German: “Hof-flohmärkte in St. Johannis”, and it really is a lovely atmospheric occasion.

This is the second year that this wonderful market day has taken place and this time I was determined that as well as taking a peek at the beautiful back yards, gardens and balconies of the neighbouring buildings, I would also buy some new toys for the conductive groups. There was plenty to be had, a wide choice from puzzles, book, garden games, ride-on tractors, bikes and scooter.

As you can see from the photograph I came home with quite a haul. In fact I came home three times between noon and four-thirty to unload my purchases.

This morning the littlies had fun with a basketball and a puzzle with three dimensions and this afternoon the skittles, boules and rackets were put to good use by the school children.

I spent just twenty Euros on the at least one-hundred Euros worth of toys that I transported to work this morning on my bike. The sale of paintings at the summer-fete last weekend had increased my purchasing power no end!

There was only one piece that I could not fit into the panniers this morning, the trolley with the crochet set. That is something that we will share with the Kindergarten and perhaps we will try it out tomorrow with my young autistic client.

After my first sortie I wandered downhill in the direction of the St. Johannis cemetery with the plan to have a coffee in the seventeenth-century Hesperidean Gardens but I was waylaid and went instead to a tiny café that I have wanted to visit for the past three years and have never got around to it. I met a friend, fellow artist and one time member of one of my groups for adults and we enjoyed a long planned but, never-come-to-fruition, meeting.

The atmosphere on the street at this corner was so friendly. Many of the neighbours were out chatting to eat other and there were visitors from all over the city on bikes, scooters and on foot with their bags and rucksacks full of recycled “junk”!

My recycled junk went down well and we have already had a couple of “spontaneous-sports mornings” with the little ones.