For sale

As I was in the process of getting my bike from the bike shed, I got a txt from S asking me to get eggs for tonight's omelette. It appeared to be about to start raining, and there were a few drops on the way to the supermarket. Enough to persuade me to stop and try to get a photo of an overflowing gutter on the roadside edge of a shop verandah. Looked at once I got home, the photo just looks greyly uninteresting, rather than excitingly rain-affected.

As I resumed the ride home (which process entailed a bit of backtracking) I went past the same shop, this time underneath the verandah. Flotsam and Jetsam has taken the lease on the premises of what was once Lord Ponsonby's Antiques, and has continued the eclectic mix of genuine antiques (whatever that means to different people) and junk (whatever that doesn't mean to other people).

I was attracted by this juxtaposition on the edge of the footpath beside Ponsonby Road. Two very large decorated terracotta pots, both containing plants (which are probably there to show what the pots can contain). An old brass hot water cylinder. A plaster cast bird bath for the inner city garden which has everything else.

Despite the antique appearance of the bird bath, I suspect that the old cylinder is the oldest item here, although I am willing to be corrected. The planter pots have a use. Birds might welcome some water in the current Auckland summer. What might be a practical use for the hot water cylinder?

Perhaps there is a suggested use in the juxtaposition with planter pots and a garden "ornament"? Assuming no holes, it could save water from one's roof (had one a roof) to use to water one's garden (if one had a garden which is not on a deck).

Consequently, despite the discovery of a use for these four objects as an unlikely set, they must remain with Flotsam and Jetsam for at least another day.