Paradise found and lost

Today Robin and I went to Battlesbridge antiques centre where we had a very happy few hours browsing the many interesting and eclectic collections of preloved things for sale in this sprawling centre of places with hideaway corners of treasures for sale. Although I bought a couple of items elsewhere, our favourite find was 'Jim's Books & Ephemera' (pictured) where both of us were delighted to find and purchase several inexpensive books including for me, two pocket books. Most favoured is Anthony Trollope's 'Framley Parsonage' owned by a girl called Vera, with an inscription that reads: 'received March 22nd 1941 at 16 school dance in K.E.H.S. Birmingham' - which I googled and seems to be King Edward VI High School for girls, still a thriving school today. Although, if Vera was 16 in 1941, that makes her older than my mum by several years, it did seem fortuitous that the book was presented to her on my birthday. I like to think of her reading it then, and me reading it now. The second book I bought was a collection of John Milton's poetry (ed pub 1898) including Paradise Regained.

Unfortunately, our own paradise was lost when the owner had to suddenly close the store and leave for emergency personal family reasons and so we reluctantly moved on to other places until we realized how hungry we were and so had a full, tasty pub meal at The Barge Inn before driving back to Chelmsford satiated in more ways than one, for an evening of Netflix, (Knives Out), latest jigsaw puzzle and for Robin, packing because  tomorrow is her last day with me in Blighty.