What do you mean, Battleaxe? Firstly, practicalities. Stock-taking and decluttering. Unfortunately, time moves inevitably forwards and Battleaxe Towers is not a minimalist home. Not remotely. Think china, glass, paintings, other objects, furniture, clothes, DVDs, CDs – and books. So many books… Next, I’m looking at what I post on here. I have not written anything about politics, world affairs, or close to home, the local situation in Hastings for ages. Readers are probably saying good thing too, what can the woman possibly say about Trump that hasn’t been said a million times already by people more qualified to comment? True. I won’t write about that then. But I should write about Hastings more – I am the Battleaxe, after all… Just now, Philosopher asked me if I am an ‘Influencer’. I said I didn’t think so. But is Battleaxe one? Yes, she creates content. Yes, she has a ‘community’, of sorts. But does she influence how local people think and behave, or what they buy? I dunno. Does she partner with brands? Certainly not. I have been approached in the past by brands asking me to promote their stuff, but have always said a definite ‘no’. Nobody buys Battleaxe.
Mostly, I guess, I write about what I do, like in these photos above – a WI walk round Winchelsea earlier this week. Nice cuppa and cake at the Winchelsea Farm Kitchen, which, thank goodness, has reopened itself as a tea/coffee venue. It is excellent. Battleaxe would recommend. Now, is that Influencing?
Let’s think about decluttering. It’s hard. Here are a few of my spaghetti poodles, just photographed a few hours ago for Frankie, the lovely owner of Calneva Vintage in Kings Road St Leonards, who had a poodle she thought I might like… thank goodness, this time, I could say no. Find Frankie and her shop on Insta. How could I get rid of those poodles?
As well as both of us loving art, ceramics etc, both Philosopher and I collect all sorts of things – Murano glass, spaghetti poodles, chunks of lucite with dead sea-creatures inside, vintage advertising paperweights, vintage Dinky racing cars… here is an oldish photo of our downstairs loo… I even once wrote a post about it. Crikey.
I wrote about the car-boot sale in a previous post, and we had geared ourselves up for another, but it was cancelled because of bad weather. We do the Elm Tree sale, just outside Icklesham. It is the biggest for miles around. There is another on 13 September, but the weather looks dodgy for that as well. That’ll be it for the year, I think. Shame.
Has anyone ever sold books via World of Books? Battleaxe is just trying it. Best thing is you just pack the things in a box and either they send DPD to fetch them or you take the box to an Inpost locker – for no charge. Worst thing, you can be scanning bar codes like a thing possessed and they only want about a quarter of the items – and the prices they offer are low. I have sent them 3 boxes so far and got an email today saying that they are checking the condition of the things at their warehouse. I suppose they have to but who knows what they’ll finally pay… watch this space and I’ll tell you if it is worthwhile. Also, they only take stuff with scannable bar codes. Still, so far, it looks a good way to shift stuff – they take CDs and DVDs as well as books – which is less effort than the car boot and a bit more lucrative than donating to charity.
If ever Philosopher can bear to part with his older, better books, I guess they will have to go to some specialist dealer… goodness knows where you find such things.
Of course I use both Vinted and Ebay, but what a nuisance to have to photograph and list every book separately, and then pack them up… Vinted is good, but the prices I get for things are not as good as Ebay. I use mainly Vinted for clothes, and Ebay for everything else, mostly slightly precious things. Philosopher has unearthed a few treasures, like this unusual little thing. It is a boat powered by camphor – who knew? He’d had it since he was a little boy, and even has a jar full of cubes of camphor – smells like Vick. Here is the Ebay link if anyone wants such a crazy thing!
Another thing – all the albums of pre-digital photos. Whoever is going to want those 20-30 fat books? So I am scanning them all via an excellent app called Photomyne, so I can keep them on my devices. (And no, not in some cloud in some environment-trashing data centre.) The app also restores the old photos – some have got faded or discoloured. Then, I can send a selection to my daughter and even send the early originals to my first husband. The books, gulp, what a wrench, will end up in the bin…. three have gone so far. Look at this size 10 Battleaxe in 1977.
What else? Surplus cat beds, which we have bought for Digby over the years but he never uses, are going to Bluebell Ridge, where he came from all those years ago.
Then, of course, there is charity. Our local Ore Sara Lee shop will end up largely stocked with items from this house…
Collections? Oh blimey. This is my study windowsill. You can hear them clicking and rattling all over the house when the sun is out… they are at it now, as I write…
Enough of this. Readers will know Battleaxe is barking mad but that is ridiculous…
Ooh– don’t forget to pop in and see me at the Hastings Book Fair next Saturday, at the Observer Building. There will be cake – but will it be poisoned?
