Peebles!

Went to an auction. An eclectic bunch of stuff as you would expect. We rather fancied a couple of arty bowls. The guide price was £5 to £10 in the catalogue. Very agreeable we thought. They went for £410 ! Feck.

Our next target was a Deco style green and brass bank teller desk lamp. I had a brief bidding war with the internet and won. It's coming home with me, that'll learn them to mess. £15, well chuffed. It has been 40 years since my last auction visit and I found it rather exciting, the addition of international internet bidding certainly ups the ante. Mrs FP had her eye on a dark blue Raeburn oven, fortunately a lunch date pre-empted a bit of her paddle waving. If you have a stash of old vinyl music gathering dust they are going for decent money, one guy spent a wad on 400 odd old jazz albums.

Lunch. The Tontine hotel never disappoints.

And after a mooch around the town, and marvelling at a substantial queue outside a butchers (I don't know if their produce is excellent or their service rubbish) we headed out to the Barony Castle hotel for a restorative beverage and a wander around their excellent grounds. We came across The Great Polish map of Scotland, modelled in concrete and recently restored. The building was used as a training college for the Polish army in WWII. It is possibly the largest terrain relief model on the planet, although I wouldn't recommend rushing to see it, it reminded me of the penguin enclosure in Edinburgh Zoo, but without the penguins. Perhaps I am insensitive, there was a war on.

Sweltering heat. Grand day out.

Returned to the tomatoes having taken over the greenhouse. Day of the Triffids,