An Ebay purchase = a trip to York

For over a year Charlotte has wanted a pine blanket chest - not just any pine blanket chest but one like ours in our bedroom in fact it has been suggested to us that we might like to 'donate' it to her 'if we don't need it'. Bearing in mind it is full of spare quilts, curtains and cot bumpers and blankets 'if we don't need it' isn't likely. We bought ours before we were married (so over 35years ago) for £10 from what was called a 'junk' shop . The shop still exists but now looks like this

It was old, painted in dark lacquer, a bit smelly and was lined with newspaper dated 1912. We striped it down and due to the state of the newspaper took that off (wish we hadn't now) and it's been in use ever since, but I digress. Charlotte wanted one to use as a coffee table and storage but it needed to be old. I had looked for her when she first said and was taken back by the prices as now they are not considered junk but 'vintage' and thus command a vintage price ie anything from £100 upwards, £250 not being unusual. As her and Angus's move to their own home is imminent, the purchase of a pine chest came up again, so I started to look on Ebay. There seemed to a fair few but they were either too expensive, too new, too big/small or too far away.  I was about to give it up as a lost cause when the next one I clicked on looked interesting - £95 starting price and no bids, old (I could tell this as it had a candle box in it),

exactly the right size and in York so not too far away. We kept watch over the next few days and still no bids so we put ours in just before it ended and got it!! The bonus with it was that David and I could enjoy a day in York after we had collected it.
We arranged to go up on Monday and set off and as we passed Meadowhall (our big shopping centre ) just a few miles away we were in a snow blizzard. This continued on and off all the way up the M1 but became rain as we approached York. We found the seller's house despite the satnav loosing signal before we had arrived and spent a very pleasant few minutes chatting with him before departing with the chest, which was just perfect.

David might sand it down a little more before it goes down to Cornwall and it will need sealing.
So having got the business part of the day out of the way we continued into York. Unfortunately the weather had taken a turn for the worse and it was blowing a gale and raining when we parked up, so a trip to our favourite coffeeshop/ restaurant was our first stop - Cafe Concerto

We have been going here for many years and it's always consistently good with lovely staff.

The menu is interesting and food excellent. After coffee and toasted fruit and nut bread we ventured outside where the weather hadn't improved, hence the rather dreary pictures.

A wedding bus and car was waiting at the back of the minster

 The bride must have been frozen and trying to keep her dress with it's long train out of the wet was impossible.

A walk up Stonegate took us towards Bettys, where a look in their window revealed their display of very expensive Easter eggs

The weather didn't improve so rather than endure it we decided to call it a day and walked back to the car via the river

 passing this new bar/ restaurant right on the front

I could imagine sitting outside there on a lovely day with a nice glass of white wine - bring on the warmer weather!