billy cat and wild garlic

Had another wonderful day at The Old Sale Rooms in which my "knowledge of random stuff" (thank you Steve - facebook friend and real life neighbour) has grown exponentially!

I didn't know until today, for instance, that Avonmouth docks always smelt of talc in the 1950s because it was imported there. I didn't know talc smelt of talc in fact. I thought it smelt of lavender or some such.

I didn't know until today, that there is a delightful alleyway opposite The Old Sale Rooms patrolled by the sleek Billy-Cat and that night skies up above the cottages that this alleyway leads to, are (to quote Candy who used to live there) " just awesome". For a step or two away from one of Wellington's main streets and the night sky is unpolluted and the stars as bright as anything.

I didn't know until today, the difference between 'bookland' and 'folkland'.

I didn't know until today, that a hop, skip and a jump away from Mantle Street, grows wild garlic (during wild garlic season that is)!

I didn't know until today, that the incident of a frozen sprout being used to break a window shortly after Christmas one year back along, was held up by our local press as an indicator of the then rising crime rate. And that reading the report of this misdemeanour (not pleasant for the victim of course) helped one man new to Wellington, having recently migrated from one of the crime hotspots of the North, sleep a lot better in his bed, than he had done for a long, long time...

Just how these memories of (mostly) Mantle Street will be illustrated in the memory rug, I have yet to work out. But the best thing for now, I've decided, is just to enjoy them!