First world problems
BBC pissing and moaning about the ‘critically endangered’ Sussex trug.
Why is it critically endangered? Because nobody wants to pay £50 for a handbasket, is why. It doesn’t say that in the article, but it’s the truth.
This is a thing we see a lot – people doing working class jobs expecting middle class money. Somebody retires to the country to start a little business making cakes or blacksmithing or basket weaving and they bring their city salary expectations with them. Which they can get away with for a while, but ultimately it’s hard to justify paying stupid money for a piece of cake, even if it’s a very nice piece of cake.
Anyway, Sussex trugs are kind of cool. They’re tacked together out of flexible strips of wood so tightly you can carry water in them, so they say. We see people making them at every country show we go to, so nuts to critically endangered. I don’t own one, though.
Have a good weekend!
Posted: April 11th, 2025 under personal.
Comments: 6
Comments
Comment from QuasiModo
Time: April 11, 2025, 7:11 pm
Learn something new every day here 🙂
Have a nice weekend 🙂
Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: April 11, 2025, 9:13 pm
Oh dear..this hit home. My mom was an RN who developed a hobby doing Scherenschnitte.
Scherenschnitte is the art of cutting paper into decorative designs.
She was actually very, very good having both the steady hand to hold a razor knife (scissors were verbotten!) and enough OCD to cut away everything that didn’t look like an …well you get the idea.
Her works became popular and she could occasionally command a few hundred dollars for a work. However, after retirement she started to fancy herself an artist to the point of wanting to open a storefront in a nearby tourist village. It took my father almost half a bottle of whisky (he later told me) to work up the courage to tell her that she was crazy.
Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: April 12, 2025, 2:16 am
Some things you do for the money.
Some things you do for love.
On rare occasions the two intersect.
But don’t bet the farm on it.
Comment from Deborah HH
Time: April 12, 2025, 2:30 pm
Years ago in an over-priced garden shop, I had my hands on a Smith & Hawken trug. It was so beautiful, and crazy expensive, and probably made in England. I wanted it for my mother, not for me. But I didn’t buy it, and I still regret that. We lived ten miles apart and carried things back/forth to each other all the time: kitchen stuff, sewing notions, sweetie gifts. She would have loved that trug.
Comment from Drew458
Time: April 23, 2025, 2:52 pm
Is that handbasket named Hellena?
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