A buying frenzy in God's Own Country

Maybe it's the time of the month or the phase of the moon or maybe I've just been lucky but several delights have come my way recently. 

The ever reliable Limerick Animal Welfare shop provided me with my first pair of summer sandals - a gorgeous pair of Kickers which I got for less than 1/10th of the new purchase price and which will see me through winter methinks with a pair of tights.

And then for the household I also found this old glass dish of the kind which I think was used in the 50's or maybe even earlier by ladies for keeping pins and clips on their dressing tables which is where this one will live when it's not being photographed on mossy, ivy covered walls

I love old glass like this, far preferable to plastic for keeping my treasures in.

And lastly another old treasure and informative to boot.  Did you know Cork looked like this?

Me neither.  But it does according to my new tea towel, 'Ireland, God's Own Country' which also includes a map of Ireland and artist impressions of several other famous Irish places.  I have of course taken a close up of the section featuring Limerick and helpfully highlighted two other places where excellent charity shops are to be found:-

For those of you unfamiliar with Ireland or maybe planning a tour here is the whole map reproduced in full.  I'm now entertaining a small notion to use the remaining 6 weeks of my summer holiday to sniff out charity shops in every location on this tea towel using my trusty velocipede Corky*.  I know for a fact there are none in Castletownbere or Glengariff.  Shame as they're lovely parts of Ireland and would I suspect have top notch goodies due to the largesse of the local inhabitants.

* my trusty velocipde Corky