exeter flea market

Sunday just gone I had another ok sunday, in fact I would go as far as to say it was good 🙂 huge progress with tiny baby steps for me as sunday sadness (which is an understatement) used to fill me with fear whenever the weekend came around, as it always does.

but anyway, this past sunday i was invited to go to exeter flea market. i did not even know there was a flea market in exeter and so i went along with my little girl zaria and met a good friend there, shelley barnes of “Crikey its vintage” fame.

fore street in the city centre, the west quarter,  is where the market takes place. The road is closed, and full up of stalls of delight. on entry to the street, there was a row of vintage type cars, one of which was a ford fiesta which made me feel incredibly old as i remember driving around in one when i was almost twenty. that fiesta was parked on a single yellow line in brighton and was empounded as we were not allowed to park there, but at the time i did not really know my highway code as i was not yet a driver. my mum bailed us and the car out and she never got paid back! thank you mum.

talking of brighton, this is what i felt when at the flea market… brightonish, such a good feeling. i felt like i had energy. like back in the vibrant north lanes just down from brighton station. there was a buzz of creativity that i feel exeter had lacked for the time i have lived here. it was good to feel part of such creativity. there was soul in the flea market and in each of the sellers. just down from the cars were cake stalls, which i did not sample, then stalls of cherished pre loved items for the home and to wear. crafts like macrame were on display, art works and various vintage finds. the sky was cloudy with a threaten of rain, but the colourful bunting across the sky between the buildings brought fore street its very own rainbow. there were a couple of food places too.

I had to resist buying lots, but thought so much about selling as flea markets are so JENuine in spirit. the high street leaves me cold that i hardly ever go there anymore. in the olden days as a teenager in bexhill i would go to a flea market underneath the old cinema, and just love what i saw. its like its in my blood or something. charity shop in bexhill are numerous and i just loved the whole vibe. my mother would worry the things i bought actually had fleas.

i did buy some amazing vintage fabric bunting which now hanging in my garden space, from

kat boon designs, and also bought some divine chocolate truffle type lollypops from a stall called “little wing”, which when half of one fell off the stick onto the ground, i could of cried like a child but quickly reframed it in grown up fashion that at least i had saved myself the calories. zaria loved them too.

at the bottom of the hill were coffee vans and we stopped for a coffee in the real mccoy arcade at camper coffee. again i felty back in brighton. i have not even been in the arcade for years. i remember trying to sell my levi 501 jeans to real mccoy as a skint student when living in halls in exmouth 24 years ago!

sadie horler, whom i have known since she was age 4, same age as by big girl nisha, was busking with her beautiful voice  songs that i would love to sing.

there are four planned flea market events this year in exeter, two have already taken place and i can’t at the moment find details of the next one. if anyone knows please comment. hashtags indieexeter and trashtotreasure (my computer does not seem to have a hashtag!!) if you know of when the next one is please comment… i would like to get a stall!