Banned.

Note to readers (my lovely Baggees): For the avoidance of any doubt - every character in this blog is me!!! No Baggy was harmed in its writing.

Baggy's daily state!
Depression (Black = really bad/Grey = not great/Blue = okay/Yellow = sunny day): Blue.
Anxiety (From 1 = barely any to 10 = gibbering wreck standard): 4.
Tears: No.
Overall day: 😏

Clever Bird was determined not to let the sick-feeling stop her today. She'd set the alarm to make sure she had time for Furry Mama to walk Minty Mutt before the auctioneer arrived. When she looked at the massive pile of things that she'd decided to sell, it occurred to her that she might need to find something to pack it in before he arrived. By the time Baggy, Furry Mama and Hormonal Hannah had faffed about, it was later than Clever Bird had intended for setting off, but she still had plenty of time. Truthfully, Hannah didn't want to leave the house, but it was a stunning autumn morning, Baggy's favourite time of year, and Minty was keen to go, so off she set. The sky was HUGE and very blue. The sun was out, but it was quite cool. Clever Bird tried to distract Freda Fretter, so she called Calum for her morning chat as she walked.

Baggy had the sick-feeling, but it was manageable and Mint sniffed and marked his territory as Furry Mama walked. As she walked past the old gun placement and pill box Baggy's heart rate shot up and she started feeling very anxious. "That's weird", she said to Calum on the phone, "I wasn't too bad, but now I'm really panicking".
"Are you sure it's not your psychic ability?"
"I hadn't thought of that", said Baggy as Furry Mama kept walking. As she left the area of the Second World War archaeology Baggy's panic subsided a little. "That's weird", said Baggy, "I do feel a bit better now I'm away from there". But even as she said it, Archaeologist Annie was thinking that that made no sense, as surely no one would have died there. But that's a stupid thought as the gun might well have brought a plane down; the track is in any case hundreds of years old, being an old drovers' way and the whole route is littered with Mesolithic flint tools, presumably from when the Tsunami hit the east coast, so dozens of souls might have died around that area.  But as Clever Bird's brain whirred it distracted Hannah.

There were virtually no clouds in the sky. No one else was around. Baggy decided to enjoy the lovely countryside and pretend that Calum was actually with them, not just at the other end of the phone.

 



Cal signed off, so Furry Mama wandered after Mint as he sniffed his way round his "patch".

As they got home Clever Bird realised that the auctioneer was waiting outside the house. "Hi, am I late or are you early?"
"I'm half-an-hour early. I guessed you were walking the dog as there was no mad barking".

An hour or more later he left with a car stuffed full of things to be sold. Nothing on its own was of any significant value, but as Baggy had given him so much, it should all add up to a nice amount. But to make the most of the opportunity, most of it will be going into specialist sales, some of which aren't until next April! But at least the house is now a little less cluttered. Bonus.

There was one bit of bad news though. Something which Clever Bird hadn't even considered before. One of Creative Clara's most valuable collections is of portrait miniatures. It's not a huge collection, but it is a nice one that she's built up over years. It's worth a few bob. But, and this is a big but, America has now totally banned the selling of ivory - of any age. Where America leads, the UK generally follows and of course Baggy's collection being made up of late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth-century miniatures, are all done on ivory. So potentially they will soon become totally worthless. Clever Bird doesn't entirely get the logic of banning all sales of ivory, but doesn't wish to get into a political debate, but if she does need to sell them, she'll have to do it sooner rather than later. It does make you wonder though what will happen to all these wonderful treasures. She also wonders if the sale of the mega-valuable earlier miniatures will also be banned. They were painted on vellum - the most precious of these purportedly on vellum made from the skin of a human foetus. Not a pleasant thought. But the fact is that the world changes and in the future, undoubtedly things that are done today will be deemed completely unacceptable and banned. But if it's already been done and is a historic work of art Clever Bird can't entirely see the point of retrospectively banning its sale. Okay sorry baggees, she got political...........