Gladly there was no rumble (at least not that we saw) at St. Joseph’s Hospice jumble sale today, but we could have been in Zaire with the July weather the way it has been…

We arrived a bit ahead of the game, so Anne and Bryon pointed their eyes at a screen showing something called ‘Wimbledon’ whilst Emily and I went out to sample the food being sold out in the courtyard, entertained by all manner of weird and wonderful dance routines and music.

Once trading had finally closed for the day, we all got to work moving the rails and bags of clothes off to where they were stored at various parts of the site, including the old and now disused site dating from when the place was run by nuns (definitely haunted!) So far so easy, plus we were unexpectedly joined by Jess who’d just stopped in to buy some fairy cakes.

It was around now the full scale of the jumble sale, and indeed or task was revealed. Dedicated rooms were spread about the site, each with huge quantities of merchandise - they had a whole room just for children’s DVDs and books for example. Since they do this often, everything was organised in crates so was straightforward enough to shift via carts and trollies to the basement where it lives the rest of the year. Plus, there were plenty of regular staff and volunteers around to make sure things went smoothly.

After much toing and froing in the lift, the site was transformed back to it’s normal appearance – at least for a few months when they do it all over again. 😅