Welcome to my blog, where I take pleasure in words and pictures, be they my own or those of others. I'm a creative individual, and the crafty side I explore on my 'other blog', Picking Up The Threads, which I hope you'll visit too. I'm sure you understand that I have sole copyright of my original work and any of my contributions, so please ask if you want to use them. A polite request is rarely refused. So, as they used to say on the BBC's 'Listen With Mother' radio programme, many years ago: "Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin."

Wednesday 31 August 2011

Some Shopping Trip!

I was amazed to see that Carmi at Written Inc had given us 'shopping’ for this week’s Thematic Photographic so soon after my ‘Open All Hour’s post last week. I thought I’d be all shopped out and struggling to rise to the challenge. Then I had a brainwave (of sorts) when I remembered a trip to the States in October 1999. I knew I’d got some photos of some very different shops and I was sure I had scribbled some notes to remind me what they were.
I couldn’t believe we were actually in New York! This is obviously just a souvenir of our visit to ‘The World’s Largest Store’ so not wildly exciting. I would have loved to have taken pictures actually inside the building as everything was laid out so beautifully, like a work of art. Unfortunately they got very sniffy in there and wouldn’t allow it, so this would have to do!

In Lancaster, I had written that it was a very pleasant old town with a 100 year old market. There was a little shopping arcade with quaint shops selling fine art and crafts. That’s my kind of shopping. There was a lady from Yorkshire selling pots and the shop next door was owned by a man from Cheshire! I bought some earrings, which I still have.

We had coffee in what I described as a ‘folksy’ café, and then it was on to Amish country, where we saw some beautiful quilts for sale and from there to Intercourse P.A. where I noted that the shopping village ‘knocked our local one into a cocked hat’, and one fruit store sold fourteen different varieties of apples! I was obviously impressed.

Beautiful handmade quilts were for sale by Amish ladies in Lancaster, and below an example of the ‘Intercourse P.A.’ shopping experience.


At Harper’s Ferry I photographed this recreated shop. Very different from Macy’s.

In Washington I had written that we visited Tyson’s Corner shopping mall, where it seems I replenished my needleworks supplies. Some of the best patchwork fabrics come from the USA and I purchased several lengths of cotton material, some of which remains unused.
Now it would appear that all I did on that trip was shop. This is not so; we saw museums and art galleries, great buildings and memorials, and many moving Civil War battlefields, but the shopping was obviously a big part of the experience. On the final day we wandered 'The King of Prussia', which is one of the biggest shopping malls I have ever experienced. As it was October there were pumpkins and scarecrows and autumn leaves falling and some amazing sunsets. All in all wonderful trip and one I’ve been happy to re-live for this post which evoked those memories.

6 comments:

  1. Cool pictures, that one with the pumpkins looks like it belongs in Lexington, Mass, where I spent half my childhood.

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  2. Oh what lovely photos, but your storyline throughout I found even more enjoyable...my kind of shopping too, it felt almost as good as going along with you...and I can bet that you saw lots of Civil War stuff....especially around Harper's Ferry...what an amazing trip you had...and I have to laugh at those silly people being sniffy about tourists shooting a photo here or there...one way I get away with lots of my inside photos is I take people with me and pretend that's all I'm shooting....Macy's can have some very cool decorations, especially at Christmas time! Great TP glad you posted!

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  3. Wonderful shopping experience. I like the pics, they're astoun ding!

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  4. I wonder why Intercourse is my favourite? The thought of being in the world's largest store terrifies me. I might be accused of loitering if I had to wait outside for my wife.

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  5. How fabulous, the thought of shopping gets my heart racing. When i went to NY i had a whale of a time shop dashing :o) Scarlett x

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  6. That's a nice picture of Macy's, and I LOVE those quilts- beautiful colors.

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