The End Of An Era.

After work I dropped into Brian Ford's to be met with the sight of half empty shelves as they sell off their stock prior to their closing in 3 weeks time. It looked so sad. BF's is/was the biggest independent supermarket in the UK. Here food sales are dominated by 4 chains that have enormous, gleaming stores. Each one with identical prices and identical layout no matter which town you are in. Every town or district will have 1 or 2 of these stores. There are 4 other food retailers, 2 cheaper and 2 more expensive with slightly smaller and less frequent stores. And that is the choice that most people have where ever they are in the country. Then there is a massive gap till you get to the tiny independent corner -shop type stores which are slowly being squeezed out of business by the big 4. BF's is unique in that it is very large, a whole warehouse with basic shelves or goods still stacked on wooden pallets. The normal branded food is the same price or more expensive than the big 4 but the fun part of shopping there was the random items they would have at cheap prices. Different every week, ends of lines destined for Europe or short coded items. We especially liked a range of frozen food, very basically packed by a company that sells to the catering trade. One week you could buy mini spring rolls or garlic mushrooms, another it would be vegetarian lasagna or battered prawns. By being selective we could eat very well at a reasonable price. I also like the fact that in the fresh food section were a lot of local vegetables as well as local meat. A year ago it was revealed that Tescos had secretly bought up BF's with its planning permission to expand and now the store will be closing soon. Some items are being highly reduced, shelves have been emptied, but other stock is still the same. I suppose they want to keep people coming in up to the end. I was cross to find my normal very cheap brand of clothes washing liquid gone. It's not only that it's cheap but I am very fussy about the smell and really can't stand some of the big name brands of washing liquid. So I had to stand there opening bottles and sniffing them to find one I didn't mind.Flowers on the rocky hillside. I have been teaching all day and had a really good day with my 7 year olds. They have been doing so much formal work with their SATs that once we had done some literacy I gave them a fun art session where I provided a variety of media and also paper in different sizes and shapes and let them do what they liked. My only instruction was that they spent the time doing art activities. Some children worked together, others made cards, others painted or got messy with pastels in shades of grey and they all had a creative and focused time. What more could I ask for?
At home the garden is blooming and the 'snow' continues to fall from the willow trees.