the laws of attraction

Once a week, Jack and I jump in the car and head off on a spontaneous road trip. No packing - no organisation - just get in the car and go. On Saturday, we took advantage of the glorious weather and headed to Helensville, an historic town on the Kaipara River at the southern edge of the Kaipara Harbour (above). Our first priority is always to sample the homemade tucker from local bakeries en route. On this occasion, the Helensville Bakery at the extreme end of the township (across the road from the old Regent Theatre) provided a sublime Sally Lunn and one of the tastiest mince and cheese pies I've ever eaten. 

Our second priority is to keep an eye out for interesting books (Jack) and curios (me). We never know what will end up attracting our attention.

Jack spotted The Voices of Silence in the window of John Perry's cluttered shop in the old Regent, which John very kindly extracted for him. It was quite something to watch him delicately tiptoe around the objects in the window to reach the book. I guess when you surround yourself with that much clutter, you must get pretty adept at being able to maneuver around things with minimal breakage.

Fortunately, a sale was made, and Andre Malraux's 1953 history and philosophy of art made its way home with us.

My eye, on the other hand, was drawn to a tub containing three vintage rolling pins in an antique store in Huapai.

Aren't they gorgeous!

Now I just need to work out how best to display them.