How not to treat your baskets

Mimi's post on baskets see French Kitchen in America immediately made me think of resurrecting a favourite basket of mine that has been languishing in my cellar for over twenty years, well in fact since we moved into this house. Now, I cannot remember how I acquired it but I really loved it and it was regularly used for popping out to the shops for the odd few items. The basket became impractical once supermarkets took over from the local shops. A weekly shop was much more convenient and supermarkets gave plastic bags in an effort to reduce the shop lifting, so you were not allow you to use your own bag. Now we have come a complete circle and with all the recycling bags have once again become 'fashionable' and stores encourage rather than discourage own bags and baskets. In fact many actually sell bags for re-use, the cynic in me says are they really trying to save the environment or line their own pockets. This is open for debate and I'm sure you all have views. You can see from the first photo taken in the cellar my basket has been used to store my grandchildren's buckets and spades. As an aside the boat you can see is one of two that were made for Sam and Beccy by their father back in the early 70's (I hope you note we were ahead of the times not all stereo-typical girly toys). I have so much stored in my cellar I have enough material for quite a few posts if I get short of ideas. I think a cellar sale would be a good idea once it's all sorted.


The basket is currently sitting on my hearth and I have been wondering whether to keep it as a feature and fill with dried flowers or pebbles. Any ideas would be appreciated.