Yard sale 2018 – a grand afternoon!

After at least a fortnight of sunny days and a forecast of yet more to come, imagine the disappointment on waking to see drizzle on the morning of our yard sale, 2018.  However, once participants began to hunt out gazebos and tarpaulins, the rain stopped and we were very grateful for a warm, dry afternoon!

With 40 gardens to visit for sales and entertainment, this was our biggest yard sale afternoon since the initial event in 1999 and it certainly felt like the busiest too! More money changed hands than ever before with the total turnover of £4781.94, of which £2095.59 was donated to charities chosen by the individual stallholders.  The top producer this year was Natacha with £443 resulting from her sales of furniture, clothes and general household items and Natacha has donated all of this to Granton Hub Community Garden.

With community spirit definitely top of the agenda, several residents joined forces with neighbours whilst others borrowed and lent gardens and skills such as sewing and baking – and those of us who weren’t selling or performing reaped the results of the great teamwork!

With baking, children’s items, garden plants, books, clothes, artwork featuring as prominently as ever this year, it was also refreshing to have lively, enthusiastic entertainment by a little group of confident Team Scotland dancers who raised over £200 toward their imminent trip to Spain to compete in the Dance World Cup.  An excellent new idea for children was the story-telling tent with local author Diana Hendry reading her own tales to visiting children under the multi-coloured canopy.  The Colonies Cakes stall in the prime location garden of 1 Reid Terrace replaced the Colonies Tombola of previous years to ensure that the cost of printing and laminating posters etc was covered so we’re delighted with the result of £160, thanks to a handful of generous Colonies bakers.

Thank you very much to everyone who participated in any way at all, be it by displaying a poster, lending a garden, inviting a friend, baking, creating, selling, browsing, applauding… or just by smiling and enjoying the afternoon.  Some of the photos on our Facebook page convey the resulting busy, happy atmosphere!