The One-Stop Coffin Shop

摘要

Should you find yourselves scratching around for Valentine ideas later this month, allow me to commend to you the range of handsome wicker baskets sold by Ms Barbara Butler of Watchet, Somerset. Typically some six-and-half feet long by about two deep, Butler's baskets are hand-plaited from pollarded willow fronds in a neighbouring Quantock village. Given the rarity of this skill and the degree of labour involved in their manufacture, the baskets' price tag of £300 seems something of a snip. 'And you can use them for all kinds of things,' hazards Butler. 'You could put glass on top and have them as coffee tables, for example.' Then she pauses thoughtfully and adds, 'Until the time comes, of course.'