The early worm

I got up before seven this morning and was rewarded with this:

Normally I would have missed it but Mick had seen an ad for a garage sale at the old rectory in Morpeth, a pretty little town east of Maitland on the river. You always have to get in early for these things and even though we arrived at the advertised 7.30 start-time it was already busy with professional scavengers. These people are serious.
Given the venue, we were hoping for some old church fittings or something of similar interest but it was just the regular crap, although it did include, bizarrely, a very heavy, realistic-looking toy handgun. As usual, Mick managed to ferret out something good, this time a couple of Two Ronnies videos. (Can't wait to watch 'The Worm That Turned' again.) This of course prompted a bout of purchase envy and I ended up spending $2 on a set of six small bowls for which I have absolutely no use whatsoever. 
Nuts? Condiments? Japanese tea ceremony?
It was worth getting up to see that sunrise though, plus my favourite building in the area, something of a local landmark. I took this photo a few years back:

The pills were first sold in the 1850s and were recommended as being an aid "for biliousness, dyspepsia, constipation, sick headache, scofula, kidney disease, liver complaint, jaundice, piles, dysentery, colds, boils, malarial fever, flatulency, foul breath, eczema, gravel, worms, female complaints, rheumatism, neuralgia, la grippe, palitation, and nervousness". 

All rather impressive, but "gravel"?