I want one like this...

I have been gently nudging the Engineer throughout the winter months that I would very much like him to construct for me a suitably fetching and daintily tempting 'Honesty Shelf' from which I hope to sell my wares of eggs, vegetable/fruit gluts and the odd pretty bunch of cut flowers, to the as yet unsuspecting but hopefully captive audience of school mums and dads, and general strollers and dog walkers who daily pass my gate to go to school next door, or onto the footpath which passes along our boundary.

With the untold riches thus gained, I intend to help provide for my lavish chicken keeping and gardening habits without feeling so much like I'm stealing from the housekeeping...so it's all in a good cause!

However, as with all 'gentle nudges' these have been heartily ignored and as spring is almost upon us, my need for 'The Shelf' becomes daily more pressing.

So yesterday I insisted he pull over on our way through a nearby village so that I could take a quick photo of this:

A reasonably attractive example, and I felt, quite achievable to his carpentry skills....no? I particularly like the deep shelf with equally deep roof, so that the eggs in their more vulnerable cardboard boxes could be pushed further back to protect them if rain was likely.

The huge blackboard here would be overkill for my passing trade, who would likely be on foot - here they are right on a very busy through road so need to attract the motorist's attention.

I would favour the more tasteful example below, which I fell in love with as we passed every day from our campsite in Wales during the summer holidays:

I am hoping to have a go at painting a similarly striking chicken sign myself.  It was the thing which first caught my eye as we drove past, and really made this house's honesty shelf stand out.  It also made me smile, which can never be a bad thing.

I have drawn a total blank in scavenging in the garage for something solid enough and suitable - which amazes me considering how much junk is being kept in there 'just in case'...so I am forced to demand a purpose built offering, after all, there is an equally huge quantity of 'garden suitable' wood also being stored under a tarp by the chicken house for this sort of eventuality.  Watch this space.  (Hopefully not for too long, or it will be autumn again and I will have nothing to sell).