Eight Seconds of Fame

There was a photographer from the local White Rock newspaper wandering around the farmers market last Sunday. When I checked the website today, I found this.

http://www.bcdailybuzz.com/media/11449/Winter_market/

The Bread Box

A few months ago I was poking around one of my favourite thrift stores.  I think by now you know that poking around in thrift stores ranks really high on the list of things I like to do.

I found this old bread box and a couple of matching canisters, they were half price

I also found three straw chickens, the rooster and small hen were $1 each, and there was a bigger hen the same that was $2.  I debated long and hard, and then spent $15 and bought the canisters and bread box, as well as the chickens.  They made nice additions to our table at the farmers market.

Some times you just need a bit of something to fill in an empty spot.

The sugar cannister seems especially appropriate, sat there next to the jam.

When I first put the breadbox out, is seemed that every other person asked if it was for sale.  If they didn't ask if it was for sale, they tried to open the door.  At first I had tape on the inside, trying to hold it shut.  Finally I had to break down and hot glue the door shut.

When one young girl last Saturday tried to open it, and I told her it was glued shut, she said 'now you can't put any bread in it'. 

 I use it to store a different kind of bread. 

 I managed to work the back piece out of the bread box, without destroying anything, and placed the cash box inside .  It's out of sight of the customers, and handy for us.  The flour cannister is used to slip the big bills into.

Now you can see why I don't want people able to pull the door open!

And the weirdest thing that happened, related to that bread box....

  

It was a Sunday, near the end of the market.  There were no customers in our booth.  A woman came walking in, talking on her cell phone.  She didn't speak to us, just continued on with her phone call, and walked up and tried to open the bread box and then turned around and walked out.

Weird.

Picker's Sky

It just seems like we have finally got into summer, and suddenly Fall is nipping at our heels.  On Saturday morning the alarm went off at 5:30.  I wanted to have enough time to get everything picked and ready for the market, with out my usual last minute crazy mad rush.  The only thing is that now at 5:30, it's just too dark to see what I'm picking.  So a few more minutes of lazing in bed, and finally outside I went.  There were some interesting cloud formations in the sky.  This was about 5:48.  I'm not really one for looking for shapes in the clouds, but looking at this picture later made me think of a herd of elephants, tromping along with trunks held aloft. A couple of elephants seem to have lost their trunks, or maybe the trunks have lost their elephants, but no matter, it's all in the imagination.

Saturday morning was chilly, my right hand was numbing up gathering those cold vegetables.  The vegetables know that Fall is on it's way.  They are slowing down.  There was less to pick, but it takes longer to pick it, so in the end you spend about the same amount of time.  

This morning (Sunday) wasn't as cold.  The Red Sky Rhyme was giving fair warning of the clouds that were forecast to roll in this afternoon, which they did.  

We actually were sort of organized this morning, but even then those few extra minutes seem to get frittered away, and all of a sudden it's a rush again.

It was a good market.  All the vegetables sold except for five bunches of Kale.  Kale sold really fast at the beginning of the year, and now it seems to have eased off.  We'll be having zucchini/kale/onion/whatever else we have to add to it/ stir fries for lunch this week, all sprinkled with parmesan cheese when it's done.  

MMMMmmmmm....

Luna said it was a tough day at the market.

(This is the first time I've seen her use a toy as a pillow)

Doggie Day

It was doggie day at the farmers market yesterday.  There was some amazing road art.

This was drawn in chalk, yes, even that cone on the right 

And the real Rosco poses next to his portrait.  

This is Major.  He belongs to one of the vendors, and comes to the market most days.

The weather yesterday, in the morning, was Not nice.  I guess we've had our week of summer.  

As one vendor said, 'it's the middle of July, and I'm wearing a toque!'

And despite the fact there was a little dog show happening, which usually brings everyone and their dog to the market, it was a slow day.

Major's mom Judy, sent us home with this. See that empty tart thingy on the left.  That was to give me the energy to pack up our booth.

 Is there any wonder that I'm not losing any weight?

The best part of the day for Luna was when the chalk art had to be washed off the pavement.  She got to chase the hose, and star in a few stranger's  phone videos.

The Calm After The Storm

Although we do get a lot of rain here, we don't generally get any major weather 'events'. 

Saturday afternoon we did get one of those rare events, or at least what counts as an event for us, and it doesn't take much for it to be classified as such:)

Being a Saturday, it was a market day. This market only takes one person, so I went and then Larry came an hour before the end. A chance for me to have a bit of a look around the market, and it's always nice to have someone there to help you pack up, especially if it's hot.  We are still waiting for the 'hot'. 

 He took over for me, and I wandered off with my bucket and pruners down the nearby railway sidings, to see what wild stuff I could round up.  So a bucket of foxgloves, daisies, and branches of some shrub thing that looked a bit like a droopy astilbe flower before the buds have popped, plus a few other bits of 'stuff', was carried back to add to whatever few flowers I had yet to round up at home.  I only take flowers to the Sunday market.

After we had packed up at the market, Larry headed home with the truck and trailer, and I headed to the fabric store and then my favourite thrift store.  We had lucked out with the weather, and it had been dry and decent at the market, with the sun eventually coming out. 

At one point I glanced out of the windows, and 'Holy Sh*t', I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The weather had been fine when I walked into the store.  It now looked like one of those news shots from a hurricane zone in Florida.  The rain was blowing in sheets at a 45 degree angle, the trees were bending at the same angle, and there was thunder and lightening, although they weren't really obvious because the clouds and rain were just about drowning them out.  Eventually I had to leave, and my car was parked on the other side of the street.  I even checked to see if the thrift store had a cheap umbrella I could buy to get me there, but there was nothing that I wanted to pay money for. 

 On the way home I stayed off the freeway, and tried to pick routes that didn't have a lot of tall trees next to the road.   There were lots of small branches on the pavement, and some areas were starting to flood.  When I arrived here, the power had just gone out, and Jake was a shaking, panting little dog. He does not like wind, and thunder even less.  I fashioned a sort of 'thundershirt' for him out of some stretchy ribbing fabric, put a tight dog coat on him to hold it all in place, and made a den for him in the smallest crate covered over to make it dark.  He stayed in there and came out later after the storm passed looking much happier.

By that point I wished I'd been home earlier and picked what flowers we had before the rain hit.  I was a pleasant surprise though to see that they had all survived, and after it dried up a bit, I went out and cut what there was.  Even the tall delphiniums and the monkshood were still standing.

And while I was outside, the power came back on, and all was well with my world:)

                                                

They did end up being rather big bouquets, and but sometimes you just have to keep adding flowers to make it look right.  With those big tall spikes in the middle, there had to be enough at the bottom to balance them out, as I didn't have enough of the right flowers to just make it just a tall bouquet.

Very 'countryish', that's for sure!

We ended up bring one home with us yesterday afternoon.  A lady paid for it, and said she was coming back for it later, but never did. 

Here it is in one of my dad's pieces of pottery, being hit by this morning's early sunlight.

Opening Day

It was opening day at the White Rock Farmers Market yesterday.

Let's just say that it was a very successful start to the market season.  The weather was good, except for the cold wind that seems to plague that site.  It's located right next to and between two high rises, the highest buildings in the area, located on top of the hill less than a mile from the ocean.  They create a gigantic wind tunnel.  Even though it can feel quite summery as we leave home, we have to remember to pack enough clothes for a mild winter's day.  Larry said he hadn't taken enough clothes yesterday, and said he is going to pack a permanent 'White Rock Market extra clothes bag' and leave it in the truck.  Of course we feel it more than the customers, because we are stuck in one spot for four hours.  We do put a couple of tarp walls up at the back of our tent, and that does make it more sheltered.  The only problem comes when the wind is strong enough to make those tarp walls become like gigantic sails, and then it just becomes too dangerous.  Everything has to come down, including the roof on the tent.  We had one day like that at the end of last season.  Just imagine if it started to rain too.  It doesn't bear thinking about:(

So 130 jars of jam later, and that's just yesterday's sales.  Add to that the 40+ jars sold on Saturday, and you know what I'm doing this week.  Oh, and quite a bit of sewing went as well.

This lady had just bought that stripey bag that's slung over her shoulder, from me.  She had her hands full and needed to make her life a little easier.

She said this cute little face was being snarky to all the dogs he was meeting at ground level, so this was her solution.

Maybe I could make one big enough for Luna.

To Market To Market....

The first farmers market of the summer season in our home town was a rounding success.  The weather couldn't have been nicer, there were lots of vendors and lots of customers and lots of sales.  It was maybe a bit slow to start for us, but in the end I couldn't have been happier.  I had picked about 25 bags of greens and herbs.  Kale, beet greens and collards, that had all survived the winter and sent out new shoots and now flower heads, on their way to producing seed and dying.  I know there was one point when I was thinking that we were going to have a whole lot of greens to eat this week, but by the end of the day, (1pm) all those were gone.  The only thing left were a couple of bags of mint from the herb bin.  As usual, I tell myself that I'm going to whip up some mint jelly with that, but never do.  Maybe this will be the time....

Lots of jam sold, so I'll be making a few more batches this week, and even the sewing was a success.  A few mothers got aprons for Mothers Day:)

Could have sold more eggs, but only took 15 dozen.  Some of the new hens have started to lay, yesterday we got 6 little eggs from them.

There was opening day cake for everyone, the mayor was there, and came around and introduced himself.  The music was good, and we had a mini flash mob line dance group appear.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so no pictures.  We have one more Sunday off before the White Rock market starts on the 27th.  Before long I'll be complaining about making jam.