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.

How Are Those Spuds Doing?

I had wanted to get some more potatoes planted, so of course when I found a big bag of seed potatoes with a clearance price on it, I grabbed it.  To make it even better it was a variety I've planted before, but hadn't yet planted this year, and had people tell me that they really liked.  They were nice big potatoes with lots of healthy shoots, but none too long that you had to worry about breaking them off.  I could divide each potato into two to four pieces, and so some 100+ pieces later, here they are all laid out in their not very straight rows.  The whole plot has a curve to it, so I just followed the the outside edge as I raked a trench.  The potatoes don't care that the row isn't straight, and neither do I.  These are Norland potatoes. 

To the right of them is a hillock with small blueberry bushes, and the tall grass is some Fall Rye that I didn't rototill in, because I am letting it produce seed heads that I'll add to the flower bouquets. To the right of that is another bed full of Kennebec potatoes.  I grew them last year, and ended up with a ton of little ones, most of which had a green bit on them from where they had seemed to push through to the top of the soil and were sun damaged.  Instead of throwing them out, I just kept them as seed potatoes, and I'm interested to see how they do.

To the left is a mass of buttercups growing around the Fall raspberries.  The raspberries will eventually be higher than the buttercups.  It's been a good Spring for growing buttercups:(  This is a good place to grow potatoes, because there is more likely to be wildlife damage out at this garden, and the rabbits and deer don't seem to bother the potatoes.  We just have to remember to keep the gate closed though, as Pride has tromped through here a few times.

And here's the first potatoes I planted, a couple of months ago, down at the other garden.  These are Warbas.  Hopefully in a few more weeks I'll be able to start sneaking some potatoes out of the hills.

And out behind, the hens are merrily scratching away.

Columbine blooming.

And the great white hunter.

Well maybe not so much anymore.  She sniffed around down here, chewed some grass, and tried to stick her nose into the camera lens.

I wish I could teach her to weed.

Happy Wet Victoria Day

Our stretch of decent, a taste of summer, sunny weather came to a screeching halt about lunchtime Sunday.

It had been dry for long enough to create Death Valley type cracks in the soil of the garden paths, and I had to keep watering the basil seeds to make sure they germinated.

Some people went away camping for the long weekend, in tents, and the rain poured down.

Been there, done that, and it might not be much bigger than a tent, but I'm sure happy that we have our little trailer now.  Not that we went anywhere this weekend anyway.  Not that we have a choice, we avoid going away on long weekends.

We went down to the dyke instead.  It's a long time since we've been there.  We lucked out and picked a time when the rain had eased to a drizzle and we got all but the last bit of the walk in before the deluge started again.

The water is high, most likely because the Fraser River is running high with snow melt, and it backs up into the creek.

The dogs got a bit of water time, but all we could find to throw were rocks, so they weren't terribly impressed, since rocks don't float.

Next time we'll have to remember to bring something that doesn't sink.

Inspiring

Came across this inspiring video as I was looking for something else on the internet (Don't we all know how that goes!)  Don't you love how Zip still jumps some of the invisible bars.

Calli has this same cart, although we never actually had to use it.  We've hung onto it just in case she needed it as she got older.

Helping With Garden Clean-Up

There's someone who is quite happy to eat those old wormy carrots that survived the winter. 

Field of Dreams

It's so nice that a friend has a nice grass field full of agility equipment only six minutes away.

Luna and I went over there last night.

She worked hard, and a bit insanely, and she was one tired dog at the end.

It's our BC/Yukon agility regionals coming up in less than four weeks. 

It will just be me and Luna this year, Jake isn't entered because of the issue with his knee.

And this was my view on the way home, just down the road from here.

The Fur Rug

Nelson's belly hair needs combing, but it looks like that five minutes after you've combed it anyway.