Friday 7 September 2012

Absence Alert

The weather report looks exceedingly dodgy for Saturday, so I will not be at my spot outside St. Lawrence Market tomorrow.  I should be back on Saturday, September 15, weather permitting.

Please, weather?  Please?

Thursday 6 September 2012

Summer Flames Out

It's good to be home again -- that is, back at my St. Lawrence Market table for the Saturday of Labour Day weekend.  It was gorgeous out again, sunny but not too hot, and the Market was bustling.  The atmosphere was charged with end-of-summer electricity.  People seemed to be very upbeat, enjoying the moment, not mourning the last of the school year's summer holiday.  Way to be, people!  I always feel a secret elation that I won't be going back to school with the rest of the hordes.  Decades later and I'm still thrilled to be free of that particular societal system.  Love learning, just not so much in classrooms, mmmmkay?

Dogs and kids abounded.  There was also the added attraction of the annual air show happening on the Island, which I love.  You don't have to be there to enjoy part of the show; they fly so far afield that I can see bits of the show from my home in the Beach.  St. Lawrence is much closer than that.  We saw Snowbirds or their American equivalents, and little yellow training planes.  Missed the Lancaster bomber, though, that massive presence with the bass hum that is quite thrilling to behold..  The indispensable Scott tells me it's not a given that it will make an appearance.  I always though it was.  Now I will appreciate it more whenever I do get to see it.

Sorry to say I missed the Morris dancers Scott tells me were performing in the Park.  I heard some of them in the ladies room afterwards, though, jingle-jangle-jingling.

It was a good day, made better by a late-season visit from one of my most loyal customers who has come to see me and pick up something new every year since I began selling my hats at St. Lawrence Market.  Having repeat customers, and have them refer their friends to me, is the best thing about selling my work.  It's elating and encouraging and makes me so proud and grateful.  A great way to end the summer holiday season.

On with the show!

Marianne found a cap in her favourite colour combination.  A former jewelry crafter herself, she now operates a food truck outside Mount Sinai Hospital.  Interesting reading.  So many of my customers have such intriguing stories.  I wish I knew more than only a fraction of them.


  The Market was abuzz with activity.
Denyse, my highly-valued loyal customer, looking uncharacteristically coy in one of her small number of new acquisitions.  Merci mille fois, Denyse!  A bientot, j'espere!

Laura looks pretty happy about her choice.  Her family helped her make it. Thank you, one and all!
Ashleigh, gracing her new silk disc band.
Adina and I have friends in common, and she comes to say hello when she's doing her Market shopping.  I asked her to model this for me...
....and this is the one she herself chose to model.
Once more with feeling!
Arthur, a very young Schnauzer, was the dog of the day.  So nice I snapped him thrice.







Chloe, a regular.

Chelsea!
And again, giving Arthur a run for his money in the cuteness department.
Borrowing my mirror to take a photo.  I volunteered, but no, they wanted it like this.





Look!  Up in the air!  Four little yellow planes, flying in formation!
Look!  Down on the ground!  Salome modeling the OMG hat!  And with her usual sass and style, I might add.
A teeny plane trailing smoke.
A dog waiting patiently for some wind to face into.
Why look who's coming.  It's... Sticky Toffee!
He has his own website, does Sticky Toffee.  (Sticky, to his friends.  But not, to be fair, to the touch.)
Emerging from a refreshing dip.
Monty, au naturel.
Finally, Mark's ingenious method of keeping his vase-less sunflowers fresh at work -- velcro strap and a repurposed coffee mug.