The Market

We enjoyed a marvellous Thanksgiving break at Riverwood last weekend, but as you can tell from the lack of blogs all last week, I had a bit of trouble getting back into the groove after our little holiday.

We missed the peak of colour by one week, so most of the reds were gone, but it was still a very colourful trip and I took scads of pictures from the car as we toodled along the back roads on the way to the farm. As a result of taking lots of pics from a moving car I had a major culling job to do once all my pics were on the computer. I think I have them all sorted out now, so stay tuned for a blog or two of our trip away, in the meantime, here are a few pics from this past weekend at home.

Smudge was way overdue for a sleepover, so we had her over for one on Friday night. That meant we had the privilege of taking her to dance class on Saturday morning too. After class we picked her up and took her to Tim's for a drink and a snack, then it was off to the local Farmer's Market to see what was going on there.

What fun for kids and adults alike. The farmer's stalls were full of wonderful fall produce and home baking for the adults to drool over, there were pens of farm animals to entertain the kids, fiddlers were playing toe tapping tunes to fill the air with fabulous music, and the sun was shining brightly. All in all it was a delightful visit to the market.

In the pic below we see Buppa keeping a close eye on Smudge while she feeds the goats and lambs.
I think she is making friends with this particular goat.
(Just an aside about this particular goat...while we were standing there watching Smudge, a young girl came up to me and asked me if I would like to buy a ticket to play Goat Bingo. The funds would be used to help pay for a new roof on the Market building she informed me. I looked at her with a puzzled look on my face and asked her what exactly Goat Bingo was. She had a grid of numbers on a piece of paper on her clip board, and pointed to a corresponding huge chalk grid drawn on the ground in the parking lot.

At 11 am, this goat would be taken over to the chalk grid on the parking lot, and the number he pooped on would be the winning number. I reached into my purse and bought a ticket for #30. At 11:15 or thereabouts it was announced that the winning number was 27. What a hoot!)

After the goats we went over to see the horses and say hello to them.
Smudge was thrilled, but a bit overwhelmed and tucked her little hands inside her coat to protect them from the horses lips when they bent their heads down to look for an apple treat.
Here she is intently watching the horse chow down on an apple slice given to it by a lady standing nearby.
After the horses had their snack, it was time for them to go to work and pull a wagon loaded with people around the Market grounds. Smudge and I hopped on board and hung on tight for the bumpy ride.
What fun.
Then to top off the morning, when we got home, there was a big shiny fire truck parked on the street in front of Smudge's house. She went up for a closer look, and was quite enthralled with the hoses, ladders, lights, and gadgets on the truck. I wondered if there had been an emergency on the street, but soon discovered they were just visiting all the houses on the street as a courtesy to check smoke detectors to make sure they were working before the winter season sets in. How neat. I do love living in a small town.