Sarasota Farmers' Market

Last week in this time, we were in Sarasota, Florida. The professor, his father and I went to the Farmers' Market. There was a lot of produce (strawberries, greens, citrus, etc.) and a lot of other vendors. I couldn't dally too much in front of the seafood stalls with the stinky fish smells--still dealing with nausea--so we focused on other things. There were plenty of things to see!

First, since the professor's father is an architect and we are great fans of old houses and old things, the architectural salvage stand was pretty cool. The colored glass bottles appealed to the professor and I had to remind him of how heavy our luggage was already...

Then we saw some amazing flowers for sale. All sorts of exotic varieties of flowers, usually only for sale at a florist's shop, right here at the Farmers' Market!

We were also serenaded by these teenagers, who played remarkably well together considering their instruments. All of their instruments were made of discarded materials. Yes, a TRASH band...check out the cereal box guitar. It's a shame you can't see the drummer in this picture, he was really going to town on a drum set made up entirely of overturned pails and other junk. It was a treat to hear and see!
This market was also absolutely dog obsessed. We were missing our dogs at that point, so the professor got busy taking pictures of what we found most entertaining in the dog world. I focused mainly on petting the dogs I met instead. First, there's the coffee vendor: JAVA DAWG. (Note, my head is in the bottom right of the photo...I leaned longingly towards this stand until I saw the line up of customers. I gave up immediately when I saw that even the dogs were forced to wait in line...)

The professor and I knew that our dogs would not enjoy these crowds even if they were in Florida with us. (they were in the kennel in Manitoba) Even so, we met some dogs who did. We're pretty sure their humans never even noticed we were petting their dogs, taking photos, or smiling at them!

It was about 50F (10C) when we were at the Farmers' Market. The Floridians thought this was cold. I wore just a sweater and it felt like a heatwave to me. Bear in mind, of course, that today it is -25F (-32C) here in Winnipeg, with a windchill which brings the temperature down much further. Of course, the professor and our dogs wore their sweaters today for their walk. I think the professor even wore insulated jeans, and he is very tolerant of cold temperatures, so you can imagine that it was actually cold outside this AM.

Apparently dogs in Sarasota needed their sweaters, too. I sat outside eating a strawberry chocolate crepe while the locals said how very "cold" it felt that day in Florida. It was hard for me to figure out what to say! In any case, the crepe was good and the weather seemed very pleasant to me as well. Obviously, I wasn't the sympathetic ear these strangers needed as they complained!

We have more photos of nature and I'll try to draw out our vacation so you too can have a vicarious vacation through the blog. I've got the photos for at least one more post. In any case, I hope you'll feel amused by the dogs in sweaters on a 50F day! We were!

Most sweet were the puppies, who were trying to meet everyone at the market. I am a sucker for puppy fur, puppy teeth, and puppy breath. (Always have been) I love my middle aged dogs very much and it is fabulous to have mostly trained and cooperative family members. That said, every so often, every 10 years or so, I yearn for a puppy. I try to get my fill by visiting with other folks' puppies. I certainly think it makes life easier. Housetraining one's puppy at -25F? Now that does sound unappealing!

I'm off to eat lunch before teaching my hand carding class this afternoon. I hope it goes well--and maybe I'll even meet some of my blog readers there.

Crete and elastic time

Time is elastic like a rubber band when you have jetlag. On one hand, we've accomplished a ton since coming home...a Manitoba driver's license and license plates for me, a lot of errands and house fix-its, canning chutney and plum sauce, etc. On the other hand, it took me 4 days to get the camera, its battery, and the little cord that hooks it up to my computer in the same room. It took me a while to upload photos...and thus, I've delayed telling you about all the Greek adventures.

Oh, and we got our luggage back, no problems, it was only a day long excursion to Chicago, apparently.
Now I'll narrate all these photos. At the conference the professor attended, they always have a traditional Cretan dance performance on the last night, including live music, lots of raki to drink, and friendly companionship. The professor and I enjoyed it all but went to bed relatively early, which was all for the best!

One thing that occupied me during the conference was a small black puppy that was living on the beach below the conference center. It had been abandoned and had created a den for itself in the vegetation on the beach. It didn't let me get close, but it did allow me to feed it quite a bit of meat--I left it, like offerings, right near its den. An old man who spoke about 5 languages (but not English) told me, in French, that yes, the puppy was being well-fed. Hopefully someone will be able to coax it out and give it a home.

After the conference, the professor and I had a few days of holiday on our own. We rented a car and headed to Rethymnon for a night.

In Crete, history lives right alongside modernity. So, you can see a Venetian townhouse (from the Venetian occupation) right next to an Ottoman-era mosque (Turkish occupation) or graffiti or a kids' playground. It's a really interesting hodgepodge of ancient and modern.

Gardens also flourished right in town. From our room on the third floor of an old Venetian dwelling, we can see the city, the mountains beyond, and this amazing empty lot, made into a huge garden space. Peach, orange and pomegranates flourished, as well as every other kind of warm weather garden produce. This is to the right of the view.

Just on the other side of the wall, the neighbors live in three separate stories. Their garden, thick with oranges and flowers, is in a courtyard off the street, where the whole family (3+ generations) gathers for meals.

In the courtyard of the hotel, we had breakfast beneath this awning, surrounded by grape arbors and cool shade.

To the left, also in the same courtyard, was an enormous formal pool, filled with koi.


We ate at two different restaurants while we were in this city. Both had courtyards filled with lemon trees. We sat beneath the citrus and had long leisurely meals under dappled light.

Next time, I'll show more pictures and draw this out so you can imagine more of the adventures! I did indeed finish the socks pictured in the last post. I didn't finish much else, as the roads are mountainous and so windy that it's hard to knit in the car. I did see lots of other treats in the meanwhile, though.

Now I'm off to meet my new doctor...I'm entirely healthy, but want to have a family doctor just in case. Oh, and it was easy to get an appointment and his office is around the corner. So far, I'm liking Canadian health care...It took me a year to find a doctor in Kentucky, where there's something of a primary care doctor shortage.