venetia_sassy | Vegetables and puppies and handbags (Reply)

Hauled myself out of bed this morning so we could get to the farmer's market in time. Beautiful morning and it was crowded! I'd meant to call my friend Pip last night, see if she wanted to meet up there but I forgot. But guess who we saw at this first stall! She'd almost finished but she wasn't in a rush and we wandered around together and caught up.

Purchases today included cavolo nero - the two stalls that sell it each had one bunch left so I grabbed both! One bunch of rainbow chard/silverbeet, brussell sprouts, some passionfruit, free-range eggs, a bag of mixed exotic mushrooms (I am not really a fan of mushrooms but I bought the mixed bag a few months ago in an attempt to understand why people like them and made a mixed mushroom risotto. Mum loved it. I still don't get the appeal but it's edible enough.) Then the fun part - trying new things! Or things I haven't tried for along time anyway. Some pattypan squash, a bunch of purple lace kale, some beetroot (with leaves), a couple of heritage pears that Pip recommended. The goat meat stall hasn't been there in months sadly and Mum was hoping for the goat tagine I made. We bought some beef instead.

And for pure indulgence, some Jersey butter (I rarely use butter outside of baking but this stuff is incredible) and a new treat from the chocolate truffle guy - white chocolate with dried strawberries. Melt-in-your-mouth stuff.

And now the best part of the market - the dogs!

Lots of people bring their dogs and most of them are very friendly. There was a sturdy golden retriever, a giant schnauzer and an irish wolfhound. A little Japanese Spitz (they are so cute!) with a fox terrier companion who was a bit jealous of friend getting more attention but I gave him lots of pats as well. Two young black labradors, one being fostered in preparation for guide dog training, the other the previous year's foster who'd flunked out (as 60% do) and been adopted.

And then there was the big, goofy Great Dane cross. He was very silly and sweet. I was saving a seat for Mum while she waited for our brunch gozleme to be made and there was another woman waiting for seats to open up while her partner got their brunch. The dog caught my eye and I must have been pretty obvious because she asked if I wanted to pat him. Well, yeah. We wound up chatting while we waited and the dog had lots of pats in between investigating any possible food sources. He slobbered on my jeans a couple of times but hey, they needed washing anyway. They rescued him from the pound even though they already had two dogs since he'd been there for ages and was going to be put down. He was such a nice dog!

Seats opened up at the same table so we all wound up chatting a bit over brunch and I thought to myself, 'You can tell we're all dog people here. None of us worried about washing our hands before eating despite just patting the dog.' (Well, if I'd had wipes or there was a bathroom I would have but since there wasn't I didn't worry.)

Mum and I went to the shops after that as I was hoping the newsagent might have Kerrang. They do stock it but they were sold out. Bugger.

There wasn't anything else I wanted to do there but I don't get out much so I thought I'd just look at a couple of places and hey, Strandbags was having a sale. I took a look since I've been wanting to replace my black handbag. It's a lovely black leather Colorado bag and I really like it but it is surprisingly heavy. I didn't register the weight of it when I bought it but I've noticed it repeatedly since!

I looked around and the only medium size bag I liked at all was well over a hundred dollars so, no. But then I spotted a bag behind a couple of other on the revolving stand. Mid-sized (I do not understand those giant handbags), black, pretty, with handles long enough for me to wear it over my shoulder comfortably. Not leather but only $35 on sale so ...

Bluebird Ruffle Bag (the Blush shows the details better.) And it's so light!

And since the wallets were on sale too and mine is quite dingy, stretched, awkward to use, I looked around and found a mulberry pink wallet that won't get lost in the black depths of the bag. Again, not leather but affordable. (We went into another bag shop across the way afterward. A few nice bags but when I say the wallets were about $150, uh, yeah, not our price range.)

And then we had ice cream, came home and I collapsed in a heap and later took a nap.