Saturday, May 1, 2010

Hello Everyone,

There's a place that I've thought it would be interesting to take pictures of for a while now; but I just wasn't getting there, which makes sense since it's several hundred miles away. Really it's just down the road. Thanks to the Raine family, who took some of us along with them when they went sightseeing, we became tourists in our own neighborhood. I'm sure the locals thought we were tourists too. I didn't see many cameras to begin with, and a big camera like ours is a very rare sight. More than that, two SLRs walking around together on girls my and Emma's ages made quite a sensation. One man told me to make a brochure, one lady wondered where these photos are going to show up, others were downright jumpy about having their photo taken, and once I was ordered to stop altogether. (More on that later.)

Oh, you all still don't know what place I'm talking about. How could that have happened? Not intentionally, surely? I'm talking about The Green Dragon, the famous local farmer's market. I like to call it the "melting pot of Ephrata." Everybody's there (and on Good Friday literally everybody's there), from the Spanish-jabbering Hispanics to the legendary Amish, chattering away in Pennsylvania Deutsch. It's a place with character.

The Green Dragon

A sea of people, a sea of boxes, and so much else to see.

Isaac doesn't quail from carrying quail.

CANDACE - Calculating Amount Net Dollars Auction Could Earn

(She sells quail at the small animal auction.)

Chic hair accessories? After all, they are yellow and fuzzy.

Shady Characters

Now we know why there's so many around.

In we went.

Mr. Raine, mobile lemonade stand, out to find customers.

Customer finds him.

We searched, but all the tables were full. So we set up camp in the parking lot. It wasn't the loveliest spot, but...

...I'd argue that the scenery was nicer than these folks' picnic area.

Nathan, not too keen on keeping company with the cigarette butts on the macadam.

Some people have such great attitudes (not to mention great seats).

The saga of a man and his sub.

So Many Things for Sale:

Twisted bamboo.

Twisted beads.

Authentic crown jewels - Yea, I'm twisting your arm. :-)

To browse or not to browse, that is the question.

What we were going to do wasn't really in question.

"Hey, Dad doesn't have this one, does he?"

To buy or not to buy, that wasn't really in question either.

To anyone planning to get into the soap business... I hate to tell you this, but there's competition in the area. ;-)

The lady selling soap wasn't the only bonny sight.

Sea of people meets small animal auction.

Which makes for a sticky, crowded, sweaty place. Some folks come prepared.

Some come more prepared.

Look, Daddy, how they're holding that poor rabbit.

This was the last photo I took before one of the auctioneers yelled up at me, "Hey, you up there, no pictures. Pictures aren't allowed in here." I suppose they're worried more people won't like the way they hold their rabbits.

Had to fit the Amish in here somewhere.

This little guy gave...

...this big guy an idea.

Even bigger guys get the idea.

Some people just do not get the idea.

Candace took this message seriously, only she misread it. She thought it said...

"Two, Buy Two."

(Lest you think her extravagant, she's holding mine.)

Hey, wait a minute, she's eating mine.

Methinks Templeton will be showing up any time now.

Before we end...

...a quick peek at Saturday two weeks ago.

Mr. Brown getting excited about "super-nova families roaming the earth with millions of strollers."

Mr. Oberholtzer had just one question: Does my family qualify? :-)

When you work as hard and do as beautiful a job as Mrs. Raine did on this quilt and, when you do all this, not for yourself but for somebody else, then you too will be recognized on this blog. :-)

Wind and rain and sun and cold and - through it all - volleyball.

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God bless your next two weeks.

Carmen