good grief, i last posted on june 26. i blinked and BAM, i’ve done 3 shows, driven 2,000 km and 2 weeks go by. next time i must take the laptop with me. i keep forgetting that it’s so easy to stay in touch now. every single town and motel has wifi. bad me. this winter we celebrated our 10th year with our southern lifestyle/sailboat and that lead to a lot of reminiscing. 10 years ago when we first went south for the winter online banking was in it’s infancy and the concept of wifi was but a dream. now i sound like a grandparent, “i remember when i was a whipper snapper, we walked 20 miles a day”. but seriously, 10 years ago i wrote a pile of cheques, put them in envelopes with dates on them and asked my friend to mail them on those dates. now i can do everything online and here i am thinking that i should have blogged while away for 2 weeks. i hereby vow in front of the entire internet that on my next bunch of out of town shows that i will take the laptop with me and continue the blog on the road.
to recap the break: cobourg, southampton, goderich.
here’s coboug. the single greatest thing about this show is the marquis tent. oh boy do i love those tents. june 2008 in ontario has been a bizarre weather month. it was a month where daily we pondered the wrath and might of mother nature. we witnessed hail the size of golf balls, monsoon rains and winds that knocked me off my bike one day. cobourg was no different, it was like standing under a fire hose. however those magnificent marquis tents (have i mentioned how much i love them?) saved the show. on sunday it began as beautiful weather and people flocked to the show. when the monsoon began everyone ran for a tent and lo! trapped customers!
from there we drove up to southampton ontario. southampton and port elgin (10 km apart) are lovely. small, pretty, main streets with solid brick victorian buildings, landscaped, nice people, on the water, fabulous towns.
from the one day show in southampton we drove south 100 km to goderich ontario and a great drive it was. blue sky, sun and great scenery. this was the first time i’ve seen real windfarms! how cool! being sailors the concept of wind power is something we’re familiar with but not on this scale. there were masses of these, hundreds marching down the horizon. poor don quixote would have been worn out. as we drove we commented on the bucolic scenery, a balm to our urban eyes. we looked over the green fields, the vibrant flowers, the cobalt blue lake … and saw the 6′ snow stick on every mailbox.
the goderich show was as always just so much fun! i have a rapport with this little town, it loves me and i love it. this is one of those events where i pinch myself and think, wow i can’t believe this is my job! it was my 6th year and i know my regulars by name. they all congregate in my booth and it’s just a fun time. on saturday there’s a farmers market where i trade earrings for butter tarts. the smoked rib truck is across from me, he also does the best smoked corn. we filled the car with smoked sausage, fresh strawberries, blueberries and apple streudel. colin scored a pile of books at the sunday book swap. we shared wine with friends on sunny patios while the sun set. we walked along the boardwalk and stuck our toes in the sand.
and i had to pinch myself, is this really my job?
