From Art Fair to Animal Fair

 

Here I am, chillin' in my WTF Studio after a crazy time participating in Spring/Break Art Show. Hoo Boy! Tiring? Yes! I spent one day after visiting Spring/Break simply laying in bed recovering. I must have talked to a million and three artists and curators and gallerists and randos and friends... and everybody is looking for something (to quote The Eurythmics). Artists want shows and sales. Curators want shows and sales. Collectors (the few there are!) want bargains... But it was good clean, exhausting fun! Maybe do it all over again next year?

And here's a few things I saw- and really liked!

And...

And...

Hey! Those look familiar! Yep, that's my addition to the art fair. And they had a fabulous view out the window, up East 58th Street...

And we transition-

Here's me and Bob at the Durham Fair, picture taken by my sister Cathy. We had loads of fun. We ate, we saw odd chickens with fluffy heads, that scary Egyptian pharoah ride, lots of emus and alpacas! I still didn't get my fried dough- probably a good thing as it's not exactly health food! 

That's sister Cathy chowing down on a gyro at the fair. She begged me to take this picture as it was a sloppy (but delicious) mess and she entertained us with her table manners. We had pulled pork, rather sedate as opposed to her saucy sandwich roll!

As promised- and alpaca! Quite the charming personality on this one. Although I fell for a tall brown alpaca who made serious eye contact with me. He wouldn't let me photgraph him but he was quite the looker.

And emus? Did I promise emus:

These ones look two-headed from here! As we were enjoying the emu antics, a gentleman standing next to us remarked that emus are often raised for their meat; red meat in his words. We were happy when he moved off, as I'm sure the emus were. No one wants to be discussed as a potential meal while on display at the fair!

And, of course, a mandatory shot of the midway. (Not sure why it came out so dark as it was a pleasantly sunny day, with a light breeze and puffy clouds.) Also not sure why it doesn't look as packed as it was: REALLY crowded with so many willing victims. Willing to lose money on silly games with cheasy prizes and willing to throw up all that great fair food on terrifying rides that hurl you upside down and backwards. No thank you!

We Went to the Animal Fair...

 

Yes, the birds an the beasts were there! As well as some pretty awesomely scary rides!! Take the freaky Pharaoh above... please! (*1) There was a terrified child being tortured on that Egyptian nightmare; the mother looked totally unconcerned. The child has no doubt been scarred for life by his/her experience!

A big hit with us fair-goers was the hall of fruits and vegetables. Rows of multicolored Swiss chard and plates and plates of peppers, beans and eggplants, each more splendid and appetizing than the last. Cathy was searching- in vain!- for some vegetable dish to consume and Bob remarked how ironic it was that for all the fruits and veg on display, there was none to eat. He thought it was a missed opportunity to have a giant farmer's market. But honestly judging by the girth of many of our fellow fair attendees, vegetables were NOT what they were chowing down on. (*2)

Look at that lovely rainbow of peppers! Clever display!

And award-winning apples, attractively arranged into diamonds. Oh! the produce... what a fair should be. We saw some pretty heroically giant pumpkins, too.

The flowers were a big hit, too. Lovely dahlias and exotic coleus and zinnias and hydrangeas and celosia: all looking pretty good despite four days of being on display. We had an altogether super time, and were an appreciative audience.

There are a few things we missed. We never did make it back to see the many chickens on view. Somehow skipped right past the pigs and cows and missed the bunnies... Also we never made it to the marketplace tent where we would no doubt have been able to purchase cheeses or maple syrup, all locally produced. We were too busy being seduced by the terrifying marvels of the midway, (*3)

I also missed having fried dough topped with tomato sauce; probably a blessing. But as it was Bob's first time to the Durham Fair, we did our best to sample a bit of everything. As we boarded the shuttle bus which would deliver us back to our cars, we spied a Monster Truck demonstration that was enthralling a vast crowd, seated on the hillside. Alas! Maybe next time...

(*1) All of the photos in this episode of my blog were taken by my sister Cathy, who did a marvelous job of documenting the fair. I was too busy stuffing deep fried apple fritters in my mouth to take pictures!

(*2) Unless humongous paper platters of ketchup soaked greasy french fries count as "vegetables".

(*3) Who thinks these rides up? Not one of us appreciated the allures of rocketing upside down in a metal cage- it all looked like barf-inducing torture to us! (Especially after piles of greasy french fries and chocolate covered bacon. (an actual offering...))

Eye Candy- the Wholesome Kind

I have to say that we didn't do too badly for a very crazy, hectic first year garden! Here's a small offering of all the bounty that is available... and with only a cursory effort. We have been so busy- and derailed!- with larger house projects (roof, fencing, chimney, island etc etc) (not to mention injuries...) that I sometimes feel a tad guilty. I actually tossed a bunch of festering tomatoes on the compost pile yesterday. (They are rewarding to throw, however, as they make a nice smooshy splat when they land). The peppers did exceedingly well; I especially like the black ones- very sophisticated and dramatic!

We still have beans coming as well as squash. Let's make that monuntains of squash as Bob planted the seeds directly on the compost pile... Stop by, we'll give you a few (hundred).

Next year, we are hoping to return to the rigors of staged and sequenced lettuce production and tidy rows of garlic. We only actively cultivated perhaps a third of our enclosed vegetable garden. We have lots of room for future experimentation and at a significantly more leisurely pace.