BAD BEFORE GOOD

I rarely get to the various farmers' markets, but last Sunday I went, partly because I was going to go on to the native plant sale in the showgrounds anyway. The market was packed by 9.30, when I arrived, and it is not quite so lovely now it has been moved and doesn't have the grass. I walked in past all those people selling vegetables ( none of which are organic, except the Food Forest ), the stalls of jams, chutneys and wine (none of which I buy) and all sorts of other stuff, squeezing past fat shoppers stuffing themselves with cakes and breads and all the while wondering why I had bothered, when I could have been at home in the garden.

Then, right at the end was Diana's stall - overflowing with varieties of seedlings that made my mouth drool. In amongst it all were Jen and Diana and, as I caught Diana's eye, I realised why I had come - to share a moment with someone as passionate about tiny little, green, living things as I am ! We bypassed the 'how are you' and got straight to the nitty-gritty of types of tomatoes, sort-after characteristics, what I knew, what she knew, would we could research and the wonder of growing so much great stuff. I had to let her go to serve other customers but now, with 2 punnets in my bag, I left with that well-documented ' skippity-doo' feeling firmly re-established.

In my search for the berry people that Maggie has told us about I bought a couple of things - goat shanks, Willabrand dried figs and some flat almonds. I never found the berry people but, as I walked back to my car, I felt a sense of well-being and smiled at all the people walking along the road on their way into the market, thinking that they too may have that feeling when they leave. I didn't go to the native plant sale after all - it would have spoilt that contentedness. Back home I got into the leaf-day things I wrote about before and felt good all day.