On the Edge ~ 2

It was just a tomato sandwich. After walking through the Farmer’s Market, smelling all the delicious cooking food aromas, seeing all the wares on display, and moving to the music from the Regina Folk Festival, I spotted a small food truck advertising Bread. Do I remember its name? No, but I do remember the little hand lettered menu that advertised sandwiches. The first on the list was a tomato sandwich on toasted sourdough bread - exactly what I had wanted. 

That sandwich took me to the edge to a table just steps away from the Farmer’s Market, on the edge of the Folk Festival in Victoria Park. From there, I was able to enjoy the atmosphere of both activities but at a distance. I’m not great in crowds, so sitting at the table I could enjoy the music, the kids playing and dancing, parents and families meandering from venue to venue or, blankets spread, sitting on the grass chatting and laughing. I did spot some hula hoops spinning around the hips of a younger crowd at one of the music venues! 

The Farmers Market had been moved from the Pat Fiasco Plaza to up and down the Scarth Street Mall, giving its usual location over to the Folk Festival. A last loop through the Market, there was really nothing I wanted to buy. Or maybe nothing I wanted to spend money on until I spotted the booth for meat from J & J White Farms in Lumsden. Lamb chops! I love lamb chops and these were local. A few booths down, I just about bought some local Feta cheese, but they were sold out of small quantities. 

I did my own meandering then. Past a children’s venue to the bus stop and home with my memories and my package of frozen lamb chops! It was a special treat to be in the midst of all that energy, music and fun, but stay on the edge of it all. 

“When it’s a folk festival, there’s more of an intention on the song and connecting with people,”

~ Jenny O.

An Artful Afternoon

 

It was August 05th - just last Saturday - that my sister, Betty and I took a wander to the Fort Qu’Appelle Midsummer Art Festival. I had never been there before so had no idea of its largesse! I did recognize the entrance to the Fort with its banners, sunflowers and signs, but the cars, pickups, camper trailers and people wowed me. Outside the Fort, a Poutine food cart, and several other food tents, tables and chairs for the hungry were busy with business. The Festival had opened in the morning, so there had already been streams of people in the gates. A modest entry fee of $5.00 let us unto a sea of crafters and artisans displaying and selling their wares. A biergarten and music was busy in one corner. We made a beeline to a building towards the back of the large area to find our sister Kate. Perfectly positioned in a far corner, she could see and welcome any and all customers, saying the morning had been particularly busy. It was almost like walking through a fair ground it was so full of life and activity.

Hungry, and after a short visit, we headed back to the food court area for hamburgers, pie and ice cream. On our way, we spotted pottery artisans. I was so tempted but restrained myself, convinced that I could return after lunch. And so we did, but made a big circuit around all the tents, studiously avoiding anything resembling pottery. I did make one small purchase of a cork bracelet. Returning to Kate’s table, I restocked my card box at home with the purchase of several of her watercolour cards, and chose a photograph of thistles in bloom for my home.

Another surprise ~ My sisters talked with a high school friend and I met some friends of mine from Regina. It was a lovely afternoon. The weather perfect and the wonderful atmosphere of the busy Midsummer Art Festival could not have been any better (unless I had purchased some pottery)!

"I love the outdoor festival feeling."

~ Joshua Bell

Beautiful Words

Nothing

Empty

Beautiful words taking a rest

Settling. 

Flattened. No energy.

To return when it’s time.

“Some people have a way with words, 

and other people…..oh, uh, not have a way.”

~ Steve Martin

Chapter Two, Episode 148 - Samuel’s Story - Situationally Theirs

Samuel’s Story

He didn’t think often about his own life. He’d been part of the Estate as long as he could remember. Born and raised here. Took over from his father. Only went away to University on the mainland after high school, but came back as soon as he could with a Degree in Agriculture. His father wanted him to know things deeper than what he could teach him. For a time, he felt trapped in the strange city world. The noise of the traffic, all the green seemed trimmed and manicured, too many people crowded into small spaces, too many walls. Some days he felt as though he could hardly breathe. Then some professor would lecture about the insides of the plants, the nature of the clouds in the sky and young Samuel would understand the why and how of growing things and the weather. Things he knew instinctively, things his father taught him, but this was deeper. There were insides to things that no one had ever taught him. He was still glad to get home in the open, he knew what books he could study and how he could learn more. Still didn’t like the internet much. One wall of his little shack, was a bookshelf floor to ceiling, full of books and magazines - science, poetry, reference books. He talked like he’d never had an education but that was just his facade. Elizabeth was aware of his books, given him some and borrowed some. They were two of a kind. Set themselves out to the world as uneducated but were educating themselves all the time. 

~~~~~

Samuel hung back when Miss Dez and Matt ran towards their home. They had run like that. “Don’t be silly, Samuel. That was a long time ago and she didn’t stay long.” He had been much younger then, younger than Miss Dez and Matt. She had helped him at the plant nursery several times when he’d go to pick up his father’s orders. After a while, he found excuses to go to the nursery for his father, for any of the staff. She found excuses to wait on him each time. What was her name? “Dang, I’m gettin’ old. Can’t remember her name. Some plant name. But her hair was long, braided and the colour of molten gold.” He walked toward his home at the back of the garden. “She’d sit out on the porch here, watchin’ me in the garden. Oh, she was a pretty thing.” If anyone had asked him whatever happened to her, he didn’t say much. In truth, one day she wasn’t at the store. No note, no phone call, just gone. James Digby had met her once and knew that she was special to Samuel. The only one who really knew about her was James Digby. A teenager himself, he ran errands for his father who was the butler at the time. He tried to find out about her, but the store just said she no longer worked for them. “It was done then, Samuel and it’s done now.” All tidied up, he set his hat on, slung his jacket over his shoulder and left for supper at the Estate. “Suppose I should tell Elizabeth about her…..no, it’s long past and before she was even out here.” 

~~~~~

Seeing Elizabeth putting food on the table, he felt warm inside. There was nothing flyaway about her. Sure they were both older now, but she’d always been like that. No wonder he couldn’t remember that girl’s name. It was as flyaway as she had been. He brushed Elizabeth’s hand gently as he took the mashed potatoes from her. Dez and Matt caught the tender look the older couple shared, and left it alone.

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”

~ Mark Twain

Exhausted!

Laughing and playing gives 

relief that no amount of sleep can offer

until laughing and playing 

provides its own exquisite exhaustion.

“Laughter feels like our flotation device - - 

it won’t pull us out of the storm, 

but it might carry us through if we can just hang on.”

~ Emery Lord, Open Road Summer

In Truth and Kindness

Acting on what we know to be true shapes the words we say ~ only if we think first.

Acting on what we know to be true in kindness to others tempers our actions.

“Sometimes it takes only one act of kindness 

and caring to change a person’s life.”

~ Jackie Chan

Refreshed

Integrity will tell us

when to take a gentle day,

to refresh mind and spirit

after the joy and fullness of family.

“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance