Market Day

Today was market day in my lovely little town.

It had rained all night and I was hesitant to pedal down to the park.  I usually pack everything into the rear basket of my trike and set up at one of the permanent picnic tables in the park.  I wondered how wet the park grounds were and I also wondered if it would continue to rain throughout the morning.

In the end, I decided to take the risk.  I arrived right on 6.30 am, closely followed by my lovely assistant, the almost 70 yr old Aussie H, who also pedalled her trike and parked it beside mine.

Together, we took about 20 minutes to set up the stall, and right on cue, Adoring Husband arrived with our take-away coffee from the bakery.  We settled back with our folding chairs and prepared for the onslaught!

The best part of our markets is catching up with all of the locals.

Unfortunately, none of them want to buy anything (to be fair, a lot of them bought my merchandise when I first started selling about 6 months ago).  Instead they come to my table and stand around chatting, which is just lovely and is something that really gives me a buzz.

Sometimes, when there is a lull in the crowd, other stall holders wander over for a chat.  Of course, you have to realize that our little market day only has a grand total of 25 stalls (maybe 35 on a fine weekend in tourist season!), so it's not like any of us are ever run off our feet.

Today was quite busy,  as far as crowds go, but it seemed that nobody wanted to spend any money!  The markets, today, was somewhere for people to pass the time and window shop.  Something to do before the rains came again.  Even the other stall holders were complaining about how slow the spending was ... although the 'Nut Man'  on the stall next to mine, was pretty busy.  Even I bought some raw nuts from him!

The weather remained threatening all day, but it didn't rain.  The relative of one of my local ladies  bought a bracelet from me, which was my sole sale for the day.  Sad but true.

We are all looking forward to next month, which includes Easter.  Our town has a big Easter Fishing Classic Competition which is so popular that our population triples and we always hold a market on Easter Saturday. It should be HUGE!  Let's hope the weather is good to us!

So, after four hours, I sold one child's bracelet and spent a total of $18 at other stalls, bought an egg in bread at the SES kitchen, 2 take-away coffees from the bakery and $8 for the cost of the stall site.   Pretty sure that works out to be a fairly heavy loss for the day ... financially.

Spiritually, it was a MOST successful day.  I sold something that I made with my own two hands.   I spent a few hours with my lovely Aussie H.  I caught up with about twenty locals.  I was out in the fresh air.  I helped other stall holders by buying their goods.  I got to brag about my lovely little Chicklet by passing round some photos.  I got some exercise riding my trike.  I smiled a LOT.

So much value in one happy market day!