The things that I love

Did you like my flowers yesterday? Weren't they gorgeous? They look so beautiful sitting on my kitchen table ...so beautiful.


I absolutely love going to the Clevedon Farmers Market on a Sunday morning. It's one of my favourite things.

I hate crowds ...hate the crush of people, the noise, the pushing and shoving, and the stress and anxiety that seems to lift of people in waves. Somehow though, although there are always lots of people at the market, it's different. Somehow, although you're constantly squeezing past, shimmying around, and doing little you-go-no-you-go-no-really-I-insist-you-go dances with people trying to get to one stall or another, almost everyone is enjoying themselves, taking their time, and relaxed. Of course, whether that's just because it's still relatively early on a Sunday morning and they haven't entirely woken up yet, I don't know. The point is that it really is like stepping into another world ...you could almost forget that Auckland exists outside of the Market, and you really could spend quite a bit of time there.

People bring their dogs, and there are always farm animals tied to or milling around by fences or the picnic tables and hay bales set out out the front of the market area. The look of absolute excitement and pleasure on a child's face as they head off on a short ride in a horse-drawn cart is enough to set you up for the day.

The main event though, what I go there for ...the food. Fresh bagels, meats and sausages, breads and cheeses (assuming you can get to them before they sell out!), wines, pestos, chocolates and nuts, biscuity treats, cakes and tarts, fruit and vegetables, an espresso while you walk around, smelling, tasting, savouring ...it's a favourite place. Last week there were crepes as well, and I tell you, sitting on a hay bale in the morning fog eating a perfect lemon and sugar crepe? Perfect. Absolutely perfect. Slightly crispy around the edges, with lemon dripping down your arms while you savour the little parcel? Divine. Syrupy, sticky, yummy happiness.

And, of course, if that isn't enough, just down the road is the Italian Country Kitchen. Or is it the Italian Country Market? It's the Italian something anyway, and it's just as wonderful. Al usually drags me out of these places by the hair. When I went in there a couple of weeks ago I was given half an orange to try and I melted on the spot. It was straight from Keri Keri and hadn't been chilled ...and oh! you could taste the difference. I haven't had an orange like that in years. It wasn't one of the perfectly round, beautiful, completely tasteless, dry oranges you get from the supermarket ...it was a smallish, ugly, yellow looking orange. I bought a bag (they pack things in paper bags ...I love when stuff is packed in paper bags!) and they lasted about 5 minutes after they arrived home. I was also able to conveince myself that it was for the Vitamin C, as opposed to just being a piggy.


I love markets. Really love them. It helps too that they're all about food, and I do love my food.

It's the little things ...the simple things ...that we do often forget to stop and appreciate when life gets so hectic and busy. I can't wait until I have children to share these things with.

Have a good long weekend. I'll be back Tuesday. Hopefully with my damn period. No. 1 concern right now with the missing period? My bikini wax is going to hurt like a bitch tomorrow.


(Can anyone else believe that it's the first of June already? That's some kind of wrong.)