This little piggy went to market

This is a pic of some of our adorable farm animals at work in the kids nursery.

On Saturday it was such a nice day, the sun was out, it was a silly 29 degrees in July. Lately we've had these great sunny weekend days, and on Tuesdays and Wednesdays it rains. The rain cycle was like this in Victoria when I was going to uni. It would be lovely all week and then pour rain for both my days off. It was so regular that if you didn't know what day it was, you could work it out by the rain.
Its been cold and overcast here on my days off for about 8 weeks now. Because its winter is rarely rains here, which I miss, being the opposite to Victoria. At least when its cold and it rains you feel justified spending the whole day in front of the fire.
Anyway, the point is, it feels like years since we've had a good sunny day off. The Markets were on at Fernvale and all the locals say that they are the best markets around. We promptly arranged days off and invited Sue, one of our work friends.

The next morning we met at nine o'clock, very late in the market going world, and drove to the markets, about 40 minutes away. The town is just a small place on the other side of the highway, hidden past a bunch of winding country roads and long stretches of farming flats, all bright greenn with winter vegetables.

I had been warned that it was the type of market you could buy anything, and the girls at work all wanted me to buy a pig. There has been a trend amongst the 'imports' - the staff who have moved here from somewhere else. Without fail, everyone ends up a little 'countrified', or in the case of our FOM, owning 2 ducks, 2 chooks, 2 goats, 2 kitties and 2 rats within his first month of moving to the country and is always seen carrying the trading post animal section.
I was not sure what I would come home with.

At the market, the first thing we noticed was the dogs. There was a guy selling puppies at the front gate. Everyone in the market had a dog, it was like a compulsory accessory, like an environmental shopping bag. Actual there were alot more dogs there than eco friendly bags. The dogs were big and small, some miniature and just a few weeks old. I looked in one baby pram and expected to see some cute baby wrapped up there, but it was a dog, looking through the sun shade gauze. There were 3 different places selling dogs, so if you'd made a mistake and come to the market with your eco bag, you could trade it in for a dog.

The next thing we noticed was the number of ladies in kaftans, yes, kaftans. Big old orange ones with Indian designs. Now I've not got anything against a kaftan, but it was almost like Mr X had said to his wife that morning 'put on your kaftan love, we're going to the market and theres a dress code'.

Anyway, what did they actaully sell at the market? There was licorice, lots of vegies shops and a man selling strawberries faster than Maccas churns out hamburgers. There was also the customary junk shops, plant sales and a man selling old engagement rings. Sue stopped to talk to a friend, who had a toilet tank tucked under her arm. The kitchen sink store was also doing a roaring trade.

What did I buy? Some incence (naturally, it is the market and the lady who sold it to me couldn't add up so I got it ridiculously cheap), some pistachios and some strawberries, which I enjoyed later that night with some honey mead (to marinate the strawberries for an hour), served on top of crushed meringues, with some hoboken crunch ice cream.

There were no pigs for sale, which I very much regretted, and decided that we must have arrived too late and all the pigs were sold out and only dogs were left.