LotsaPots

The plant festival / market was on today, so I set off once again to see if it would really be there. Fortunately it was, and there were lots of people there selling, buying and just looking at the plants on offer. The sun was shining, so it was quite pleasant, and now that it was under a new roof, there was little danger of it being a washout, unless the rain made vertical progress.

There were the usual array of green plants and shrubs, completely unidentifiable to the untutored eye. There were flowers, small climbers, a bonsai stall, with none of the tiny trees having any visible prices. There was someone selling hand thrown and painted pottery, an artist from Emma’s atelier selling hand painted flower pots and sections of clay pipe (not the small smoking implement variety). There was an element which had a touch of the Irish about it. O’Hara’s Ikebana stand offering ikebana lessons as well as two small flower arrangements.
A man was selling wooden bird boxes, and a woman who was knitting away quite happily, was selling wooden buttons. I think she must slice up suitable branches, strip off the bark, put in the thread holes and polish and varnish the discs. A money making scheme if ever I saw one.
I bumped into C from the choir who was looking for a clematis. I was standing in front of the clematis at the time. At 13 euros 30 for a plant in a pot, she thought that they were too expensive. I asked her if she had a big garden. She said that she didn’t. Her garden was on a slope, so she had made it into terraces. To cut a long story short, she has five separate gardens, none of which sounded very small.

The sky started to cloud over and I set off home as I had not brought a coat with me, and did not fancy going all wrinkly.
Next weekend there is a brocante (overpriced antiques) sale in the centre of town. So no stop to the free entertainment.
Monday’s paper explained that this event filled an empty slot in the town’s calendar of events and was a first. It remains to see if the Association, who had been planning the event for the last 4 months, will want to make it an annual event.
They also mentioned the ikebana stand. My suspicions were confirmed that this was a hobbly strictly for the girlies. “On a remarqué aussi la démonstration d'Ikebana, cet art du bouquet floral japonais qui, semble-t-il, a surtout plu attiré des dames.” La Depeche