To market, to market, to buy a fat pig!

Debbie and I did our usual Saturday ritual this morning... we got up early and went to the market, The Boyce Farmer's Market here in Fredericton. I love the market. It brings back a simpler time... there's so much great food and merchandise there... we get up and are out of the house early and it's once a week that I get to spend a couple of hours with my wonderful wife alone. It's our Saturday morning date time. 

The market is so different during the different seasons, and I can't really say that I like any one time over another. Winter has set in here and it's Christmas season at the market right now. Other than the food vendors who cook and sell their food then and there and are in the same spots all year round, most of the outside vendors are gone. But, because it's Christmas, there are half a dozen or so vendors selling trees and wreaths and other evergreen decorations. There's a great holiday feel to the market this time of year that and I love spirit of the market.

After Christmas, the market slows down. It's quieter... easier to find a parking space and definitely doesn't take as long to go through, but it's nice to peruse with less people there. I love the quiet and slowness of the winter market.

Once the days start to lengthen, the mornings are a bit warmer and the earth is yawning in the spring, the market also starts to wake up. Slowly but surely, old vendors return selling plants, garden furniture and other fun things and new vendors come with the idea of selling me something that I have to have. The promise of spring also brings the promise that the market will return to its vim and vigor. I love the new growth of the spring market.

The long hot days of summer brings lots of freshness... no not the kid threatening his mother buy him a hot dog or he'll sell his baby sister... the freshness of fruits and vegetables. It starts off slowly with the early summer fruits and vegetables and ripens to stand after stand of a rainbow of colors. The colors of fresh... yellow and green and red and orange and blue and purple. I seem to eat better during this time simply because it's easier to. It's more crowded and harder to find a parking space, but that's okay because I love the freshness of the summer market.

As the circle of the season closes again, so do the seasons of the market. I think the autumn is my favorite time for market going. There are still lots and lots of vegetables and fruit being harvested and being sold and the change of the seasons is showing. I enjoy seeing the gourds and pumpkins and squashes... squishes... squash... and autumn crafts. The briskness in the air makes me want to wear a sweatshirt and the leaves blowing around makes me realize that the circle is completing. It's time to buy a pumpkin or two and get ready for the holidays. I love the nip in the air of the autumn market.

I guess it doesn't matter what time of year it is... the seasons of the market are all interesting and fun. I guess it's because I love my Saturday morning dates with Debbie which cause me to love the market.