. . . and after the Bazaar

On Friday I stepped out of my usual routine and drove down to Saffron Walden to rendez-vous with Carole at The Riverslade Gallery in Saffron Walden - I was to 'shadow' her for a day to learn how to look after the gallery for when it's my turn to be on duty. There was a lot to learn! We had an enjoyable day, after a quiet morning (I had time to learn about the till!) we had some enthusiastic customers in the afternoon and some good sales - so it was a successful day. With the gallery all packed up and left spick and span, I trudged through the dark lanes to my car and drove home trying hard to remember everything!

So then it was Saturday and the Christmas Bazaar - I'd iced the carrot cakes I'd made earlier in the week, on Friday evening, so once they were packed in cellophane bags I sped up to the village hall to deliver the cakes for the cake stall and teas and to bag a pitch my stall. Then it was back down the hill to home to pack all my stuff in the car, get it into the hall and my stall set up.

The time flew past and with everything set out the first customers were arriving through the door!

The hall ebbed and flowed with people, a first wave looked at all the stalls and considered without buying, there was a lull as most people tucked into the delicious cakes before a flurry of spending. All in all a pretty good day, even without record breaking sales. And it was fun to have two lovely neighbouring stallholders . . .

To one side was one of my neighbours from the village, Christina Friel with her stylish selection of new and vintage costume jewellery and accessories. Christina has a expert eye for what's in fashion, you can find her stall on Cambridge Market every Sunday.

And on the other side, the lovely Mrs P, aka Silverpebble with her array of shiny silver and bead jewellery. She was even beavering away behind her stall with her pliers and silver wire, creating a gorgeous oriental style pendant!

So, that was lots of fun and great to catch up with the gossip too! With all packed away, cars loaded up, we said goodbye and headed off into the dark blustery night. I'd just got everything in from the car to my studio when Cliff pointed to a note on the calendar "Church Flowers" - oops! I'd clean forgotten! That's the trouble with living in a small village, you get put on rotas! So on with the boots and mac, and torch and secateurs in hand I walked to the church, lucky I know where the light switches are! And lucky too that there had recently been a wedding and all that was needed was a bit of pruning and tweaking. Can I sit down now please?

This morning we woke early, Cliff was leading a walk of 15 miles and I loyally said I would join the group for the morning (9 miles). I could hear wind and rain outside :-(

But by the time I'd eaten my porridge the sky was cloudless and blue! Fingers crossed the forecast squally rain would be in the afternoon (when I'd be back home in the warm!). We strode out along the Devil's Dyke, squinting into the low winter sun and trying to avoid slipping on the treacherous wet exposed chalk. All was going splendidly! We saw a herd of over twenty Fallow Deer, including a couple of pure white ones - what a treat! But the sunshine didn't last - at around midday the heavens opened and the wind lashed us with gale force gusts soaking us in next to no time! I was a tiny bit relieved that I had opted out of walking in the afternoon and my car was at the lunch point for me to hop in and drive home! But it was a very good walk - if it had been dry I would have carried on to complete the full distance ;-)

There was something I had to do before getting out of my wet clothes and boots - tidy up the hen-house and collect the eggs . . . Oh!! that's not a hen . . .

Hope that you too had a good weekend! I'll be back soon, but I've one or two deadlines to meet this week, so no blogging until they are done.

Celia
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