A Bushel Of Tomatoes

Day 34

I am a few days late with this blog as life is good and I'm  visiting my daughter and grandchildren.

Saturday was a day I call a God - cidences.

Every fall I can a bushel of tomatoes.  Canned tomatoes go into my spaghetti sauces, soups and other delicious dishes.  This year the tomatoes are not very good due to the excessive rain rotting them on the vines.  Perhaps I should buy canned ones.  As I thought about my decision I didn't want tomatoes from a tin can.  They don't taste as good as mine and the metal cans are not as healthy as my jars.  Some companies put sugar in the tomatoes.  Why? is what I ask.  Maybe to make them look better or possibly because people are addicted to sugar.   Apparently 100 years ago the average person consumed 10 pound of sugar a year. Now the average consumption if 170 to 200 pounds per year.  Again I wonder why is there sugar in tomatoes. I don't want more sugar than I need.

My mind had been changed, if I could find some tomatoes I would can. If not I would have to buy the store canned ones.

Saturday morning the weather was clear and cool.  Perhaps I did make the wrong decision to not sell my pottery at the farmers market. Too late for that now.

As planned I went to Orillia to pick up a few items at the health food store.  They were out of stock.  A wasted trip, so I thought.

Across the road was the Saturday morning Orillia market.  Oh well why not wander around it.  The first stall had two bushes of very good tomatoes. Now that I decided to can my tomatoes God made a way for me to buy some. 

I call these God-cidences or His direction.  If I'd gone to the health food store on Friday or not at all, which I considered, I would have missed the Orillia market and these tomatoes. 

Around 11:30 the rain came.  If I'd gone to the market I probably would have packed up in the rain. I am thankful I decided to go to Orillia instead of my market. .

Pottery Sales

Being Thankful

Day Two

Today I sold my pottery at the 100K Farm, Fresh and Homemade Market in Huntsville.

I signed up for the season, June 15 to Oct 12.  I knew I would not be able to make every Saturday morning. Going with Dave to his motorcycle events and summer in general I'd miss a few. On the civic holiday Saturday I sold at the Windermere Garden Center's craft show and flea market instead.  Last year was my first year in this 5 year old craft show.  With the down turn in the economy and a hot day my sales were almost the same as last year, pretty good.  We have seen a lot of rainy days this summer so I don't blame the cottagers for staying on their dock instead of coming to the market.

This Saturday was the fifth time I have been able to attend at the 100K Market. The weather was cool and rainy, something to be thankful for. You might wonder why I would be thankful for another cool wet day in August.  As I mentioned in the previous paragraph hot weather keeps the cottagers away.  Today they were out in their rain gear and fancy umbrella's of all colors and designs.  It would have been interesting to see this sea of color from above. 

Every Saturday I have sold at least a couple of items. Today I had the best sales of the season - two of my pitchers and a flower vase along with a few small items. This is a picture of my pitcher.  The color is not as dark green as it should be, because I took it in the evening inside.  Natural light shows a truer color.  All my pitchers are this shape with a variety of glazes on them.   I am thankful for all the sales I have gotten, today and always.  God has blessed me with an amazing gift of making pottery and decorating it.  My mind swirls with ideas, too numerous to do.  Never a lack of creating.

Not only was I blessed with sales, but I also had a friend who has slowed down in making pottery, due to health and age.  A couple of years ago she gave me several buckets of her recycled clay.  I have gotten through half of them.  She is moving to her daughter's down south on Wednesday and only wants to take some of her old clay with her.  She blessed me with old clay and her glazes today.  Dave kept hauling bags and buckets out to the truck until it was full.  I have enough clay for a year or maybe more.  The pottery supply places won't be seeing much of me for a while.

With the sales today and the clay God has blessed me in my calling.

Much to be thankful for today.