Monday, March 28, 2011

Springtime Yearnings

 As the opening weekend of our local farmers' market is finally visible on the open page of my weekly planner, it seems that its approach is slowing to a crawl because I'm so excited at the prospect of beautiful fresh produce after these long winter months of squash, potatoes, and worst of all tasteless tomatoes.  Besides all the fresh fruits and vegetables, the opening of the farmers' market is one more step in the process of officially ushering in Spring, and with it beautiful bouquets of fresh cut flowers, street corner musicians, and the simple joy of whiling away a Saturday morning sipping coffee and enjoying all the merriment.  Being the lover of food and photography that I am, naturally I've compiled a ridiculous number of pictures of food and flower markets at home and abroad and have developed a habit of periodically perusing these pictures to refresh my memory and fill the void during the long, cold winter.
Included here are a few pictures of a charming little farmers' market my mom and stumbled across in a small town in Provence.  The entire scene was straight out of a movie with all the cute, little french grandmeres wheeling their little market buggies amid the umbrella-shaded stalls.  But a word of warning: don't be deceived by the outwardly cute and sweet appearance of the little old french ladies, these are a determined bunch of women who will not be deterred in their efforts to gain the attention of the vendor, especially not by a naive looking, albeit rather taller, american girl.  Despite the somewhat surprising aggression (for lack of a better word), I did manage to purchase a carton of delicious fresh cherries for us to snack on as we wandered throughout the market and surrounding shops.  Memories and pictures such as these will have to suffice just a little bit longer as this week slowly approaches opening day.  To those of you with similar Springtime Yearnings, I hope these pictures and similar ones from your own collection help to tide you over as you wait.