to the market!

While there are a few other farmer's markets that run during the week, Saturday has always been market day for me, especially once the downtown farmer's market (also known as the City Market) opens for the season. Although I could take the LRT there, it's maybe a ten minute walk from my apartment to 104th street. I was meeting up with my friends Wade and Phil for breakfast, but I was having trouble sleeping after waking up from a nightmare about stolen pizza. So while it wasn't quite the crack of dawn when I left the house, it was still early enough that some of the more 'responsible' nighttime revelers had not yet picked up their vehicles from the downtown parking lots along Jasper Avenue's 'entertainment' district. w00t! Clubbing at the ultralounge!

The downtown sidewalks were mostly deserted, with the exception of a few socially conscous seniors sporting raybans and t-shirts that read "Keep Alberta Nuclear Free!" the only other people I passed were a crew removing a tree from the mini parking lot across the street from RedStar (note the newly completed storefront facade above RedStar).


The city could use a bit more street level activity along Jasper on the weekend. It can be a bit apocalyptic at times. I half expect someone to call to me from behind a door and tell me that I'm crazy to be out wandering about and that soon I'll be consumed by the zombie army that lurks on the next block. Thankfully, the crowd that was gathering a few streets away was not interested in eating brains, rather local produce instead (uhh... so if you're wondering where all these zombie references are coming from I recently bought a book about preparing for a zombie attack for Sarah, I think I've been overly influenced by it).

And so... the market.



I had actually intended on doing more shopping at the market than shooting photos or video, but very quickly the camera took precedence and I didn't pick up a single thing. Next time I'll leave the camera at home, or better yet, leave the serious shopping to the gentleman while I happily take pictures.



The market felt a bit like set of My Fair Lady, with lots of plants and flowers for sale. I couldn't find anyone who resembled Eliza Doolittle though (despite there being flowers and girls aplenty), but more than a few dogs were large enough to be mistaken for small horses and one could have easily hitched them up to a hansom cab.


I might have left empty-handed, but most people didn't. I expect that on future Saturdays I'll look a lot like this lady below, with bags full of local fare. If I continue the trend of being at the market by 9am I might actually be early enough to get something from the Queen of Tarts.