Saturday was a full day! We got over to the Tualatin Valley Gardener's Plant Sale shortly after 10am and the only thing we could find to haul plants around in was a large wheelbarrow. We immediately put in the pretty little Japanese Maple for the pond in it and then proceeded around the different areas. We had tomato plants (Roma and a yellow variety), three kinds of veggie starts (green, yellow zucchini and a yellow round one I haven't seen before) and some herbs (dill and thyme), with four kinds of hot peppers (two kinds of jalapeno, Anaheim and some other I can't find the label for), and last but not least a handful of Walla Walla onions. While we were there we ran into Trtlgrl and her DH also doing some plant shopping.
It wasn't all about the veggies though. I also found some pretty violas, a couple of Bleeding Heart plants (always loved them and reminded of them after seeing Michele's) and a pretty Columbine to add to the ones we have. I found a couple of late bearing blueberry plants. Got home and realized I had one of the ones that I bought, it just didn't do well last year - oh well! I now should be able to have blueberries through the summer to nibble on. Brandon was also very happy to find a Ginko tree start, he's always wanted one of them, and now has one. Just to keep all plants together, on the way home we stopped and found a nice sized Apricot tree that is hardy for the pacific northwest. Here's the photo collage of everything plant:
We brought the plants home and then headed out to Faire in the Grove at the Grand Lodge. It was much larger than the previous years that we've attended. Since they had the space to setup they used it all. The other change was having it over three days. Not sure if that helped them since it was also earlier in the year from previous and of course there was rain. The vendors had to camp on site to protect their wares. Lots of lovely wares to be found too! I came home with a coffee mug in a soft purple with a delicate lady dragon etched into the side with the usual saying of 'Here there be dragons!'. She also had some pretty Celtic knot buttons and I found three of the same color/design. They had a leather vendor that was selling belts fit to your size and a very good price. Since Brandon had been saying he needed a new one some time was spent there letting him get one customized. He also found out that the then current one had a very nice buckle on it, so instead of it just being tossed its being kept for possible future belt use on new leather.
The place next door also had some shirts and the one we found for Brandon had an oddity so they knocked $5 off. He's happy now that he has a shirt and I'm happy I don't have to sew the pleats (not a lot but enough). Brandon insisted I get some hand jewelry in the form of a bracelet/ring. It's in stainless steel and crystal beads. We thought the giant of a man selling the Celtic knot hair and shawl pins had some nice handmade stuff so I came home with two types of hair pieces - small and large. We were about three-quarters of the way through when we ran into Trtgrl and DH again about the time that Brandon's co-worker/D&D player Brent showed up. We all decided that food would be a good idea so headed in to the Grand Lodge for some lunch.
Once our blood sugars had been restored to proper levels we headed back out to finish our wanderings. While inside the rain had decided to be a little more persistent. Rachel liked my hair pieces and so we directed her off towards where they could be found. I wanted to head towards the basketman. I let Brandon and Brent do some of their own wandering while I headed back in for some cash to buy my basket - awesome deal for $20! It was interesting to see that the vendor also did woodworking and was selling the same tool that I had just read about in the Piecework magazine for doing a 'square knot braid' or Lucet braid.
I walked out and ran into Tiggywinkleknits and Toolman walking around and while chatting with them had Trtlgrl and DH come back from getting the hair pieces - she'd found a cool shawl pin that he had. Brandon and Brent caught back up with me and we all continued around the various booths. Since we were doing another loop and the candlemaker was no longer busy I was able to pick up some wonderful smelling beeswax candles.
Not too long after we all headed home. Except that we didn't go directly home. First there was the stop at Home Depot to pick up a new electric lawn mower. It was even marked down a bit off of the price shown so even better! We drove through the parking lots to the nursery next door and found that they had a nice sized Apricot tree that we had to figure out how to get into the Outback with the lawn mower box. It ended up in the back seat. Then finally home again! Our Faire stuff minus Brandon's shirt (its a pretty forest green) and belt:
I worked a few more rows of the Arrows sock sample for the shop and headed to bed early. Sunday was a slow start going until we got outside and I got started on some long needed weeding in the backyard along with planting everything from Saturday. Brandon had to shuffle a few plants around in different areas but we had everything in the ground before it really started to rain. After cleaning up and dinner we spent the rest of the evening watching shows and I finished up the Arrows sock.
Whew, that was an action packed weekend! I love Bleeding Hearts, and blueberries, too. I hope I get as many berries this year as I did last year! We still have some in the freezer.
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