Scenes from the Weekend

We had a busy weekend, with most of the time spent outdoors or out-and-about. It felt like a real summer weekend. The kind that you dream about in the throes of winter.

FRIDAY

It was my mom’s birthday, so we took the day off from the flower field and headed out on an adventure.

We took a trip out to the Hamilton area to see our seed suppliers at William Dam Seeds and made a stop at the Hamilton Farmers Market for lunch. In the evening we had a quick dinner at my parents’ house – burgers from the local butcher and the first corn of the season from our favourite roadside stand. Then it was a nice post-dinner dip in the pool to cool us all off before bed. Lucy has been loving our almost daily swims lately, and was fast sleep within minutes of coming home.

SATURDAY

I had an early start to the day to get ready for our market on Sunday. I let Garrett sleep in, while Lucy came down to the kitchen with me to eat her breakfast and I did some prep for the market. I stamped bags and made bouquet wraps; loaded up all our supplies and decorations; packaged up our greeting cards and tote bags; and started to prep our mason jars for flowers.

As soon as Lucy was ready for her morning nap, Garrett took over and I headed out to the flower field with my mom. She’d already been through her own gardens at home and was thankful for the new mosquito jacket I got her – a very practical gift this year, ha! By early afternoon we had filled the mudroom with flowers ready for market!

We made a few extra pieces, like this basket arrangement for a very special party that evening.

We all headed into the city for my cousin’s engagement party. They’re getting married next summer and the whole family is so excited. Nothing like a wedding to bring everyone together. They hosted a lovely backyard party at their home, alongside their lovable pooch, Wilbur. (This is the same puppy from those cute pictures with Lucy last Christmas…oh how time flies!)

They’ve been working so hard on their house since they moved in just over a year ago and it was a great chance for everyone to see all the updates they’ve been doing themselves.

Their house is so welcoming and stylish at the same time. My cousin has a great eye for design and her fiancé is a very talented carpenter who had done so much custom work for their own home, including that great table.

They also recently renovated their entire kitchen, to create an updated and fresh look. The results were so good and I wish I’d taken more picture to show you. I love the eating area off to the right.

Their backyard was the perfect place for us all to mix and mingle.

It was great to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather together with family. Lucy was in good spirits – constantly trying to walk around the party to grab someone’s leg or spy on the dog. She definitely keeps us all on our toes!

On our way back home, I got the idea to have my parents and siblings over for a bonfire. My sister and her boyfriend were visiting from the city and my brother’s girlfriend was in town for a visit too, making it the perfect time to get all eight of us together for a relaxing night out at the farmhouse. I put Lucy down to bed while Garrett got a fire going, just in time for everyone to pull up covered in long sleeved shirts and pants to avoid the mosquitos. We did a flashlight tour of the flower field for everyone in the dark (a first) and talked about everyone’s plans for the rest of the summer.

SUNDAY

We had an early and eventful start to market day. We use my dad’s big white 1984 Chevy Blazer to get our large tent and tables back and forth from the market. On his way there, the transmission blew and I had to quickly switch everything over to one our vehicles to get it all over to the market in time.

Thankfully we had done so much prep the day before that we were in good shape for a quick set up. We had perfect weather, which was so very apprciated after weeks and weeks of it raining every Sunday.

This was the first week that we’ve been able to bring 100% our own flowers. Most weeks we have had to rely at least partly on other local suppliers, but it felt so good to look at the table and see all our own. These flowers that we’ve lovingly cared for since they were just little seeds and seedlings are now heading off to bring joy into someone else’s life.

One of the best parts of the market is getting to see so many familiar faces. Every week we see friends from near and far. This week I heard something from behind our booth and saw that our friends’ Oldsmobile was pulling up for a visit. You never know who will stop by.

Usually, at some point in the day, Garrett brings Lucy over to hang out at the market together. He thought ahead to bring her push car with them and it was a big hit. She loved to “drive” around the market, waving at the fellow vendors and giving them a little honk on her horn.

Garrett and I have always loved going to markets together and getting to share this with Lucy has been so much fun. She is already a seasoned vendor in her second year, ha!

Lucy stayed with me to tend to the booth, while Garrett headed home. We sold out of almost everything this week, which is great for two reasons – 1) profits and 2) we don’t have to bring it all home, ha! This was one of our best weekends so far this summer and it definitely recharged our batteries to keep soldiering on through the summer.

When Lucy and I got home, we found Garrett on the lawn tractor cutting the grass. While he stopped to say hello, we let her hop on and try out the steering wheel.

She’s already turning into quite the little farm girl. Big smiles for “dada”

While Lucy napped in the afternoon, I unpacked and organized everything from the market and Garrett finished up the yard work. As soon as she was up, we headed over to my parents’ house for a birthday celebration for my mom. My sister was putting together a couple herb garden baskets for her apartment in the city when we got there. All the fresh herbs smelled so good!

Some family and friends drove over to join in the celebration too. I had to laugh when I saw them all piled into this old car together.

With such a busy weekend, we kept dinner easy – pizza from our favourite place in town (where I worked as a teen!) and simple strawberry shortcake using berries from the market. (Thank you to my brother for helping me light this candle, ha!)

Lucy was quite intrigued with the whole “blowing out candles” part of the festivities…and was happy to have a small piece to herself as well. Otherwise, she’ll eat all of ours, ha!

As I was getting ready for bed last night, I couldn’t help but smile and be appreciative for a great weekend. They’re not all like this, but when they are, it does make me feel so happy. Like we got the most out of the time we had together, and that we can head into the new week feeling ready to tackle what comes ahead. This week I’ve got big plans to plant some more sunflower seeds for the fall and to get back out into the field to do some inevitable weeding. And to keep plugging away at that powder room renovation…and hopefully have another update soon 🙂

I hope you had a wonderful weekend too and that you have a great start to the week. Take care friends!