Mathews Christmas Parade

Saturday afternoon, the state of Alaska Mathews County hosted a Christmas parade.

(It was a bitterly cold--but otherwise beautiful--sunny day.)

My friend Alda wasn't in the parade, but, no matter where she goes, 
Alda pretty much is her own parade.  

Lisa's daughter Malia marched with the MHS cheerleaders. 

It was great to see so many friendly faces. 

Laura Lane 

As usual, there were some creative floats.

Our county supervisors were definitely on board.

This isn't your run-of-the-mill Christmas parade.

No siree.

The Abominable Snowman made an appearance.

So did Charlie Brown.  
And his tree! 

The Grinch was sporting some mighty fine shoes. Mighty fine, I tell you.

There were tractors young and old.

Big and bigger.

Lots of smiling, happy faces.

And plenty of children.

This isn't something you see every day...

The equestrian entries were elegant.

Glenda, Betsy and Alda.  And Alda's hat.
(Note to Self:  Self? Get one of those hats!)

Mathews County Visitor & Information Center's Director Jonathan Putt sips something warm while watching the parade. I recently had the honor of being asked to serve on MCVIC's board and look forward to helping the county's tourism efforts in any way possible.  

A good time was had by all!

Market Days II

Here are a few more scenes from last weekend's Market Days.

In case I neglected to mention it, the weather was absolutely beautiful.

I don't know what it is about these Market Days signs, but I just love
how they seemed to pop up all over and blend right in.
Maybe I have a thing for sultry sea captains, who knows.
Regardless, I love this man sign.

This is a not-so-great shot of one oh-so-quirky bird.
(I'm not talking about the human, just to clarify.)

Now these people know how to live.
Hats!
(I really don't mean any harm, but does anyone else
think he resembles Captain Kangaroo? I loved that show, by the way.)

It was a great weekend.

Speaking of the weekend, next I'll share 

some pictures from Sunday's adventure that included a

boat ride with friends from high school to yet another 

birthday celebration on a deserted Mathews County beach.

In case you missed the last one, click here and here.

Daffodil Festival

Here are more pictures from the Gloucester Daffodil Festival.

My mother was Daffodil Queen back in the day.

Her future father-in-law, who sold daffodils commercially, crowned her.

Little known fact.

I'm not sure there's any flower more cheerful than a daffodil.

These, with the salmon-colored centers, appear to be drooping but really they just can't wait to get out of their container and are sort of bickering as to who's going to get out first.  (Other people may just see a slightly off center picture of flowers in a bucket.  I could write a novel on the struggle, imagined or otherwise, these flowers seem to be experiencing.)

With everything going on in this picture, all I could focus on was Leigh's Market, which no longer stands beside the building on the far right.  My favorite grandmother, who lived on Corr Street just up the way, made us walk to the store with her since she had no license.   Once I accidentally took a candy bar from Leigh's without telling her.  I still have nightmares about her finding out.  To this day I cannot tell a lie, at least not relating to chocolate. I have been known to pilfer chocolate bars from people at work who are out of their office.  Old habits die hard.  By the way, she called Leigh's and reported the offense immediately.  I paid for that candy bar the rest of my life.  But I digress...

Although I was solely focused on the Antiques sign and the daffodil flag, the woman on the right was absolutely mortified that she might be interrupting the scene.  When she apologized for "being in the way",  I told her I wanted them in the picture, which made her clutch her bag even tighter.  They were color coordinated and took the focus off of the uncooperative daffodil flag. But she really begged to differ. 

Here the flag cooperates. The photographer probably shouldn't have chopped off the top, but chances are pretty good she was focused on the shadow in the window.

There was food, food and more food.

I'm only now reading the words on this banner.  At the time, I was mesmerized by the color and symmetry of the booth.(See above about flowers fighting to get out of baskets.  I seem to have an odd way of interpreting ordinary scenes. Truth be told, the one thing that catches my eye now that I'm looking at it again is the sign for sweet potato fries. I could go for some of those right now.)

Deep fried candy bars, anyone?

The only money I spent at the Daffodil Festival was here.  Iced tea and BBQ.  

If I'd had more time, I probably would have sampled the shrimp on a stick, which I'm guessing is a kabob, but around here you never know. There might just be one shrimp on one stick, nothing else.  The End.

If you guessed I wanted the pink hat, you'd be correct.

There was so much going on, even pony rides.  And ATMs.

T

The Kubota booth was a cruel reminder of what I was really supposed to be doing that day.

Lots and lots of yard work.

Then I saw something shiny!  All  household obligations were forgotten (once again) as I wondered where I might locate my own personal version of this blue tinsel hat with the daffodil adornment.

The Daffodil Festival was great. There is something for everyone even if you only go to eat people watch.