Saturday, May 9, 2009

Outdoor Market Season

Spring has finally sprung here in southern Ontario and that means the start of the outdoor antique market season.

Getting to the first Flamboro show at the Brampton Fairgrounds was a bit of an adventure this morning. As I was driving, the sky was turning blacker and blacker and suddenly it started to pour. I could hardly see anything in front of me - just followed the lights of the truck ahead of me and hoped for the best. Then something bounced loudly off my roof, followed by another loud metallic ping and I realized it was hailing. For tiny little bits of ice, they sure make a heck of a noise when you're sitting inside a tin can!! It was so bad, traffic was pretty much standing still, although there was still the odd foolish driver here and there who didn't see the need to put their headlights on (what is wrong with these people??). I made my way to the side of the road and waited it out.

After only a few minutes (that seemed much longer), the skies cleared and I continued on my way. Met my friend Barb in the parking lot after a couple of cell phone calls to coordinate positions and we then prepared to shop. She had very cleverly brought along a couple of fabulous raincoats for each of us, complete with reflective strips, courtesy of a paramedic relative. Of course, several people seemed to think we were the parking lot staff as we walked around but that was okay. We probably could have auctioned off the coats for a pretty penny during the heaviest downpours!

The number of vendors seemed much smaller this time around, perhaps it was the weather, maybe due to the economy. There were two buildings full of the smaller bits and pieces and several stalls outside with larger furniture and whatnots. Everything outside was covered with a thin layer of water although most of the items seemed to have withstood the early morning deluge. Then it started raining again just before midday and that carried on rather torrentially for quite a while. Luckily, we had checked out the outdoor stalls before the rain started. Barb and I ate our hotdog lunch in the car, put our raincoats back on during a break in the rain and headed in to scour the insider vendors' tables.

I'll share my purchases with you in Monday's post. In the meantime, here are a few photos of my day:


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