Our Boy and His Cricket

With warmer weather comes a bounty of fruits, vegetables and flowers all around and to prevent us from pulling off on the side of the freeway to pluck a strawberry or two, we head to farmers market!  We live right smack in the middle of the strawberry capitol of the world (Watsonville) and we are surrounded by the garlic capitol (Gilroy) and artichoke capitol (Castroville).  The amount of agriculture can at times, fill our fridges with more than enough to last a month or more...unless your like us and eat all the strawberries before they make it home or use every last bit of garlic in the butter sauce for those artichokes!! 

I love wandering through and sampling the booty of our local farmers and stop and smell the sweet peas and of course bring a fistful home to enjoy all week long.  There is never a sad face to be seen as you go up and down the aisles, everyone is always ready with a smile and a wave.  It never fails that there is a string band there plucking away at some distant song and the band is surrounded by young children dancing to music they know nothing about.  Parents are holding that coveted cup of coffee from a local brewer while passing along the weekly milestone of their kids.  It amazes me how the time there always feels as though we are living in another decade.

It's the perfect place to take my camera and get me feeling more and more comfortable shooting in a very populated environment.  In the last few weeks I've been to farmers market three times and this last Saturday I felt comfortable enough to just walk on up to a stand and get myself in there to snap away.  Of course I'm all the while enjoying everything around me as well as the time with my husband and little one and find myself putting the camera away more than I want to. 

  This last week I wanted to challenge myself to get into stalls and snap pictures of their fare.  

My favorite was the Pincushion flowers!  Oh man those are some beautiful flowers!!!  

Next time I really want to snap more pictures of people but I'm still a bit shy at doing so but I'm working on it!

The colors, textures, and smells are enough to make me want to spend hours taking pictures of each and every thing that is there!  

Actually I think I'll head back this weekend!  

What kinds of finds are at your local farmer's markets??  

Happy Wednesday to everyone!!  As always I'm linking up with Lisa at the Long Road to China...spend a few minutes and check out other fabulous black and white photos from around the world!