Farmer's Market and Memorial Day Weekend

It's a beautiful day here in Western Illinois today! We decided to go out and do a few things we wanted to do this weekend. Since my garden is painfully behind in being planted and growing (my fault, not the weather's or the garden's) I have been craving some fresh veggies. We stopped by the farmer's market a few miles down the road from us and I found some great veggies. I got some beautiful red tomatoes that look like they are about ready to burst with flavor and juice! They also had my favorite burpless cucumbers** so we got two of them.

The same stand had green tomatoes!! They people running the stand said they brought them due to popular demand, so I snagged a few of them to have for supper tonight. We don't usually eat fried green tomatoes until closer to fall...but this is my year for "thinking outside of the box" so we're in!! Aren't I daring?

The next stand had some gorgeous mixed lettuce, perfect spinach, huge radishes, one of my faves: petite beets.



There was an old man who had a stand with nothing but rhubarb and it was almost gone. I was able to score a handful of stalks. I'll be making some rhubarb crisp this afternoon!

And I also found a couple pretty little potted asters that were just exactly what I was looking for. I needed something to take to put on my Mom's grave and one for my husband's grave. I got a pink and a red one. Perfect.

All of this for less that a $20 bill!

The only problem was that I didn't have anything to wrap the plain black garden pots to make them look a little less unfinished. I found a yellow napkin and a white one and a pink elastic band hair-tie and a white one in Andy's glove compartment. I use these ties for keeping the seat belt from cutting my throat as ride along. Being short has it's drawbacks!! I had just put a few ties in the glove compartment a while back. I wrapped the napkins around the pots with the points sticking up, like you would fancy foil, and put the hair ties around the pot to keep the napkin in place, in lieu of a ribbon. They looked very cute and if you didn't look too close they looked perfectly decorated. No one would ever know that they were slapped together from stuff found in a glove box!

The next stop was the cemetery where my Mom is buried. We had a deuce of a time finding her grave. It was just a short bit up the road from where we were looking and it took us about 5 minutes to find it. Eagle-eyed Andy found it and we place the flowers on her brass grave marker. I cried! I always cry when I go there. Her death was so traumatic for us because it was so unexpected and for some reason I think of that part when we are there. I miss my Mom. She was so much fun and such a character!

Then we went to the Rock Island Arsenal to the National Cemetery there. That's where my husband was buried. And where my son's ashes and I will be buried someday. Amazingly, I was able to go directly to his grave. Of course, in military cemeteries they have the graves according to the date someone passes away. I knew where the general area was and we just had to find the right date. It also helps that there's a huge oak tree that overlooks the area where he's buried. We left the little red aster with the white wrap, looking very patriotic, at the foot of his headstone. The local boy scouts had placed flags in front of each and every grave in the place. It's a very humbling sight to see. I cried again.

Now we are going to get back outside and see what we can accomplish in the yard today. Did I mention how beautiful it is out there?

**I have to share this. I couldn't wait for supper and washed and started to eat one of those burpless cukes shortly after we got home... skin and all. My dogs, Gracie and Rosie, always beg when we eat anything...and they both have an affinity for lettuce! Probably due to the fact that they're indoor dogs and need the healthy stuff greens provide. I tossed them both a piece of the cuke and they were frantic to get more. So between the three of us, we ate that entire cuke (good thing it was burpless!)...you can see how long it was in the above pic!