Perfect day for the Farmers' Market!

Woke up to a stunning day - clear blue skies, warm sunshine and a cheerful baby.  The Daddy is at work, so Tabitha and I went down to the Boroondara Farmers' Market with my friend Amy, and my parents and sister.

Look how nice it was down there this morning!  Aside from whatever fruit/veg/meat I happen to need, things that I routinely get at the Market are:

• Rhubarb for Rhubarb and Strawberry Pie, and for rhubarb muffins
• Berries - blueberries, strawberries, raspberries when in season.  I never liked blueberries until I tasted the incredible organic ones at the market one day!
• VBK Veggieburgers - they are SO good, full of grated veggies with no 'filler', and they cook beautifully, with a crispy outside, on a panini press.  They also have gluten free for those gf people (like Amy).
• Eggs from Green Eggs
• A spinach and feta golzeme, and a decaf coffee, for breakfast.  Always.
• A fresh squeezed orange juice - on hot days, you can buy them semi-frozen into a delicious slurry.
• Walnuts from the friendly walnut man (this turned into the World's Most Awkward Conversation this morning - dad, making small-talk with the vendor, commented "and I hear walnuts are excellent for preventing prostate cancer!" to which the 50-something male vendor replied, "they didn't stop me from getting prostate cancer".  Cue awkward silence.  Dad bought loads of walnuts then - I think he felt bad!
• Bacon, chorizo and sausages from Fernleigh Farms

Today, I also got a few kilograms of beautiful ripe peaches (some for eating, some for a peach and custard pie).  I didn't need to get any tomatoes or zucchini, because our plants are going CRAZY in the backyard.

Here is Tabitha eating some spinach and feta Golzeme in the shade of her pram:

We bumped into my former boss, her husband, and her lovely little daughter.  They also had their beautiful and exhuberant standard poodle, Jet - I was there when Jet first came home as a puppy, and used to see her everyday, so it was really nice to see her.  I'm sure she remembered me - she jumped up onto her back legs and pawed at me furiously!  Very cute.

Tabby wore a Rock Your Baby romper, which Amy bought her as a gift last year.  It always elicits loads of comments from people - she looks just like Minnie Mouse!

Tabitha really likes our trips to the Farmers' Market - lots of puppies, smiling faces, new foods to try and other children and babies.  Here we are having a play with a bag of walnuts:

My sister (9) discovered a fantastic stall selling blended frozen fruit - you choose your fruit (she chose strawberries, banana and mango), they feed it into the freezeing-and-blending-machine, and it comes out as an incredible sorbet-type dessert!  Nothing else in it but pure fruit!  I am very impressed.  I would like one of these machines at home.  Tabitha tried some of the frozen fruit, and seemed to quite like it too.

Oh - speaking of markets, I don't think I've mentioned that last weekend, The Daddy and I took Tabitha to the Queen Victoria Market to check out the sights and sounds, and ended up buying a baby Diamond Python at the fantastic Upmarket Aquarium!  We had been looking for a new python for quite a while (we used to have a Spotted Python, Noodle, and I have a Bearded Dragon called Atticus), and when we handled this beautiful baby, her temperament was just incredible - calm, confident, not at all snappy for a baby!  So we brought her home, and she is settling in nicely.  She is only a few months old, around 50cm long and as thick as my index finger.  She will get to somewhere between 4 - 10 feet, but probably around 6 feet.

The Daddy suggested calling her Marilyn ("Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend") and I agreed that it is a good name - if she turns out to be a boy (no way to know until over a year old) she can be named for Marilyn Manson haha...

Here is a quick photo - I don't want to disturb her too much in her initial weeks, while she settles in, so I will get some better photos next week.