a wonderful day

It was such a wonderful day, I'm loathe to give it up, as has my companion, who is now snoring away in the next room, worn out from our excursions.

We started out the morning by shopping for first aid supplies for my dogs - with the hot weather come hot spots, and I worry that my babies will scratch until they've developed a secondary infection.  So we decided to find a cure.

After that, we went to a farmer's market in a small town named Candor.  It's one of my favorite ways to spend a Saturday afternoon - not buying vegetables, but talking with the old farmers and their wives.  They're eager to give recipes or canning tips, to tell old stories from a lifetime ago that we wouldn't have heard about, otherwise.  These folks are wrinkled and leathery, and are a virtual treasure trove of memories.

We made our purchases - peaches, from the Peach Capitol of North Carolina.  The winblo's aren't ready, will be a few weeks yet, so we bought a freestone variety we had not tried before.  The vendor was eager to tell us that Claytons were the very first freestone peach developed.  Let me assure you, they taste wonderful.  But there's no subsitute for Winblo's.

We drove on into a place that time did not exactly forget...there are abandoned houses whose histories fascinate me, old tobacco barns that have crumbled to the elements of time and weather.  Homes are sparse, and we drove along a hundred miles, it seemed, of winding country road dotted with mimosa trees, wildflowers, out and out weeds.  It was beautiful.  We daydreamed aloud about building a house on the property he owns in that area...how I will write, and he will garden in a place that seems so far from civilization, but isn't. 

On the way back, we stopped at Stuckey's and admired the wares in the gift shop, vowed to come back for Christmas shopping, bought icees to cool us down on a steaming July Saturday.  And then later, the thunderstorms held off long enough for us to swim.

It's the best Saturday I can remember having in a very long time; I wish it didn't have to end, but he's a keeper...and we'll do it again.