(95) Hot Dogs at the Farmer's Market

It’s hot, so we decided to get up early and go to the Saturday Farmer’s Market. We thought that going early would provide cooler weather and fewer people to contend with, so off we went. We were however, wrong. It was still extremely hot and it seemed that everyone else had the same good idea. The dogs did quite well, considering all of the other dogs and multitude of people forging their way through the aisles of produce and crafts. Max got hot quickly, with his black coat against the blazing sun. Beeker’s coat is mostly black but he only has one layer of hair where Max has an undercoat as well. We were able to proceed slowly enough, looking at new potatoes, tomato plants and lots of sweet smelling strawberries. I did spy clematis. I’ve been contemplating buying one for the fence section we have in the back yard. I decided against it since its flowers were purple (see past post).

The Dogs…We live in an area where there are very few places for people to take their dogs with them in public. The farmer’s market is one of them, so there were a lot of dogs to engage with ours. I, with Brad’s assistance, realized that Beeks doesn’t do so well when confronted by other dogs, while he’s on a leash. He gets almost defensive. Max does quite good. Beeks will greet other dogs cautiously, leaving me to think all is good, then, when my confidence goes up thinking that all is well, he will let out a low growl. He doesn’t do this when he is off leash, when he meets dogs at the dog park. Other dogs just want to be friends but to Beeks it is like he thinks he needs to be powerful or dominate. I have mentioned before that Beeks also gets barky when he sees another dogs while he(Beeks) is behind the window of the car. I saw he is Window empowered. When we are on a walk (leashed) he doesn’t bark at other dogs he sees. He in fact, reminds me of Pongo from 101 Dalmatians. He almost prances. He walks with a proud step. Maybe it is all a show, a lack of confidence so he acts bold. A dog’s version of a bird puffed up? I think it is good practice that we don’t get to do very often since we aren’t encouraged to take our dogs many places. I guess I am grateful for the few places we are encouraged to take our dogs.

The plant… In the end, we chose a purple millet. Okay it is purple too. But it is a deep purple. It looks like a cross between a corn stalk and a cat tail. The leaves and stalk look like corn and the top looks like a cat tail. Millet is a grain commonly used in bird seed but a quick glance on the web showed that millet can be used for flour and bread. I am sure the birds will love it and I think it has a beautiful deep color and interesting height different than the other perennials we have. Did I mention I never met a plant I didn’t like? So many plants, so little time(and money).