Celebrating Life - The Extraordinary in the Ordinary

This morning I took off on foot with my backpack and re-usable produce bags to the local farmers market.

The market itself is great entertainment. Lovely arrangements of live plants, cut flowers, piles of colorful fruits and vegetables always make me happy. If you didn't see this previous post about the farmers market, don't miss it. The photo mosaic is something that I'm really proud of! I usually run into someone interesting to chat with. Today there were 3 different people/groups playing live music. It was the 35th anniversary of the market. They were serving cake!

Let me introduce you to the Great Morgani, who is a Santa Cruz icon. This man is a great accordion player and a master of costume-making. Today he was wearing a bug suit. He could wear anything to play the accordion, but his presence is always impressive because of the extraordinary costumes which he sews himself. You can check out his website here (and prepare to be AMUSED!)

I stopped briefly to chat and ask permission to take his photo. He's not shy, as you may have guessed.

Also, I listened for a bit to the Farmers Market String Band who plays there every Saturday morning, weather permitting through the spring, summer and fall months. This time I bought a CD. They're good!

Celebrate shopping for fruits and veggies with music!

On my way to the market, I stopped to photograph these traffic light control boxes.This one in particular amazes me every time I see it and I took the camera along just because I wanted to show you.  Why not take something ugly like these big control boxes and transform it into a work of art that everyone can enjoy! Visit the website of Bruce Harman to see the collection of light boxes that he's painted, as well as other artwork.

This one, about a block away, is wonderful and whimsical. It depicts, in addition to the "Blue Dog, Red Cat" for which it is titled, one of Soquel's great landmarks. "The little white church" (Soquel Congregational Church)  even has a  Facebook fan page! Love the colors chosen by the artist, Ket Tom-Conway whose website you can view here. 

 And just because this stunning little Morning Glory peeked through the fence to cheer me along the way, I thought I'd include it, too. I love being able to talk about the things in life that excite me and am glad that you are here to cheer me on and share in the things that make life special.

Thank you! I hope that you have an extraordinary day!