Shadows Of The Past

I'm in the middle of a weird April and I don't remember another one like it. Leaving aside the less pleasant parts of life that would lead me to consider it a black April, I can say it is strange. A sort of nature regression, after March who fooled us into thinking that spring has definitely arrived. April wanted to remind me of what life is like, a mixture of good and bad where evil always seems to come by surprise, but it doesn't, I think we are not paying enough attention to what is going on around us!

I almost said that today is Friday and it's the day when some of us used to narrate our market and shopping adventures, i.e. it's #MarketFriday, the exciting challenge that @dswigle has turned into a community. But it's no longer Friday, it's actually Saturday evening...

It is more than that for me and many other people who celebrate Easter, namely Orthodox Christians, a little more backward, because Easter is a week later for us this year than for Catholic Christians. There is much to comment on here but I won't, because this is not the subject of my post...

What I want to point out now is that this week leading up to Easter should be a week of prayer and sadness but it is, for me, one of the hardest weeks of the year. In the Romanian folk tradition, the preparation for this holiday means a renewal, cleaning of the house, and the preparation of all kinds of traditional food plus participation every evening in the church service.

I'm not convinced that such an effort is necessary but my wife is unstoppable. I believe these are shadows of the past! Childhood in the country, with many duties and habits, forces her almost unconsciously to a sustained work that I have to participate too... so I had no free time and so I missed the posting day for #MarketFriday. I'm trying to fix that now, on the run, and hope @dswigle will still let me in.

Finding this wording about shadows of the past also reminded me of my first posts in this challenge, some five years ago. Back then I didn't understand the vastness of this market concept that lets us practically write about almost anything and because of that, I was only writing about the shopping I did in the market near my house. I live on the edge of town where the market is a country market with many vendors selling produce from their gardens, especially vegetables and fruit. In memory of those early posts, I'll start with a few photos of the market I just talked about.

The photos are taken from a shop near the stalls, to avoid the natural unpleasantness of people being photographed.

Now I understand that the market is everywhere. Because everything has to come at a price, right?

My favorite spring market is, of course, the flower market. I haven't visited a flower market yet, I've only been to my favorite flower shop. Now in the rain!

It's called "Tria's Florist" and it's next to a park that I visit, I mean walk there, once a month.

I like this flower shop because most of the flowers are displayed right on the street...

Anyone can admire the flowers without having to go into the shop. It's interesting to see how passers-by react when they see the flowers. There are all kinds of reactions, from those who ignore the beauty in front of them to those who can't pass by without taking a flower... I'm one of those who always buy, even if it's often something cheap and small...

This time I bought a small thyme seedling and another Lupinus seedling. This is a flower that I really like and I haven't managed to grow it from seed. I didn't have the yellow color, so that's what I chose.

Low price, thyme cost $2 and Lupinus cost $4.

I bought a little and admired it a lot. I'll let you see some of the flowers offered for sale...

Because I am a permanent customer and I always photograph flowers, Tria's florists allow me to enter through a secondary entrance, which is not for customers.

This is where I met the house cat.

I'm a loyalist, I'm loyal to the places I like and I visit them very often. I have noticed that even though I go to the same places, each time I find something new that I haven't seen before. This time the novelty was this cat.

Flower shops have remained among the few shops that still attract me and I think they will remain so until the end.

This post is over and deserves a flower for that, #alwaysaflower always means to be another flower, even if there have been many or only flowers before.

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