Recovery

In need of a little rest and recreation, OilMan and I decided to put down our mops and brooms and take a drive up the road to the Windsor Farmers' Market, where the Windsor Garden Club was selling succulent decorated pumpkins. They looked like just the thing to spruce up our house which is now quite clean but looks a bit abandoned....

We picked up Dana , and although we had to drive past clear views of the twisted remains of the K-Mart and many other businesses, and open views of the blackened hills studded with nothing but chimneys and foundations, we made our way north to the Windsor Town Green, where a huge effort had been made to give people a break. Children were making scarecrows and selecting their outfits from a table full of old clothes, hats and gloves. There was also a table where kids could paint pumpkins and a photo booth with its own table full of props. The witch's hat fascinator appealed to me....I heard a man say, "oh look...there's our Christmas card...where's the dog?"  

The garden club ladies told us that they decorated the pumpkins while most of them were evacuated, and that it became quite a labor of love. Indeed it was. I'm sure they could have sold three times as many, as the entire collection was sold out within an hour. Part of the proceeds will go to the fire recovery fund. 

While Dana and I mingled, OilMan and Ozzie walked around the Town Green and met many other men and dogs doing the same thing. Everyone has a story and people were standing around in small groups telling theirs, but the general tenor of the event was upbeat. The flower stall was busy and reminded me of a picture in the paper with a blooming plant in a pot carefully placed in the rubble of someone's home. Flowers, like music are a balm...