Yesterday was the Fall Fair. This is the biggest event on Pender Island. I was manning an educational booth on beekeeping.

I had a display hive that people could disassemble and play with. I had an observation hive with a queen (I painted a yellow dot on her back so people could spot her.) I had my bee suit, and some colour photos to answer questions. And best of all, I had one frame of honey that I gave people samples of fresh honey straight from the hive. I think that was the favourite part.

I had really positive feedback so I was quite pleased.

Other highlights of the Fall Fair included the parade which is nearly as long as the Ukee Days parade. (Which is not long.) I love small town event days. I remember when I was living in Ucluelet, a town with the population of 1800 people, the parade would go by featuring classic cars, the D.A.R.E RCMP program car, the Co-Op flat bed truck with the Co-Op ladies line-dancing on the top. The Ukee parade always ended with Chris Bird in his garbage truck, washed for the occasion, lifting his bucket up and down, with Peter, his son, pelting kids on the side-lines with rock-hard candy.

Pender Island parade included the pipe band, who show up on every occasion Pender has (they have been trying to get me to join since they discovered I can read music) and a Nu-To-You float. They had an old boat with people dressed up like Popeye the Sailor. They had an impressive orca float with children on incredibly high stilts.

They had some funny looking alpacas with great haircuts.

Then today was the Garlic Farm open house. They open at 11am and are usually sold out before the afternoon. It was quite the turn out for a Sunday morning.

We came away with 6 varieties (thanks to Gail) and a few big cloves of Siberian garlic for our own use. They had delicious garlic pesto, aioli, and garlic jelly which was surprisingly tasty.

Oh Folks, and the weekend isn’t even over yet. We have guests coming on the afternoon ferry which we will give a tour of the farm, show our mozzarella making skills and perhaps do a tour of a straw-bale house a friend of ours is building. Have you heard of straw bale construction? When I first heard of it, I said “Didn’t anyone learn anything since the 3 little pigs? Wolves can blow straw down!”

Since then, I have been further educated into this remarkable building style. For more information, take a look at this website.

Anyway, I’ve got some gardening to get to before the guests arrive. Summer is coming to a close yet the ground is still warm, the sunshine is still inviting me inside, and the blackberries are heavy on the bushes.  I think there’s still a couple good weeks to wear summer dresses and twirl with the thistle fluffs whirling around our property.