Friday was Waterford Day....one of the three best days of the Farm and Fru Fru year.
"What" you ask, "is Waterford?"
Waterford is a lovely little village in the foothills of the mountains....a place largely
forgotten by time, and a state of mind.
Waterford, is crooked stone houses, gardens, dilapidated fences, sheep, meadows
and quirky little cabins.
It's funny little roads that climb up and down hills too steep to walk, but you walk them
anyway because you want to see what is at the top....even though you know it will be the same thing
that was there last year....another quirky crooked little stone wall or house with a pot of
bright yellow mums sitting on a rock outside a crooked little door.
Waterford is tidy enough to know someone cares, but overgrown enough to be charming.
Some of the barns and sheds are in such a state, that if they belonged to Farm and Fru Fru,
I would pray for a strong wind to blown them out of my misery, but somehow, in Waterford,
they are perfection itself.
Every year, the first weekend in October, thousands and thousands of people
descend on the village to experience the Waterford Fair. This was the 67th fair and once again
did not disappoint. The entire village becomes the fairgrounds and welcomes
a juried group of craftspeople who not only sell their wares, but demonstrate their crafts
whether furniture making, candle making, broom making, soap making, weaving, iron work, baking, painting,
just to name a very few.
If you are looking for warehouse crafts in a large arena, this is not your place.
I have found that you either "get" Waterford, or you don't. My friend Angel brought her mother-in-law one year and they stayed two hours....I could stay two days easy. Stone fences, sheep and quirky houses
were not their thing. The only way we got Angel to go again was to promise to celebrate her birthday, buy her ticket, allow her to nap in the car whenever she pleased and declare Waterford Day
"The Day of Angel". But this year, no nap....she made it through the entire beautiful day.
It was a delightful day. It was divine. It was Waterford.....
Till next year.....
Oooh I want to go next year!!!
ReplyDelete