In which I am a tourist attraction

yawn blink blink...I'm emerging from my holiday-induced cave this morning.  If I see my shadow I might hide for another few weeks.

So, December was a busy month.  I started throwing things overboard to stay afloat and the first thing to go was my blog.  But now Christmas and its attendant craziness is behind us, and my parents' 50th wedding anniversary party too (which was a rousing success! and I'm very proud of them!), and the fun of family visits is coming to a close.  Also, market is done for the season, and all I have to do is clean out my display at the Holiday Store.  I rejoice that I don't have to be pleasant and professional to customers for a few months...although I dearly love my customers I am ready for a break from the retail aspects of my business and eager to spend some time in the studio instead.  Right now, big fluffy snowflakes are falling, my wood stove is cranking out heat, and I'm contemplating shoveling out the driveway in a little while so I can go skiing in the woods.

Our last farmers' market of the year is held on the Saturday before Christmas, and the occasion is marked by the annual Rutabaga Curl.  It's a uniquely Ithaca event, sort of a mix of lightly choreographed street theatre and community enthusiasm in the guise of a sport somewhat like bocci ball but with root vegetables.  I get to be the Rutabaga Goddess, a title I have rejoiced in for 10 years.  Which means more crazy headgear (this year I added lights) and a bedsheet toga, strangers taking my photo (which showed up on the front page of the Ithaca Journal this time around), and athletes asking me to bless their 'bagas before rolling.  This year things were enlivened by a band of protesters calling themselves PIECRUST (People in Ithaca Exposing Cruelty to Rutabagas something something) and carrying signs such as "it's all fun and games until a potato loses an eye" and "those who BEET their vegetables will get a RUTAwakening."  And I'm proud to say that I took the second place medal through pure blind luck...even though some people were questioning whether some divine intervention was involved.  It's fun...follow the links and check it out.