Morden Corn and Apple Festival

Last weekend we went to Morden, a town of about 7,000 people south of Winnipeg, to see what this Corn and Apple Festival is all about. This was the first time we went there. (I know it's a shame. After living in Manitoba forever!)It took us nearly two hours to get there. Once we got there it rained but we didn't give up and waited it out in the car. We were lucky to find a parking spot really close. Next year we'll go earlier because we didn't get there until 3:00 on Sunday and they finish up by 5:00, not much time to see anything.
We stood in line for about 15 minutes to get our free corn on the cob. Wow! was it ever soft and sweet. We bought one dozen of the same corn to take home and we weren't sorry. We paid $5:50 for one dozen and it was worth it. The cobs are large and the corn sweet. DELICIOUS. We'll have some tonight again.
I don't have the figures but apparently about 80,000 people go to the festival every year. It lasts 3 days. They have stalls set up where one can buy the usual stuff available on these fairs.
On book news not too much. I'm still busy with writing Book IV in the Xandra series. I'm at 78,000 words and I sort of see an end in sight. That's the problem sometimes, at first I'm looking for ideas and once I get started the ideas come and the book becomes too long. When I started Book IV it was supposed to be only about the fifth planet in the system, but then I had so much stuff in my head that this is only about the Nu-Eden, the fourth planet. The story will continue in Book V, but Book IV will have a definite end to it, sort of.
MS Fiction wants to re-issue the first three books in the Xandra series, which is great since I'm writing two more books in the series. There will be new covers and a new edit. I spent quite some time these last few days looking on the internet looking for stock photographs for cover ideas. MS Fiction has a form to fill out where we authors have to write a blurb and what kind of ideas we have for the cover. It makes it easier for the Art Director and at the same time we have an input into what we wish to see.
The first book of my novel 'Stars in Chains' is supposed to be published in September but I haven't heard from my editor where we stand with the book right now. It may not happen in September, we'll see.

Giant tomatoes

Here are 1075 grams of tomatoes, that’s over 1 kg. One of them weighs 625 grams and is 5 inches across; the other tomato weighs 450 grams and is 4 inches across. I picked them today from my ‘Ultra Sweet’ tomato plant. There are more tomatoes on the vine, not quite as large though.

Folklorama 2010

We went to the Cuban Pavilion on Saturday. It was the last night for Week one. Great show. We really enjoyed it. Hard to believe the performers were all volunteers. We went to the 8:15 show. There was no trouble or long lineup to get in. The location was good with lots of room. We had supper (Roast Pork with rice and black beans and salad and Roasted Chicken with rice and black beans and salad) One plate cost $9.00. The beer was $4.00. Getting into the pavilion cost $ 6.00 per person.
Some people really have nerve. They think if they come late they can still sit in the front. One group of people plunked themselves right in front of the table next to us, blocking their view. Another group of women got chairs from the back and moved to the front. I find that rude. We were early and we got a table close enough to the stage.
Well, they are everywhere, the people who have no regard for others. As long as they are okay.

Folklorama

Folklorama, the world's largest and longest-running multicultural festival, is on again, like every year, from August 1st to August 14th in Winnipeg. With 45 pavilions they are expecting about 425,000 visitors. We used to go more often, but now we like to get in maybe a couple shows, perhaps three. We, of course, like the shows and also the food. We usually go for supper and then watch the show. Years ago we used to try to get in three shows a night, but that is too much because you have to rush to get from one place to another, since the pavilions are spread across the city. And most of the time you have to stand in line to get in. You can’t really enjoy the pavilions. Now we go to one a night. If the pavilions are close together, we might make it to two of them, but I like to sample the different foods, so one show a night is better.
We wouldn’t mind going to more pavilions, but it costs $6.00 to get into one pavilion. Then if you want to eat something (the food is not cheap for what you get), then it gets expensive. In my opinion, if they wouldn’t charge so much to get in then people may go to more shows and maybe spend more money inside.
They sell passports 12 pavilions for the price of 9, $54.00. That helps a little, but we don’t really want to go to 12 pavilions. We’ve seen most of them and in reality it is pretty much the same every year. There are some new ones once in a while; we like to check them out. The new ones this year are the Sudanese pavilion, the Ethiopian pavilion, and the Dakota Ojibway Tribal Council pavilion. We haven’t made up our mind yet which ones we’ll be going to, we are leaning toward one of the more exotic pavilions. We’ll see.



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Icelandic Festival in Gimly, Manitoba

On Sunday we went to the Icelandic Festival in Gimly, a quaint little town on the west coast of Lake Winnipeg, population around 1600. We’ve wanted to go for years and we finally did it.
Everything pretty much happens by the waterfront. We parked close to the Viking village, right on the lake. People are dressed up as Vikings, they have their tents set up the way the Vikings used to live, and they even slept in those tents during the festival. It was quite interesting. I donned a chain mail outfit and changed into a fearsome Viking Warrior with sword and shield for a few minutes. That shirt made from metal rings was damn heavy. It is no easy feat to get out of it again. Lucky I’m still so agile. You have to use the force of gravity to let it slip off your body.
They have tables set up on Centre Street where merchants sell their stuff.
We had lunch at the Country Boy Restaurant right on First Street. 2 Pickerel fillets with fries and a great salad for $10.95. Generous portion and well worth the money.
There were quite a few people at the Festival. The weather was hot. We almost didn’t go because it rained in the morning and the forecast called for rain. Good thing we weren’t intimidated by the weather people. As usual, they were wrong.
In the afternoon we watched a fighting demonstration by the Viking warriors. Pretty awesome. I’m happy I didn’t live in those days. Men going at each other with swords, hammers, knifes, Axes…No thank you. I’d rather write about those days.