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Sunday, May 9

forces of nature

My show yesterday was at the Botanical Gardens in South Buffalo. It is a glorious place with a sky-touching glass dome and meandering walks and gold mottos inlaid in marble floors. I was lucky to get a spot in the very center, under the dome.

My table was nestled cozily amongst the foliage, which meant I was brushing fronds off my face a lot, but it was serene, green and lush.



I wasn't expecting to make enough money to save the old homestead or buy an iPad. Any income helps during the Spring when we are all sending money out for shows and supplies and nothing is coming back in. This was not an art show event, after all, we were an added attraction within an attraction and I am nothing if not level headed about this business.

The unexpected surprise was the amount of people. They come in buses! From out of town! I forget that this place is a destination. So, at 10am, the dome was filled with seniors wearing name tags and so it was.

For a while.

During the quiet of set up, I asked a neighboring artist what that infernal noise was? Were we near train tracks? Was it thunder? No, she said, it's the wind.

Wind. We are in a glass building. I skooched my chair closer to my tree, under the branches and tried not to look up.



Over the next few hours the rumble of the wind against the glass went on, sometimes loud enough to make it difficult to talk to the customers. I tried to ignore it. The building is ancient, it has withstood whatever upstate NY has to offer and that's plenty. Besides, I was actually selling stuff. To hell with risk to life and limb!

And then they announced they were closing early for safety reasons. Drat!

We closed up our little shops and packed our trinkets away in their boxes. I have done plenty of shows where an announcement of early close would have been welcome. This was not one of them. It was cozy in my tree house.

That night Russell and I had a date. Sure, it was at my work place, but, then, I do work at a theater. We had drinks first, with baked brie in raspberry sauce and then "Jersey Boys" from the best seats in the house. :) All paid for with the proceeds from my little tree house boutique. Works for me.

Now, off to hang with Mom. Stay tuned.

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