I Want Candy

The Medieval village of Anghiari clings to the side of a hill at the southern edge of Tuscany. As with most towns of any size in Italy, it hosts a weekly market. Here the local farmers come to sell fruit and vegetables from tables they set up in the piazza; meat, cheese, and fish vendors ease their vans through the serpentine lanes. The townspeople also browse through stands of kitchenware, clothes, linens (the Mussolini dishrags are particularly impressive), shoes, cellphone covers, antiques, and wine. You can pick out live chickens, rabbits, and ducks for your Sunday dinner.

And if you're lucky, the candy van, with its complicated unfolding canopy, will make an appearance.

Theme Thursday: Pinque

Never one of my favorite colors -- unless heavily balanced with matte black, pink cannot help but keep me in mind of those abominable Barbie dolls -- this week's theme is slightly more palatable, if you will, as the subject of this photo. In recent years cotton candy (aka candy floss) has branched out into pastel blue and white, but those tints seem like impostors to me.



This shot was taken last fall at the annual Western Washington State Fair (aka "The Puyallup," for the town it is held in, an otherwise rather personality-free rural burg). This is one job I have never had, which I might have deemed rather romantic as a teenager but now clearly recognize as a nightmare. Remind me to tell you about my gig at the crab processing plant. But I digress.

Here's another shot from the same day, at the taffy booth. These empinked gals more accurately reflect the workaday vibe, I think.




However, the proof is in the, er, pudding.