Fireworks, Farmers' Market, and the Fourth

Wednesday night our family and another family (my son's best friend and his parents) went to watch the Pawtucket Red Sox play the Syracuse Chiefs (we lost 6-5) at McCoy Stadium.

And there were fireworks after the game. It's a four night event that runs, I think, the 2nd through the 5th. It was sold out on Wednesday, and we had free tickets, as that night's fireworks display was sponsored by Dave's Marketplace, and each store had 300 tickets to give away. Woo hoo!

They were general seating/bleachers tickets, and we should have gotten there earlier than we did - we ended up walking all over the place looking for 7 seats together or 3 and 4 together...no luck. So we ended up sitting on the bleachers out near right field. And that was probably for the best, as the kids could get down and run around a bit and work off some of their excess energy.

After the game, we actually ended up sitting/standing right out on the field, near first base, all thanks to the fact that my son's friend's mom has MS and somehow it worked out that we could sit down there with all the Dave's Marketplace employees and their families, along with a couple other people with physical issues.

The lights went out at ten, and the fireworks, accompanied by several assorted patriotic songs, began.

And right about then, Julia started crying in terror. Bill held her for a while as I snapped a bunch of pictures, but eventually I couldn't bear the "MOMMMMMYYYYYYYYY" sobs any more so I put the camera away and took Julia from Bill. We watched (or, in Julia's case, peeked at in between sobs) the rest of the display - it lasted about twenty minutes, and then began the long trek back to the back of beyond where our car was parked. Julia was asleep minutes after Bill buckled her into her car seat. And she didn't sob the ENTIRE time, either. Gradually she slowed down - I'm sure part of it was because it was so late and she must have been wiped out. Periodically, in between my mantra of "it's okay, it's okay, it's okay" in Julia's ear, she would peek up at the bursts of light and color and just watch. At one point I asked, in a soothing, whispery voice, "What's your favorite color of the fireworks?" She whispered "pink" and then hollered "I WANNA GO HOOOOMMMME!"

Alex and his friend, however, were enthralled. I wish I'd still had my camera handy at one point - both boys were just standing there, mouths open, staring up at the sky. Their faces were lit by the different bursts of color, and their eyes were just wide. It would have been a gorgeous shot. But my duties lay elsewhere. Actually, my duty was clinging to me like a hungry boa constrictor.

But overall it was a great night (even if it took an eternity to get out of the parking lot afterwards). And the next day Julia seemed (now that the loud noise was over) much more impressed with the fireworks.

I've left a few more pictures of the fireworks at the end of this post, after the jump, in case you're interested.

Today, the fourth, is rather cloudy and cooler than it has been. There was rain last night, and something like a 70% chance of showers and thunderstorms today. We've already seen our fireworks, so we're all set there.

This morning I went to the Farmers' Market all by myself, which was kind of nice. There weren't very many farms there today, probably because of the weather. But I bought two dozen eggs and ten honey sticks from Bill, the Honey Stick Man, and I also asked about his goats and whether he sells the meat. I may pursue that once these kids are big enough...or I might see about buying some goat's milk and make some cheese. Not sure yet, but it's in the back of my mind.

I bought a couple loaves of bread from Palmieri Bakery - one multigrain, and one seeded pumpernickel. Yum.

I bought, let's see, 6 pints of strawberries, two pints of little potatoes - one of red fingerlings and one of little yellow boiling potatoes - and two lavender plants and a creeping rosemary. The herbs are going in the front garden along the stepping stones. The strawberries will become jam, if all goes according to my plans this weekend, and the potatoes - I don't know yet, but I have them and will not doubt become inspired at some point.

I talked to Jack, the lobster guy, about possibly getting a bunch of lobsters later this month when Bill's family is here to visit. He gave me his card and said if I want 10 or more to just give him a head's up and he'll save them for me. Cool.

And I went over to Ledge Ends Farm and they had BEAUTIFUL raspberries - I bought a pint - and about a quarter of them are gone already, scavenged by my berry-loving son. I also bought a bunch of garlic scapes, which I've never had before but I've seen plenty of other food bloggers using them and I thought I should give them a try. Anything garlic related is fine by me. I'll probably use them on grilled pizzas tonight.

And speaking of tonight...I also bought a couple gallons of milk to make mozzarella with (this will be my 3rd batch) and a half gallon of milk to make into ricotta. I'll use both on grilled pizzas tonight, along with the garlic scapes...and some basil and some local tomatoes. I also bought 8 cloves of garlic that I plan to roast (if I'm going to be heating up the kitchen making mozzarella, I may as well cook other stuff too at the same time. Cook all my birds with one stove, so to speak. (Huh?) Oh, yeah, and I have to make the pizza dough.

So anyway, that is the plan for today, for me. Julia will help, or not, depending on her mood. And a bit later, Bill and Alex will go to dig quahogs, and Bill's planning to make chowder tonight, too. So we should have a wonderful, fresh, locally produced FEAST.

What are your plans?