Saturday, May 5, 2012

Zest Fest 2012, Taylor Texas

Dear friends,

We spent this morning acting like locals.  Because after all, we are locals now.  First thing we did was visit the small Hutto Farmer's Market and scored some delicious fresh produce from the folks there---fresh cauliflower, tomatoes and cucumbers.  The first tomatoes are just now coming in and we can never resist them.  We bought from farms in Thrall and Taylor, and other than my own backyard garden, that's as local as it gets!

Then we came back home to Taylor and went downtown for their annual Zest Fest celebration.  I'll admit, it was a lot larger than I expected.  The entire downtown area was filled with music and crafts, local organizations like the Taylor Garden Club, Chamber of Commerce and the Blackland Quilt Guild had booths, and a classic car show got both Rudy's and my attention.  Here are a few photos I took along the way.  Forgive the quality of the pics, it was in the upper 90's, my camera was being a bit flakey and the crowd of people were often in the way.


Quilts flapped in the breeze, hung from a building.  Sorry I didn't get the names of the quiltmakers.


My favorites are always the brightly colored ones.

The quilts had many admirers, young and old.


Husband Rudy liked this one the best.  The quiltmaker used all floral fabrics on an otherwise simple pattern.

Blackland Quilt Guild is the local Taylor quilting group.





The Taylor Garden Club had a booth selling plants.

The classic car show also caught our eye.  I love classic cars, especially the Chevys.  I've been a Chevy girl from the get-go. :-)












 After wandering around for an hour or so, I scored a grape shaved ice (we used to call them snow cones---when did they quit putting them in cones?  LOL), and we followed our ears to the live music.  We got quite a surprise when we arrived at the stage.  A young girl with a gorgeous, strong voice was belting out some contemporary songs.  Turns out, she's Courtney Ging, the very talented 16-year old daughter of our beloved plumber and wife, Wayne and Cara Ging.  Her performance deserves a blog post of its own, so stay tuned!

We also checked out the marquee to see what's coming next at our restored Howard Theatre in downtown Taylor.  YES!  Dark Shadows is coming next week, and Rudy and I already have a date for the first showing.  We haven't had a chance to see a show there yet, and  I'm looking forward to it.

Hope you've enjoyed this little picture of our new friendly, vibrant community!  The temperature eventually reached 96-degrees today.  Crazy.  But that didn't stop the Taylorites (as we're called, I found out) from getting out, having fun, and celebrating small town Texas.

Happy trails on Cinco de Mayo!

bobbi c.

4 comments:

  1. I didn't make it, so I'm vicariously devouring your pictures, Bobbi. I'm a Chevy gal, too! I loved the 50s boxy look. Thanks for the visit to Zest Fest!

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  2. U. R. Welcome! LOL Yes, love those 50's best of all. Even though Rudy's an Other Car kinda guy, I've always had a Chevy of one sort or another. Although, lately I've been eyeing those cute little Mini Coopers. :-)

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  3. My neighbor has a Mini for sale! Let me know if you're still interested.

    Zest Fest was fun this year, and it seems it was slightly bigger than last year. I hope this is a trend that continues, as the town does have a lot to offer. I think I voted for the quilt you said was your favorite, too -- the one with the dots.

    Hope to see you around town!

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  4. Hi Crystal! I'm afraid the Mini-lust is fantasy right now. You can't haul enough compost or cow manure in those things. LOL. I was pleasantly surprised at Zest Fest, and we had a lot of fun. It's nice to be able to park there, too, and walk.

    See ya, neighbor!

    bobbi c.

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