The year was 2024. I was there last time only a year ago, in winter.
Vodnjan is a small town about twenty kilometers north of where I live. Each month, on the first Saturday of that month, an outdoor market takes place in the large, fenced, open space situated about a hundred meters behind the last houses of Vodnjan.
The town is surrounded by a rural area with many farms and small villages scaterred between fields, woods, and meadows.
That's why, traditionally, the accent of the market was on agricultural tools, agricultural products, rural craftsmanship, and livestock, but things are changing, so ...
... so each year you can see fewer chickens ...
... and more cheap footwear.
Here you can see a stand with colorful clothes made for children. The colorful stuff was very welcome on that gray, gloomy Saturday, the first Saturday in March.
This shot shows one of the alleys surrounded by different types of stands.
Here you can see a place that sells wicker baskets and chairs, classic brooms for sweeping the yard or flying on Halloween, and different types of wooden utensils for different types of indoor or outdoor activbities. It sells some other stuff too, but things made of wood and wicker are the most numerous and stand out the most.
You can always find a stand or two covered with colorful flowers for sale in this market.
I didn't feel the need to buy any of those flowers becouse I needed only images of flowers, not the flowers themselves, for this post.
Flowers are amazing. No gray day can subdue the power of these vivid colors.
This photograph was taken from a spot that allowed me to show you two little lanes of that temporary little town just outside the town.
Here you can see a man preparing the stand with some electric stuff made mostly of colorful plastic. I arrived early. Many of the vendors weren't quite ready for this Saturday morning show.
These moments before the stands are completely assembled and the merchandise is neatly organized can offer some unexpected, artsy scenes to an eye and mind with the right sensibility to recognize them.
This elegant, artificial leg, for example, can be seen as a nice piece of accidental surrealism. The leg leans against one of the poles that support the tarpaulin above the stand. It looks like the pole dancer is burried, frozen in a dancing pose, with only one leg sprouting from the lawn.
This photograph shows a lovely decapitated mannequin with a lot of character, despite lacking a distinctive face, and a few more, less vital, anatomical features.
These flexible twigs are used in agriculture, especially in vineyards, to tie the branches of the plants and hold them in a certain position. This is one of those iconic, old-school rural products that used to make this type of market special.
Here you can see some fine salami on an advert stretched across one entire side of the trailer of a small truck that probably brought some local delicatessen.
A road assistance car can be used to transport clothes and stuff when it is not engaged in its primary function. Red clothes look great when displayed on a vivid yellow hood.
The only piece of Vodnjan, clearly visible from the outdoor market in the flat scenery, is the tall bell tower of the Church of St. Blaise, the biggest church in town.
Here you can take a look down one of the marketplace lanes bordered by stands and merchants that were slowly getting ready for the working Saturday when the photograph was taken.
I took this photograph while passing by an outdoor restaurant that was producing a bit of smoke and plenty of delicious fragrances while preparing the food to offer to the visitors of the market.
Here you can take a more up-close look at the work in the outdoor kitchen.
Do you remember the leg of a mannequin I showed earlier in the post? You know, the one sprouting from the ground like some weird fungus. In this shot, taken about half an hour later, when the stand and the tarpaulin roof above it were put together and ready to use, the leg was still in the same position. Maybe the surrealism and artsiness of that unusual detail weren't that accidental, after all.
This photograph shows a few stands in a row with a wide variaty of small objects on display. If you take the time to explore all the litlle details, you may notice a bust of Josip Broz Tito, the legendary leader of Yugoslavia, a country that no longer exists.
This mobile booth on wheels was offering delicious sausages and other delicatessen.
There isn't much to say here. Just another look down one of the market lanes.
Here you can see a pretty big van that brought some wooden benches and tables to the scene.
This makeshift stand with fruit and vegetables was situated close to the gate that served as the entrance and exit to the market. I took this photograph on my way out.
This picture shows the large parking area across the street from the market. And that's it. The post ends here. As always on Hive, the photographs are my work.