Across the table from me, I watched in fascination as Eleanor slathered two hefty slices of bread with a half-inch layer of butter and took a cranberry orange scone, which she wedged onto the side of her plate.
“Ruth, you’re up!” I think we all jumped as Martha rapped on the easel with her marker.
Unperturbed, Ruth consulted some notes in a cream leather binder she’d brought with her. “Let’s see, my friend who owns the stables will be providing two ponies for pony rides. I have a roster of judges lined up, and some angel sponsors will provide the prizes for the flower, fruit, vegetable, baking, needlework, and junior art competitions. I’ve convinced Precision Rentals to supply tents, tables, and an admission booth.” She frowned as she peered at her notes. “Oh, and Tony Z will provide haircuts for free, but we’ll ask people to make a donation.”
“Excellent, excellent!” Martha beamed at her as she strode back and forth. Her gaze landed on me. “Daisy?”
“Um, I thought we could do a farm stand.” I was improvising as I’d only come up with this idea last night. I hadn’t had much time to devote to the fair preparations until now. “Ellen at the lavender farm has promised to donate honey, and Annie from the herb shop will give us soaps and candles. Flutter Gifts in Sheepville is donating ten homemade birdhouses, and Fresh and Fancy will give us fruit butter, chutney, pickles, and homemade jellies. Joe and I have lots of fresh vegetables in our garden, too, and I bet I can find others willing to spare some extra produce.”
“Very nice. Good idea.” Martha blocked out a farm stand not far from the entrance to the auction grounds.
“Sarah has some walkie-talkies for the parking attendants to use, and it turns out that Chris Paxson knows the band that played at the Sheepville Pub on Friday night. They’ve offered to play for free.”
“Wow! That should bring in some people,” Patsy said. “They were awesome!”
“And Chris offered to help with parking or wherever we need him.”
Patsy waved a hand in the air. “I’m here to volunteer, too. Use me and abuse me as you need.”
Debby and Cee Cee nodded. “Us, too,” Debby said. “We’re not on a committee, but we’d like to help.”
Martha smiled. “We’re going to need lots of publicity for this thing. Feet on the street, handing out flyers, and asking merchants to post a notice in their windows.”
Patsy raised her hand as if she were still in school.
Martha pointed the marker at her.
“I know the deejay on WSEP. I bet I can get him to do an announcement on the air.”
“Fabulous.”
Betty cleared her throat. “I can open the auction building so people can use the restrooms. We can also use the snack bar for water and ice and to store food.”
“That’s great,” Eleanor said. “Although it brings up another question. What about insurance?” Eleanor had volunteered to be treasurer. “I’ll look into that. And how about an admission fee of five dollars per person?”
“That sounds good,” Martha said.
“And what are you doing, madam?”
“I’m organizing. Plus I’ll be running the baking competition.”
“Of course.” Eleanor gathered up the last crumbs of her scone with her pale pink painted fingernails.
We hashed over names of volunteers and got into more specifics of each job until it was time for lunch. Martha had hired Magic Plate Catering, and the servers went around the table now with a first course of strawberry spinach salad.
My heart warmed at watching Martha in her element, seeing the sparkle in her eyes. Her house was full of people, with lots of good food and good conversation. Just the way she liked it.
Betty was eating salad with one hand and writing with the other as fast as she could.
The second course was a Monte Cristo sandwich. I bit into the smoked ham and melted Gruyère and closed my eyes in delight. There were tiny containers of maple syrup and blackberry jam on the plate for dipping as well as homemade potato chips and thin slices of melon.
Heaven.
“Now, what else?” Martha said. “There has to be something we’re forgetting.” She crunched on a potato chip. “Ooh, I know. We’ll need a cleanup crew afterwards, so that we leave the auction grounds exactly as we found them.”
“And trash and recycling containers,” Liz Gallagher added.
“Do you have anyone to create the flyer for the event?” Cee Cee asked.
We all stared at her. How could we have forgotten her exquisite penmanship and access to commercial printing companies?
“We do now,” Eleanor said, to the sound of laughter from around the table.