Spider Plants and Shopping

This is a single flower of the familar house and garden favorite, the spider plant.

Here's the parent plant with a profusion of little "spiders" emerging after each flower fades.

Spider plants and shopping have nothing to do with each other except that today I finally got around to these pictures and today is also a prime opportunity to take pictures for the Plainfield Public Library's 2008 photo contest. The theme this year is storefronts and shopping, so if you want to scout for good images, go downtown for the sidewalk sale. An alternative is a block-long yard sale on Cleveland Avenue, organized by Grace Episcopal Church.

I think a yard or garage sale in Plainfield counts as shopping. Certainly the spring garage sale presented by Friends of Sleepy Hollow is a major shopping event for the region. FOSH has announced a fall sale as well this year.

I took a couple of walks downtown to look for interesting storefronts, but found some of the displays embarrassing. Low-end and urban streetwear garments predominate and the goods are often jumbled together. Maybe the sidewalk sales will show more of the human element of finding a bargain or just the right item.

Shopping is not one of my favorite activities (except for notebooks and pens). My daughter inherited all the shopping genes and can find gold in what looks to me like dross, whether at Value Village or Nordstrom Rack in Seattle.

Rules and forms for the photo contest can be found here. And if you happen to see any pretty flowers along the way, take a picture for your own collection.

--Bernice Paglia