This Saturday I stopped in at the new craft market in Constantia – the ‘Constantia Country Living Market‘ – to see what they had to offer.

It was a lovely day. The sun was shining, and the market grounds have a fantastic view of the mountains above Constantia. There was plenty of parking, and a steady stream of people were pulling up and coming in to take a look (not so many as to be crowded, though).

The market was nicely laid out, with good flow, and the variety of goods made it fun to walk around and talk to the stall-holders.

There were hand-crafted candles of various shapes and sizes, colourful woven bags, funky cutlery with pretty glass beads and wire decorations, beautiful glass plates, scandinavian knitwear, jewellery, a mini-nursery and much more.

Plus, you could taste olives, scoff goatsmilk cheese, sample home-made chutney and savour the most delicious honey I’ve had in some time (it’s unprocessed, so you can still taste the honeycomb – something that never fails to remind me of my childhood).

And it’s all very reasonably priced!

Thanks to this market, I’m already more than half way through my Christmas shopping, something I always swear I’ll do early, and yet, despite the best and noblest intentions, never quite manage (sound familiar?).

No, this year it shall be different! No more wasting precious summer days queueing up at the Malls of Madness and Mayhem (all malls fall under this category for the two weeks preceding Christmas – the rest of the year they’re just Places To Avoid If You’d Like To Stay Sane and Not Spend Money).

Oh no – this year I shall be smugly sitting on a beach somewhere, lapping up the sun and patting myself on the proverbial back for being so gosh-darned organised.

Then again, who am I kidding, really. I’ll have to get up before the birds if I want to get to any Cape Town beach without encountering The Holidaymakers En Masse…

Someone’s pool it shall be, then, sporting a smug and self-satisfied grin, nonetheless.

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