I haven’t been to the Montpelier Herb, Tea & Art Festival in a few years. The first couple of times I went, it rained. A lot. Then the vendors dwindled to a farmer with herb plants, a woman selling magic crystals, and a hot dog stand. But this year I had hope. It was advertised in the Patch, after all, with a proud listing of thirty vendors and an invitation to fly kites! Adding the fact that the weather was going to cooperate, and I thought ‘why not?’

Whenever I go to such an event, I have a checklist of three items to immediately investigate: 1) homemade soap 2) someone selling dip mix 3) hot dogs and/or nachos with plastic cheese. Right away I spotted an objective:

I am happy to report that both hot dogs and plastic cheese items were to be had. A quick jaunt around the vendors netted me additions to my soap and dip mix stockpiles. This whole process took about an hour (eating included). Yeah, it’s a pretty small festival.

It being such a beautiful day I decided to pull my blankie out of the car and settle down under a tree to play games on my phone enjoy nature. There was no real wind, just a few puffs here and there, but a few people were out with kites. Through some scientific observation I divided them into the following categories:

1. Kid Powered: wherein a small child runs around like crazy, thereby creating their own wind. This works well until the child in question turns to try and run in the opposite direction.
2. Mom Powered: Mom tries to get the index card sized kite she just bought to fly while simultaneously interesting a child who is a) lying in the grass b) trying to catch a grasshopper or c) playing with a random beach ball someone else brought.
3. This Guy:

I honestly don’t know what he was thinking  He was there all day working on this kite with a five foot span and THERE IS NO SUSTAINED WIND. I actually stayed longer to see if he’d get it in the air. Eventually he did, and it was really cool. Until about thirty seconds later, when it came hurtling to the ground.

‘Target spotted. Commence dive.’

I don’t know, science was never my strong suit so maybe I’m missing something basic here. But I’m guessing that a kite with its own zip code needs more than sporadic wind sneezes to keep it aloft. The last I saw of him, he was contemplating getting the kite’s line untangled from a tree.

Great weather, crafty stuff, and happy (therefore not crying) kids… now that’s what I call a successful day!