Making the Solar Crane work

The Saturday Market on Salt Spring Island is rightly famous,
with many local farmers and craftspersons offering their wares. It’s a colourful delightful place, with its sounds of busking musicians and happy folk chatting with each other, and children playing on the open green space of the Park. We used to consider ourselves some of the luckiest people in the world, being there in the early morning, with our goods stacked up (waiting for our names to be called from the list, and our spot to be granted for the day) as the fresh morning sun filling the bay with light and slowly warmed us.

Solar boys with solar toys

For me part of the joy was watching the children grow up, summer by summer. There would often be a one or two year period in a young person’s life when the goods I had for display on my table, and the solar powered moving models, attracted their interest enough that they just had to find out more. Ours was a hands-on table, and of course children were encouraged to try things out.

The solar beanie kit was being sold in those days (discontinued because of the emf’s) – see the propeller on the top of the demonstration safari helmet.