I don’t think I’ve ever drawn at the Marketplace in north Davis. That’s because it’s not very interesting, just a strip mall and a load of parked cars right in direct sunlight, though there being a couple of unusual sculptures. One of those is just outside Noah’s Bakery and Mountain Mike’s Pizza, which is of three large pink pigs dancing around. No sign of the Big Bad Wolf. Maybe I the Urban Sketcher am a Big Bad Wolf, but I just draw your house rather than blow it down. I had walked over there (not cycled, my bike as I mentioned has a flat tyre and I’ve been too lazy to do anything about it, but at least I am getting my steps in) to buy a card from CVS, probably my least favourite shop, and some chocolates from Sees, probably my most favourite chocolate shop. It was our twentieth wedding anniversary a couple of days later; we had been supposed to go away that week but ended up postponing the trip, so we went for a nice dinner instead. The trip away will be nice though. I sat in one of the very few spots of shade to draw this before going to See’s. The chocolate at see’s is available at every airport in California, but it really is great and I always bring some home to England whenever we go home, and always for anniversaries. My dad loves them; twenty years ago, just before our wedding in Vegas, my wife had given my dad his first box of See’s and he had, typically, devoured them before even looking at the label. But he really loved them, so I’ve usually brought some over for him ever since. I sat outside Jamba Juice, I had one of their smoothies, but didn’t really like being in the shop as it smelled funny. There were a couple of families sat at a table next to me outside talking about schools, reminding me of my old maxim that that overheard conversations are almost always not interesting at all. As I drew I wondered what I was drawing this for, was it to check off the Marketplace in my list of Places In Davis I Have Sketched, I’ve done that now. I knew I wanted to sketch these three pigs at some point. Apart from the tree, I pretty much lost interest in the sketch early on, and knew I would not end up colouring it in, except for the piggies, and the pizza sign. I don’t eat pork anyway, I just don’t dig on swine.