It is below minus  and still my Little Lady sits in the street selling her small collection of vegetables and leaves. Once she had some garlic, and once there were chestnuts.

I first met her the very first time I went to the Supermarket with Grace, and after that made a point of stopping and buying something from her. Grace said what she sells is 'weeds' and would not use what I bought, so eventually as I stopped cooking, I stopped buying from her.

I felt concern for her sitting there, as often she would pack up with almost the same amount that she started with, so started giving her a note each time I saw her. Then she was away for a while, and now I don't buy vegetables at all, and so she doesn't feel like a beggar, I give her a note now and then and stop to smile at her and say hello.

I saw her in the supermarket one day, and she was bent double, and looks the same as if she is sitting. Grace told me she would be one of the rice workers, and how they end up like this from all their work.  She has no English and we talk in huge smiles, and she chatters away in korean and I smile back. I have no idea what she is telling me but she knows I like her.

Now it is below freezing, and the snow is falling. Still she sits there on a piece of plastic, which is her concession to the cold, and sells her ware. I finally plucked up the courage to take her photo...last Thursday, and here she is still sitting there wearing almost the same amount of clothing as she wore all summer.

There are many others like her selling small amounts of vegetable, but she would be the oldest I have seen, and she also looks the poorest. I wonder about her, and her life, where she has come from, and where she lives. She spends all day on the street, and packs up late at night, and ties her ware into a bundle, puts it on an old frame with wheels, and pulls it as she goes....