Pretty much anything goes on market day, writes Michelle Hamer.
THERE are goats in the streets in Mornington - and chickens and ducks and even the odd rat. It's market day and pretty much anything goes.
A toddler is expressing her affection for one of the petting zoo rabbits with a rapturous cuddle that has lasted several long minutes now. Her mum suggests maybe she share the bunny love with other kids, but apparently the rabbit has wordlessly communicated its desire to go home with the youngster.
Further up the road, a less cuddly hive of bees goes about its hectic honeycomb industry safely behind glass. The fruit of their labour sits liquid and rich in bottles around them. The Busy Bees stall is run by a group of retired businessmen who each keeps a hive in his backyard, and they donate the profits of their honey company to 10 local charities.
The Mornington Market has been running in Main Street, which stretches from the highway to the pier, for the past 27 years, making it the state's oldest street market.
Each Wednesday an ever-changing array of stallholders unpack everything from resin jewellery and gauzy fairy wings sparkling with glitter, to bright pots of blooming annuals and roses, timber birdhouses and multi-coloured chenille pants from the backs of their cars and wait for the usual crush of shoppers.
Today on the street, choked with holidaymakers, there's plenty of Peninsula produce to sample; graze your way through gourmet preserves, fudge, freshly picked berries, just-baked cakes and homemade pesto.
Pockets of smells dot the street; the sizzle of barbecue gives way to the cloying sweetness of essential oil and then the nostril-tickling tang of spices.
A cloud of bubbles from a busker mingles with a flutter of butterflies at the plant stall, and a group of children giggle and whirl around to chase them.
At the top of the street, 76-year-old Tony Mackenzie hums cheerfully along with one of the 200 songs he's been playing on his accordion in Mornington's Main Street for ''79 months now''. He points to his faded, handwritten name badge: ''I tell people to say it backwards; that makes it Y Not. Eh? Y Not? That's me. I was an orphan, you know, but it hasn't stopped me.''
Tony has raised more than $93,000 for charities, including the Brittle Bones Association, since he first sat on a crate in the street six years ago.
Clearly he loves a chat - shouting conversation at passersby - just as much as squeezing a tune out of his battered instrument.
''I'm self-taught,'' he explains, pointing to his hearing aid and adding, ''This hasn't stopped me at all.''
He picks up his 50-year-old accordion and starts up a new song as the rhythm of the market continues around him.
The Mornington Main Street Market runs every Wednesday.
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