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This weekend is the Massachusetts fair in Cummington and I went yesterday with Diane Golding of
www.dropspindle.info as shoppers, not vendors! What a treat to just browse and touch lots of luscious fibers and see incredible hand crafts. We saw lots of vendor friends and customers still shopping yet another festival. I meant to take lots of pictures to post but kept forgetting as I was too busy enjoying the day! Here are a few pictures: One of the sons of the Still River Mill
www.stillrivermill.com working on a knitting sample; some of the booths; spinning blindfolded! It was a lovely day weatherwise, glad I went!
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What a difference a year can make. One of our hay suppliers called yesterday to let us know we could pick up 1st cut hay from the field this afternoon. May 25th, pre-Memorial Day, just right! Last year our 1st cut wasn’t ready until July 1st! We had so much rain in the spring that no one could hay. Today’s hay was a mighty fine, sweet smelling yield. We have had a string of sunny days and today was a scorching 92 degrees at high noon making great conditions for drying the cut hay. We went down to the field at 4:30 and brought home 80 bales, another 40 tomorrow which will be a nice jump on the winter supply; about 20% of what we need by September. We got back to the barn, fired up the hay elevator, through the first few bales on and the belt started slipping; with a couple of minor adjustments we were off and running! There is something VERY comforting about filling the barn with hay on hot summer days knowing a barn full of feed is precious come late fall and winter.
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Yesterday I spent the day in Jamaica, VT with lots of other fiber- related vendors such as
Green Mountain Spinnery www.spinnery.com Golding Fiber Tools www.dropspindle.info Grafton Fibers www.graftonfibers.com White Mountain Farm, Maybelle Farm, Lovejoy Handwovens who wove in beautiful rhythm all through the day and
Six Loose Ladies, just to name few! It was a very rainy day, but Margaret Silva of
Margie’s Muse in Jamaica
www.margiesmuse.com really put her heart and soul into the event. There were vendors and food spread out around town, I was in the town hall and we were fortunate to have heat and all the musical events for the day due to the rain! First we listened to The Rusty Pickup Band who sang bluegrass and western style tunes and Then the Bondville Boys, a great local blueglass band playing tunes from bluegrass to the blues! It was a fun day with a decent turnout despite the weather. Margaret of Green Mt Spinnery, shown with a big smile, won the Hand-spun skein contest, way to go Margaret! Lucky me won a raffle prize of a Golding spindle, the most beautiful drop spindles available today(my humble opinion!). Forgive the blurry pics, something wasn’t set right on my camera but you get the idea!
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Jamaica, VT sillies, just for the day!
It’s a good day to get a fiber fix and take a country drive all at once! We’ll all be there from 10-4!
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The apple trees are in full blossom this week and the scent is delicious! Even Sidney seems to be enjoying it! The lilacs are also just beginning to bloom. We have had lots of sun the past few weeks and now some wet, cool weather so all of the trees and plants have burst forth with leaves and blossoms…it is green outside!
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We had another picture perfect day Sunday, Mother’s Day, for the festival. It started out crsip and a bit breezy but warmed up nicely into the high 60’s by noon. I didn’t even get to leave my booth all day so didn’t get too many pictures. It was a busy day! Across the weekend I did Indigo dyeing to demonstate how it is done. I had lots of interested people, watching, asking questions and realizing it isn’t impossible! Indigo seems overwhelming at first but when you learn the right steps that make a successful indigo vat the rest is magical. In a few days when all the skeins have been rinsed and dried I’ll post a photo of the colors I dyed.
The top picture took the prize for Sunday! Isn’t this just the epitome of what a farm fair embodies? This young 4-Her was calling out the words on the sign, swaying and smiling, doing a great job of persuading customers!
And also, our booth, Long Ridge Farm in the Crowley Bldg, which has now been renamed the Hood Bldg. I will be right there, very same corner next year with more dyeing and maybe some other surprises too! Thank you to all who stopped by, once again!
