HATFIELD HARVEST FAIR-BOOKS I AM READIG-THE BRICK MEETING HOUSE-BUCKLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

GREETINGS

Fall is slow coming this year.  We do have the cooler temps at night, but the leaves are slow to turn.  Turkey’s are gathering in groups on back roads though,

and haying machinery has been stored for the winter.

 Rains from the most recent hurricane have poured down upon us today, we do need the rain.

HATFIELD HARVEST FAIR

I haven’t spun at this fair for 4 or more years.  It has changed so much with more vendors, fresh Hatfield veggies for sale, who can resist Hatfield potatoes or onions.  Library book sale and so much more.  I was with the Springfield Weavers who let children weave on Structo Looms and gave them a card with a hand woven piece of cloth in it for their efforts.  

We were in  the tobacco barn with all the wonderful old things.  The day went by quickly with lots of questions from children and adults about spinning and sheep.  Looking forward to next years show.

BOOKS I AM READING

I have read this book some time ago and am revisiting it for my next trip to Ireland.  The reviews say it’s a unique travelogue for the mobile but not agile.  I remember when reading it before that it contained some really unique out of the way places which we hope to explore on this trip.   A good read for anyone thinking of traveling to Claire, Kerry and West Cork.

THE BRICK MEETING HOUSE

Brenda and Cookie who bought The Brick Meeting House had  Oktoberfest on Saturday.  It was quite successful 3 vendors, face painting and games for the kids, good Homemade food.  Lots of people stopped by on their way to vacation destinations and many towns folk came to support the project.  They still haven’t decided what will be in The meeting House but are open to suggestions.  They will be having many more of these events and maybe a farmers market next year.  A great addition to  our town.

BUCKLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Yesterday was their open house.  I was there spinning with Marti Ferguson and Sandy Cardinal was weaving on an old barn loom.  The setting was lovely, there were a team of Oxen and some ponies there.

 The house was open for viewing.  It is a beautiful historic house.  Hope you will put this on your list for next year.

View from the bathroom widow

SOME PARTING THOUGHTS FROM THE WILDER HOMESTEAD

I couldn’t resist taking this picture.  The view to the hills with rain clouds and crisp white curtains,  made me think how many people looked out this window in the past, checking  out their fields and animals, worried about wars, and freedom, not so unlike today.  I would have thought things would have changed in these over two hundred years but alas I think they have gotten worse.  Bigotry, racism, white supremacist, and other hate groups abound.  People are all upset about kneeling in front of the flag.  The flag is a symbol of our freedom and that is it.  It is cloth.  People show their patriotism in many ways and when people don’t have the freedoms that the rest of us have they should let it be known.  That is what this country is all about.  We all should have the same freedoms and rights not just a limited few.  It really bothers me that people are all over the kneeling but won’t do anything about some laws to prevent mass killings.  We have let the wrong people have too much influences over our elected officials.  What is the matter with people?  Somehow they missed history in school at least in the schools that I attended we had many lessons  of what it means to be a patriot. My rant not for the day but ever since these evil people have come out of the woodwork.  

BOOKS I AM READING-THE FRANKLIN COUNTY FAIR-COSMO

GREETINGS

Hot and humid. cold and damp, torrential rains and some early frost in the hills.  Hurricanes doing so much damage.  Global warming is not knocking on our door anymore it’s here.  The hazel nuts are drying nicely in the car and I have decided to get a few more trees and plan to plant one in an open spot in the woods for the animals.  They are so easy to grow and don’t take up a lot of room.

BOOKS I AM READING

 

One of the things I love about The Heath Fair is the Library Book Sale.  I bring bags of books and take away a bag.    One never knows what will be there but there are always do it yourself books, cookbooks, novels, children’s books and travel, this year there were even foreign language learning books.  Books are one of my favorite things and I have been surrounded with them since I could walk.  My parents and other family members read to me and when I was old enough I could take my allowance and buy a book at the  McCauselan and Wakelin department store in Holyoke.

In my bag this year was a book on how to make greenhouses, a wonderful knitting book, a fishing guide for my grandson, a Christmas project book and a small book by Daniel Gottlieb called Letters to Sam.  I didn’t know that I bought a treasure.  On the cover its says A Grandfather’s lessons on love, Loss, and the gifts of life.   It is so much more.  It’s about a man who has had loss and hardship in his life.  Dan suffered a near fatal accident which left him paralyzed from the neck down some years ago and Sam his grandson was diagnosed  with a form of autism at 14 months.   Dan is a Psychologist 

One of my favorite parts of this books is  when he talks of the jobs parents and children have.  A parents job is to love theIr child protect them as best they can and give them roots and wings.  

At the end of the book is this quote which I would like to share it is from Rumi, a 13th century poet, theologian, jurist, scholar and mystic.

                                GUEST HOUSE

This being human is a guest house

Every morning a new arrival

A joy, a depression, a meanness

some momentary awareness comes,

as an unexpected guest.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

The dark thought, the sham. the malice.

     meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent 

as a guide from beyond.

RUMI

 

THE FRANKLIN COUNTY FAIR

 

I will be in the craft tent Saturday and Sunday.  Come on down and enjoy the wonderful fair.

Many thanks for reading my blog on this September day.  Carole.

 

My wonderful cat Cosmo.  Taking a break from running up and down the stairs (and eating many cans of Fancy Feast) making sure no other cats have come into his domain.  For those of you who know of Cosmo his cancer is growing slowly.  I hope he will be here for many more years but we enjoy each day that he is given.

PICKING LEAVES-IRELAND-WORK ON THE KITCHEN

GREETINGS

It’s  very cool morning here with temps just rising to the mid fifty’s today.  It will be  cold weekend with some frosts coming.

PICKING LEAVES

This has been  tradition since I was a child.  I have been out twice and will go out today looking for more.  I especially am waiting for the oak leaves which offer an array of colors.  They aren’t quite ready yet.  It’s a wonderful thing to do with children, that is how I learned to tell a maple from an oak.

My Mom would put a square of wax in an old pan and put the pan in simmering water so the wax would melt slowly.  We would have  cookie sheet lined with waxed paper at the ready and I would hand her the leaves.  She would carefully dip them into the wax and  hand them to me.  I would let them drip and lay them on the sheet. These leaves would be used in decorations around the house .  Years later I would send her waxed leaves when she lived in Florida  and missed the fall.

Another method of preserving leaves is with glycerin.  I have used this method to preserving the leaves right on the branches.  Happy leaf hunting.

GIFTS FROM IRELAND

Cindy often sends me things from my beloved Ireland.  This time it was the cherished items that we loaded our suitcases with .  Fairy Liquid and Radox.  Since we have rented houses in Ireland for the past 20 years we have to supply the simple things such as dish detergent and groceries.   When I smell the above two products it just sends me back to the place I love.  Thanks Cindy.  Now to light up a brick of turf and I am happy.

KITCHEN RENOVATION

My kitchen has needed renovation for years.  There has always been more important things to fix in this old farmhouse.  I have bought a double Soapstone sink for $75. many years ago and it sits in the downstairs barn area waiting to be installed.  Maybe next year that will happen and it will make , canning, dyeing wool and making soap so much easier.  But for now I am fixing up some of the walls with beadboard.  I am inspired by Kristen Nicholas with her colorful farmhouse and using colors that I would not ordinarily use. 

The kitchen  was made by combining two areas many years ago.  A wood shed  and the original kitchen.  Both have no cellar and are only a foot or so above the dirt which is why pipes freeze so easily in the winter.  My neighbor , Pat redid most of the wood shed portion some years ago, insulating the walls and adding a new window.  I love how that looks   

Chris and I started this project while he was here.  Neither of us are carpenters but we forged ahead and got it done with .  One wall done and painted.  I hope to get another wall started today.  It will probably take most of the winter to get all the walls done and painted.  Some of the  walls will have beadboard only half way up and the upper walls painted another color.  I am going to paint some sunflowers on the walls , thank to you Kristen for the wonderful ideas of color and design.  Look for more pictures of my progress in the future.

The small window comes from my Great-Grandmother’s house i Maryland.  When they were tearing it down I saved some of the windows.

Hope you have a wonderful day and many thanks for reading my blog.  Carole

 

RAIN TO SNOW FLURRIES-NEEDLE FELTING-CRAFTS OF COLRAIN

Good Morning

RAIN TO SNOW FLURRIES

It went from rain to flurries this morning with a dusting on the ground and a few still coming down.  I need to get the bulbs in sometime today.  Still lots of work to do outside, I will have the boys do some of while they are here.  I want the little dog house brought near the barn as I will bring it in.  The caravan needs to be brought into my sons barn for the winter.  Its getting old and needs more protection. Oh well they will get done in time.

CRAFTS OF COLRAIN

TOMORROW starts the 2 day event, I will be ready, in a much better situation than last year.  I have made a bittersweet swag , my friend Susan told me about this and it really came out nice, I put the lights on last night.

 With pumpkins and pinecones and sweet annie drying on the porch it will be welcoming for customers. I am lookingforward to it.

NEEDLE FELTING

I had a wonderful time last night at one of the SHEEP AND SHAWL’S classes.  Check out their web site for many more fun and interesting classes and lots of knitting  time at the store  www.sheepandshawl.com.  I had needle felted many years ago but my daughter CIndy bought me a fantastic book on it my interest was peaked again.

I think that I would have liked to have felted the leaf a little more and the acorn needs to be a bit smaller or the cap a bit larger, but all in all for my first time doing the both of these I think they came out good.  I will be out in the back yard looking for more caps.  I hope to find some double ones.These were fun and easy to make.  The wool is some of mine carried at the shop.  Thanks Deb for offering this class and also to Liz for having wonderful classes at her shop.

DROP SPINDLE CLASS AT SHEEP AND SHAWL

I am teaching a drop spindle class at Sheep and Shawl on Sunday, November 17th and the 24th.  If you have every wanted to spin but didn’t want the expense of a spinning wheel this is your opportunity to learn.  Hope to see you there.

Many thanks for reading my blog on this flurrying  morning.  I hope you have a wonderful day.  Carole and Minnie

FAMILY APPLE PICKING- PINE HILL ORCHARD-MURPHY AND NEW CHICKENS

 

Hello

PINE HILL APPLE PICKING

 

Yesterday my Son and  his family asked me to come apple picking with them, It was misting when we left and raining when we got there.  Most days it’s so busy at the Orchard but the rain has kept people away.  We went inside and paid for the amount that was going to be picked.  Unto a covered wagon pulled by a tractor.

DAVID SHEARER

 It was a fun ride all around the farm, seeing the peach trees and so many apple trees loaded with fruit ,then by a large pumpkin patch and onto the McIntosh Apples that were to be picked this day.  Things have changed so much at the Orchard since  David Shearer  started running the farm .

 They have improved everything about the place, making it a delightful family adventure.   They have events for all seasons, Easter Egg Hunts, Halloween events, people come from miles around to take part .

Apple picking just tired Lil right out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MURPHY AND SOME NEW HENS

Murphy is such a delightful rooster.  Oh yes sometimes he gets feisty but he has never came after me or pecked me like Hazel does.  He still remembers the soothing words I used to say to him as a chick and will calm right down when I say them.  This year I  had decided not to get anymore hens.  I have a lot but as they all age I really need to get more if I want to get the number of eggs that I get now.  I think I will get two regular size hens and 2 Bantams.   I must do that soon.  It will give them a chance to settle in before the cold weather arrives.   A  trip to THE CHICKEN MAN is always an adventure.

This hot and humid weather is going away today and at least for the next week it will be comfortable.  Fall is approaching and I hope my tomatoes and peppers and string beans will arrive before the first frost.  The tomatoes are looking so good they only need to ripen.

Many thanks for reading my blog today and I hope you have a wonderful day.    Carole