Thursday, August 21, 2008

Antrimlea from a distance


My neighbour Dorothy took this lovely picture of Antrimlea. My place is just behind those trees. She lives next door up on the hill and took this picture with the morning mist still showing. Thanks for sharing Dorothy.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Sunsets



Bet you wish you saw this in person!!! Each night and morning at Antrimlea is special with our view of sunrises and sunsets. This was the beauty I saw tonight. I am truly blessed to have such wonderful sights in my daily life.
Cheers to each new day.

Rural Ramble





On the weekend of August 16,17 it was Rural Ramble in Northumberland County. This is a special weekend when participating farms open their farms to the public and educate them about farming. Each farm is unique in the way they operate and what they produce.
It is a great opportunity to learn about farming and certainly gives you more respect for our hard working farmers and their families. I had the opportunity to stay for the weekend at my friend Cindy Osland who is a sheep farmer. She has at present about 200 sheep. Her and her husband Darryl also have chickens and a few beef cattle. She sells their meat and eggs at the local farmer's market and at her shop on the farm. Her lamb is so good. She served lamb burgers from the BBQ over the weekend and they were soooo good. We had a fun weekend demonstrating the art of spinning and showing off some of our products. Most people were from Toronto and had great questions to answer. This weekend is all about educating the public and it was a great time had by all. To top the weekend off this ewe gave birth just before the weekend was done. I missed the actual birth but the ewe was still laying down when I arrived with my camera. These twins are about 5 minutes old. They were so cute and started walking right away and nursing. A great ending to a swell weekend!!

Sheep to Shawl







On August 9th I participated in a Sheep to Shawl competition at Grasscreek near Kingston Ontario. There were 4 teams competing. Kingston, Belleville, Prince Edward County and Guelph. It was a fun day and the weather co-operated with a cool breeze. For those who do not know what a Sheep to Shawl is, let me explain. You have 4 spinners and 1 weaver on each team. You bring your loom already with a warp of your choice. You are given a raw fleece at 9:00 and have to have your shawl completely finished and off the loom by 2:30. The shawl has to be a certain regulated width and length. It is a lot of work but a lot of fun too. If you ever get the chance to be in one ...go for it.
Here are some pics of ours. Our warp was special as our weaver Diane hand spun all the warp. It was mostly Shetland fleece but the best part was the dark stripes. They were from Wendy Pullan's Border Collies who happened to be competing in the dog trails at the park. Wonderful!!