Meanness and Grace

Does it seem to you that people are more gracious this year? Harry and I have the opportunity to meet a lot of people through friends, work, and vacation rentals. This year people have been more gracious than ever. It's wonderful. What have you noticed? I want to hear; please comment..
(The above mean photo is of my cat, Smudge. This was taken last year. She's a little sweeter this year :-) Below are photos of grace that I took at Watkins Farm, Jason and his granny, and a couple singing to each other at Pleasant Bay Nursing (where his granny is now).)

Totally Naked

I love Harry's mom, Muma Lee. She is witty, petite, and Irish. Tuff, but fragile too. I sat down with her the other day and asked her about her new apartment. She has an amusing way of speaking in short bursts. And, as her kids know, each burst can be potent. She said to me,

"I sit and look out my window. There's a bench right there, right outside of my window. These men come by, same time each day, totally naked."
"Totally naked??"
"Yes! Totally naked. From the waist up!"
"Totally naked 'from the waist up' isn't really naked, Muma Lee."
"Luvie, I'm tellin ya, it is disgusting."

The Baa Brothers and the bed posts

Here is what we did with the other bed. Or Harry did it; I just had the idea. The boys love it.

The Handyman Harry Gate

This is the gate that Harry made for me. I say 'for me' because without my 'I have an idea!' Harry would have made a perfectly good gate out of wood in half the time. These 'gates' are from an old iron bed. I had them in my garden for ten years with beautiful morning glories growing up them. Well, the morning glories weren't actually there, but the promise was there. I dutifully planted the seeds there every spring. I had this idea of a morning glory 'garden bed' (get it? :-) but .... I like this better. (I don't have the pressure of growing morning glories which are suppose to be simple.) We now have 2 'beds' in the yard the other one makes a little fence in front of the shed.

The bad haircut

So here are the happy boys on their way to get their haircut. They are optimistic. It's summer and a lot of wool is just too hot. They believe and I believe that after they see the 'barber' they will be cooler and stylish. How can they not be cute?
Now here is Jobey looking a little wary, probably because he is looking at my face and I'm starting to have doubt. The Shepherd is Andrew Rice from Hogget Hill Farm in Brattleboro, Vermont and he is amazing - very experienced and knowledgeable. I think he said he's sheared something like 300,000 sheep. However, a few minutes before this picture was taken I suggested that he leave their cute wooley faces and he said, 'Lady, I'm not a groomer. They'll get military haircuts.' Now I'm worried. And you know how somewhere in all of our psychies there is this knowledge that looks change everything - who we are, how others feel about us... our whole image.....?

Oh dear. Our fears were realized. I keep going out to see them hoping that by some miracle their wool has magically grown back in the last few minutes but.. they still look the same. They keep looking at each other like,' What the heck happened to you? I hope I don't look like that!' I want those sweet smiles back.... darn. Sigh. Well, I'm told the difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut is two weeks. I'll post new pics in 2 weeks.

Harvesting the lavender

It's lavender time!! We have 400 plants here at Saturday Farm so I'm busy harvesting and laying the lavender on layers of flat screens in the barn. I'll write more soon, but I'm leaving you a picture that I took yesterday.

The Baa Brothers first Gig

This week I was all busy and anticipatory getting ready for the boys first gig at the
Harwich Junior Theater. (www.hjtcapecod.org) The Harwich Junior Theater is a wonderful theater and they continue to impress me with their outstanding performances. It's not just for children; people of all ages love this theater.
You are probably imagining that I was putting in a lot of effort training and costuming the boys because they were going to be in a big production. No, this was a children's class and the Baa Brothers were only asked to show up. I'm the one who got a bee in my bonnet about dressing them up. I also decided they had to have a magical impact. I started making costumes and knitting little socks with bells. Of course, the night before it started raining and then pouring and pouring. When I went to put them to bed in their little house, they were soaked. (They live outside, but they sleep in this little house that Handyman Harry built for them.) Their gig was in the morning, so I decided to thoroughly dry them before putting them to bed. This took about an hour and about 5 bath towels. The next morning it was still pouring so they were all wet again. I dried them again, but it was useless because it continued to rain. I put their costumes on and their little socks became so soaked that they started stretching and stretching and falling off their feet. The boys also looked soggy and smelled of wet wool. When we arrived at our designated area it turned out that the children AND their parents were there - a bigger group than I expected. The boys had only seen this many people at the nursing home and all of those people were in wheel chairs. The children had puppets and as part of the story the children were acting out, they were to touch the sheep with their puppets. As this mass of children, adults and puppets started descending on them, Bromley and Jobey panicked and ran circles around my legs. Quickly I crouched down and put an arm around each of them. They calmed down and eventually let the children touch them. After the children touched the sheep they all got into their cars to go home and the little Baa Brothers took a couple of steps forward and said, 'Baa... Baa...? ' . It was as if they were now disappointed that the children were leaving.
At the time I thought the event was a little bit of a fiasco, but, as you can see in the pictures, it really wasn't - the children loved them, they loved the children and I actually think the magic really did happen.