Lambing Day

Yesterday we drove out to Meadowood Farms in Cazenovia for Lambing Day, an open house to view the lambs that have been born this spring. Aidan quickly made friends with one of the farm cats:

But he was also quite excited to meet some lambs:

The lambs were adorable. Each ewe and her lamb(s) were marked with a letter of the alphabet in paint on their backs and it was fun to see which lamb(s) went with which ewe.

The lambs were absolutely adorable. I was quite taken with this little guy:

And this one proved that all mothers are warm furniture:

Many of the lambs were piling up for a nap:

While we were there, two ewes delivered. One was against the far wall so all we could see is that she would stand up, and there would be a new little lamb in the straw. She would clean it off and we could then see the lamb slowly stand on unsteady legs. But other lamb obliged the spectators and was out in the middle of the pen when she delivered, and we had a fairly clear view of her lamb coming into the world. Aidan handled it quite well and strangely did not ask any questions so we did not have any 'splainin' to do.

We bought some feta, farm fresh eggs and ground beef before we left and then headed into the village of Cazenovia for lunch. We went to Circa, which features produce, meats and cheese from local farms. James had a lamb burger (made with meat from Meadowood Farms) but I just wasn't able to do that after seeing so many cute little lambs so I had an excellent gruyere, onion and apple chutney panini instead; Aidan polished off a hamburger and a piece of flourless chocolate cake. We wandered around the village a bit before heading home to our own village.

Wrapped up in a hug

As I mentioned in recent posts about monthly resolutions, in March I finished knitting a wrap for my Aunt Eula. Wrap, shawl, stole - whatever word you want to use, it is a rectangle shaped piece of knitted lace designed to casually wrap around the body. Aunt Eula is my mother's only sister and lives in an assisted living facility in Ohio. She is a tiny woman and always cold, so I thought a wrap would not only help keep her warm but might also be a bit comforting.

Most of you know that I am a yarn snob; I like alpaca, merino wool, silk, those sorts of luxury fibers. And while I would have loved to have made Aunt Eula a decadently luscious wrap, I had to be practical - luxury fibers require delicate care, particularly when washing. I did not want anyone to go to great lengths to care for the wrap and I wanted it to be durable, so I chose a washable wool blend. Lion Brand Wool-Ease is 80% acrylic and 20% wool, machine washable and, much to my surprise, quite soft. I chose a heather pink colorway because Aunt Eula likes the color pink and because I thought it would work well as a year-round color.

The pattern was not at all difficult but since I seem to have knitting ADD (oh, look - new yarn!), it was a bit of a challenge to knit something for more than a week or two. The pattern suggested a length of 72 inches but six feet of knitted wrap would overwhelm Aunt Eula's tiny frame, so I made it about 60 inches long. Once it was done, I tested the machine washable attribute by tossing it into the washer on the hand wash setting and it washed beautifully.

I sent the wrap to my cousin Pam so that she could sew on a label with Aunt Eula's name. Pam then took the wrap to her along with a family photo album so she could point out my picture and tell Aunt Eula that I had made it for her. Whether or not she remembers who made it for her does not matter; I’m sure she feels a hug whenever she wears it and will know that someone who loves her made it:

For many years, Aunt Eula and Uncle Al lived next door to my Grandmother Bourne. When we would go to visit my grandmother, I would immediately run next door to say hello to Aunt Eula and to get a big hug. It irritated my mother to no end that I would go and see Aunt Eula FIRST rather than my grandmother, but Aunt Eula was always glad to see me whereas my grandmother hardly noticed me. If you are related to me, don't get annoyed at me for saying that Grandmother Bourne was not a warm and comforting person because you know that I'm telling the truth. She just wasn't. Any joy I felt from visiting the house in Vandalia, Ohio came from the welcome and attention I received from Aunt Eula, not from my grandmother. I knit this wrap as a small token of appreciation for the woman who always made me feel loved, made me feel welcome, and made me feel important.