TV Time

Fox 5, a local DC tv channel contacted me last week about doing a morning episode at Dancing Leaf Farm. I said yes before I had really thought about it, then thought, "What the hell!" I don't think I've ever been on TV (except maybe a long time ago playing frisbee) so that sorta scared me. I could tell because I had those kind of bad dreams last night where you're not dressed, can't find your clothes, don't have makeup on and the crew shows up at 5:30 frickin' a.m. And then there was the crew in my driveway and I wasn't dressed, no makeup and I wasn't dreaming! Yikes! But it's dark! How can they film?! I threw something on, ran out there and told them I wasn't ready and they said, no prob, we're just setting up.

So at 7:40 I was ready (pumped with coffee and with make up on and I did find my clothes!). I called the sheep up and they behaved themselves beautifully. Luckily they weren't sheared yet so they looked splendid in all their wooliness. We talked about raising them, shearing, dyeing, spinning, knitting and a bit about our upcoming Countryside Artisans' Studio Tour and the other artists involved. Susan, my artist neighbor, brought over a few of her beautiful paintings and Holly, the reporter, interviewed Susan as well.

There is a lot of downtime (like an hour) between segment shots and Holly has found a way to get something done and to relax. Another addicted knitter has joined the ranks.

The crew enjoying a morning cuppa java and talking 'bout how pretty the countryside is. (and we're all on our just completed new patio, yeah!)

Holly was so charming and easy to talk to. I was so worried about being a dork, but I wasn't nervous at all and thought everything went hunky dory. But I'm glad it's done and I hope we get lots of new folks out for our tour. Here's a link to the shoot. There are 3 different 4-minute segments, one with the sheep, one with me spinning and carding, and one with me dying and going inside my shop.
Happy spring!

A Stone's Throw

Springtime at Dancing Leaf Farm! My absolutely favorite time of the year. Most people like fall the best. But things are dying then, dead and withering. What's up with that?! I love the rebirth of the trees, flowers, plants, gardens, grass and how the birds are gathering up my bits of wool and hay to make their nests.


Right now everything seems to be blooming at once. Not often do I see forsythia in full bloom with red bud, bleeding heart and lilacs! Today a storm was blowing in releasing us from 86 degrees (way too hot for early April!) and the sky was dark which offset the colors of the redbud and apple blossoms.


...and spring brings my patio! Finally!!!! I have wanted this flagstone patio for 4 years now and today the big truck from the stone quarry in 'Rockville' (really!) drove into my driveway and delivered 18 tons of beautiful flagstone, river rock, sand and bluestone. Yippee! And it's so cool that they come in bags, just like groceries!


But one can't lift them just like groceries so a big arm slowly lifts them up and then down to the ground.


And here they rest until my wonderful crew comes to move them shovel full by shovel full, stone by stone to the patio and walkway. (photos of my crew to come). From this.......


......to this. Just the beginning, but I am so excited to finally not to have to move my 8 chairs and 2 tables out of the way to mow. Yeah!!!!

Frontier Justice

When Forrest isn't carrying his golden retriever around, he's dealing out justice. A bit of background first. Our family is all about biking. We have 5, no 8, no 10 bikes. Houston just got another bike yesterday. Each one has it's own special purpose (besides getting him from point A to point B). Many of our vacations center around biking. Houston and Garrett biked from Barnesville to the Oregon coast, Forrest and I spent 2 weeks mountain biking through North Carolina and this summer Houston and two friends are biking from Missoula, Montana to Talkeetna, Alaska. So you can imagine how upset we were that both Forrest's and Garrett's bikes were stolen last year within a few months of each other. Garrett's bike was taken in Georgetown, mid-day, by cutting through his bike lock. Forrest's mountain bike was stolen from his yard in Missoula where it was locked up.
Fast forward a few months to last week. Forrest spotted his bike, with a rider on it. He was in a car at the time, jumped out and yelled, "Stop!" The guy looked back and took off fast. Guilty! Forrest hopped back in the car and followed the thief until he discouragingly went up the wrong way up a one-way street. Grrrr! But Forrest recognized the guy, just couldn't place him. Three days later he saw him again, this time walking into the university's gym. What are the chances?! (That's where he'd seen him, at the gym). Forrest called in his posse, Kim, his girlfriend in her bright yellow VW bug, Alex on his skateboard, John on his bike, and Forrest hoofin' it. Awesome! They rendezvoused at the gym, ready to roll. Except the thief had a power workout in the gym of nearly 2 hours. Finally, he came out, hopped on a bike (not Forrest's) and the Fab Four followed him home. Bike Thief went in the house while John looked in the window of the shed near the alley. Whoa! Lots of bikes, including Forrest's! John stood guard while Forrest quickly went in, grabbed his bike and they all took off, and fast! So, Forrest got his bike back and he is one happy guy. But being the safeguarding parents, we advised Forrest to just watch his back and again, report all this to the police. He'll just be using that bike for mountain biking and has since put together a retro bomber bike for skooting around town. Our advice....double locks.

Rainy Days

Remember the torrential rains we had just a week ago? Inches in hours, with creeks and rivers raging and flooding beyond the banks. Houston and I were in Cumberland, walking around town and viewing the Potomac River that slides right through the middle of town. This iron sunburst is part of the 'blue bridge' that spans Maryland to West Virginia. Houston said it was put there so kids don't slide down the top of the bridge. Yikes!

This is what the Potomac looked like as it was spilling over the 8'drop under the bridge. It's a churning, frothy, foamy load of water.


So much so, that there were dozens of balls caught in a hydraulic that the water created. All kinds of balls, soccer, basketball, dodge, kick, volley, football, all happily jostling about on the water. This looks like a game of 'Get the Balls in the Tire'. It was mesmerizing to watch them. Houston had walked down to the bridge around noon and spotted all the balls and we saw this around 6:00 with the balls and tire still caught in the hydraulic. Better balls than this....


Yep, this poor cow got caught up in the flood. How sad.


and on a funnier note, we spotted this garage on our walk. Notice the spelling on the hand written 'no parking' sign. All one needed to do was to look up at the commercial sign to see how to spell expense! And I guess not all cars will be towed at owner's exspence.

Sympatico

It's taken me nearly 2 weeks to write about this, I was so upset. When I got back from my trip, I found that all my chickens but one had been kidnapped (and worse!). I was devastated that Miss Crossbeak was not the one who had survived. I miss that little chicken! How can one become so attached to a chicken?!!! She was my special little friend though and I miss her greeting me in the morning, jumping on my shoulder, looking to see what treat I had brought her and just being her cute self.


But one chicken outran the fox and survived. Flopsy must be one fast chicken. I call her Flopsy because she has a huge comb and it flops to one side, jiggling as she runs. A perfect 'comb-over'!


She spends her days hanging with her sheep, then flies way up to the barn loft, safely tucked away behind the doors and windows I have stored up there. I was leaving for the weekend and wanted her to be secured in the chicken coop so I tried to catch her (yep, she's fast!) but had to wait till she settled in for the night in the loft. I got up the ladder, grabbed her, tucked her under my arm and got on the ladder to go down. It's REALLY hard going down a ladder with one just arm and a chicken tucked under the other arm! We made it down safely and I tucked her into her home and I think I heard a little thank you.

Colorful California

While walking around in Davis (our destination on our x-country trip), I couldn't help but find color, color everywhere. The local bike shop had paraded their new line of hot new colored bikes and lined them up for all to drool over. I would like a purple one, a lime green one and of course one with flowers.


As Ann and I were riding our not-so-colorful bikes around town, we stopped to get a looksee at this flashy home. We liked the linear-ness of it (but also liked the Quixote Winery where no straight lines were allowed... guess we're easy to please).


There were many delightful details, like the clay tile house numbers handmade by some clever artist.


One of the many multi-colored buildings.


And one more shot of these candy colored bikes. Can't get enough!

Quixote Territory

While galavanting around Napa Valley, Ann got a heads up about a little known winery off the beaten track. She called and got detailed directions and we turned off the highway, down a narrow lane and finally came to the most unusual winery I've ever been to. Quixote was designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, normally known for his unusual and colorful architecture in very public places. But the owner of the winery begged him to design his winery and Hundertwasser relented because he fell in love with the surroundings and the natural beauty of the environment. Hundertwasser insisted on these rules though:

• No straight lines
• Roofs are planted with grass and trees
• Every building is capped with a golden turret to elevate man’s sense of himself
• Color is king

Good on all four. But what I really loved about the design was the massive use of richly colored tiles.


The columns are constructed with large ceramic pieces that are made in Germany because lead is used to get the rich colors and we cannot use lead here in the U.S.




to quote their website: "The Hundertwasser design of our winery says it all; we’re here to give pleasure. With Cervantes’ Don Quixote as our muse, let us all explore the difference between appearances and reality and engage in the noble pursuits of a knight errant. " Isn't that enough to make you want to check it out?!


The front door is playful and whimsical and I felt like I was stepping in to a fun house of delights.


Here's the turret that elevates man's sense of himself. It didn't make me have more sense.


Even the sidewalks were wavy and topsy turvy.


I felt like taking a shower in this most wonderful of showers but thought it would be a bit much to ask of a winery tour.


It was too rainy to linger on the side patio but I could imagine sipping wine here on a nice sunny California day, looking out over the mountainside.




The landscaping was dotty and seemed to have the same amusing quality as the buildings.




Inside the wine making room it was all business...


But when peeking into the storage area where the wine is aged, I saw that the barrels were wrapped in colorful bands to mimic the colorful columns. We never did get to sample the wines, but what we really came for was the color and we were not disappointed.