You know that Spring is making it's transition into Summer when the barn swallows begin nesting on the farm. The eggs are laid and some have even hatched. Soon, there will be hungry mouths for the parents to feed. I'll check regularly and try to bring you a picture.
The new rooster at the farm needs a name. Any ideas?
On a couple of my last few visits to the farm, Debbie has been working on a new dress. It' fascinating to see her using odl period patterns, materials, and methods in her work. The patterns themselves are incredibly complex.
One of the many wonderful aspects of visiting the farm is the ability to set reality aside and step back in time, if just for a couple hours.
Saturday was sheering day on the farm. All of the sheep were collected and given their summer hair cuts. The wool will be sent off to be processed and then spun into yarn. I am always amazed at how docile the sheep become when you sit them up and start cutting their fleece.
This is Sheep to Shawl weekend at Carriage Hill Farm. That means that the sheep are being shorn, some of the ladies are spinning the merino wool into yarn while others are weaving the yarn into shawls on the loom.
My good friend Debbie told me that she would be working her great wheel and asked me if I would like to come in early to take photos before the public arrived. I was pretty excited because I had never seen the great wheel in use and we would be shooting in the natural morning light from my favorite window.
The challenges started very early. The morning turned out to be rainy and the light from the window was weaker than normal. I had to run back to the car to get my tripod. I had hoped to shoot a little more agile, but I would rather be tied to the tripod than get shaky shots. I really don't like to shoot handheld slower than 1/30th of a second.
While Debbie prepared to spin, I set up the camera gear.
The great wheel is also called a walking wheel because the spinner walks back and forth while spinning the wheel by hand.
The larger wheel causes the spindle to spin very fast, adding a lot of twist to the yarn, perfect for wool.
Debbie made fast work of the wool and before long, she had a skein ready to go. For me, the shoot was as much about post processing as it was about taking the photos. I converted the images to black and white and thought they looked pretty good, I decided that they could use a little warmth. I decided to then add a little sepia tone, finally deciding on only 15% level. I didn't want the images to be brown.
Finally, I wanted to throw the viewer back in time and anchor them there. So, I added a vignette to each of the images.
I hope you like the images. Drop me a comment to let me know what you think.
Tim
Last weekend, I was over at the farm and Debbie was making Lemon curd. The results were incredible and we soon found ourselves spreading the yellow yuminess on biscotti. The results were so good that I thought you might like to know how we made it. I say we because, I stirred the pot a little and that counts… doesn't it?
The first thing you need to do is to find a nice farm lady that knows how to make lemon curd. While she's getting all of the ingredients together, you should be as helpful as possible. Mainly by staying out of her way and taking lots of pictures to document that you helped.
Once your nice farm lady has all of the ingredients mixed together and the wood stove nice and hot, its time for you to watch her cook the lemon curd on the stove. You should be as much help as possible. Tell her what a great job she's doing and that you look forward to sampling the curd when it is finished cooking. Offer to help stir and fetch wood from the wood pile if necessary.
And that's it. Now you know how to make lemon curd. Any questions?
Are you a cat and do you live in a box? Life is not so bad on a warm sunny day. Just close your eyes and soak it all in.
Got to wash your toes? Don't worry about it, it's your box and you can do what ever you want. Life is good, don't sweat it.
tim mcmurdo 