The Joys of Living in a Small Town

At the Wisconsin Wool Exchange, Tuesday night, mom and I gathered with a few other knitters for Open Knitting night. We had the time wrong and arrived an hour early so decided to go two doors down to Emmy J's coffee shop and have cappuccino ice cream and a hot mocha! We played BananaGrams while we enjoyed our sweet treat and waited for the shop to open.

In the knitting circle was our teacher, Maud, who plays beautiful music from Pandora and tells us stories. There is always interesting conversation and laughter...a lovely, relaxing way to spend an evening. And we always learn something; about knitting, of course, but also about life and local history, upcoming local events, music and so much more. Mostly I learn what it's like to live in a small town.

At the end of the table was Wendy, a local shepherdess. She worked on finishing a gorgeous sweater made from the wool of one of her very own sheep. Sitting next to me was Pat who was working on the most beautiful pair of socks I've seen in my life. I couldn't stand the thought of covering them with a pair of shoes. Maud says that is why she wears socks with sandals!!! As she was knitting away, Pat told us that she is in the process of starting a worm farm!! That was the beginning of a lively conversation about types of worms, containers used to keep them from escaping, etc. I had very little to contribute on the subject, but I sat, fascinated!

We also learned about The Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival coming up in September in Jefferson, Wisconsin. This sounds amazing and if you go to their website wisconsinsheepandwoolfestival.com you will see what I mean! There are vendors and all sorts of classes like spinning (don't think exercise class!), shepherds workshop, shearing demos, fleece shows and sales, photo contests, fiber arts, a Walk and Knit Relay Challenge, sheep shows, crafts,
4H competitions, auctions and so much more. I can't wait to attend this event in the fall.

By the way, we woke to a world of white yesterday. So much for my "Farewell to Winter" post recently. Although the birch trees and pines are covered in white it will warm to the 40's this afternoon and most of it will melt soon. Just to reassure me I saw, for the first time since we've been here, a male robin on the tree outside my window. His red breast was vibrant against the snow and he was picking at a red berry on the bare tree. I read in our Wisconsin Bird book that robins are residents here in the summer, although there are a few of them who do not migrate and live here all winter long, living on whatever insects and berries they can find. I'm pretty sure my visitor just arrived for spring. Later in the morning when I looked out the window again, the little tree was full of big fat red-breasted robins. I actually saw a flock of robins!!

I couldn't get a picture of the robins, but here's one of the creek we pass almost daily on our three mile walk.

Beaver Creek