Two more days! Two more days!

I am sticking my tongue in my cheek here, because part of the reason I’m excited about SRC winding up is that our guest for the final day is a wonderful storyteller, Gary Lloyd, who is a friend as well as an entertainer. I’m so looking forward to his visit I can’t help being excited about Friday.

But I’m not sticking my tongue in too deeply - for I am always glad when these 6 weeks come to a close. Life becomes so much less hectic when we aren’t dealing with prizes and programs and reading logs and sign-up sheets. There are some housekeeping things we’ll get into this August - some weeding, some rearranging. And people will be taking vacations. Not me, alas. Mine won’t come till late September, after the Friends’ auction. I can squeeze out a day now and then, for R&R though. I did so yesterday. At least, I left a few hours early and spent the late afternoon on the river with BD and his loner teens.

Way back in the Mesozoic era, just 24 hours before meeting BD, I met R, a dorm-mate living on the top floor of Rhoads Hall. She is my oldest continuous friend, still a cozy fit after 35 years. She married later than I and started her family correspondingly, so her daughter J is still in high school. J is visiting this week, along with her cousin M, and BD is in seventh heaven, taking them out on the river all day and driving them into town as often as they ask. I’ve often thought that ‘most every man ought to have a daughter and I’ve certainly been sorry that mine never did. Fortunately we are able, now and then, to borrow one for a few days.

But I also left work early yesterday because I’m feeling sort of at loose ends. I have tried and tried to find a book to read after finishing Love Walked In - and haven’t found one yet. I am plugging away on the Vitadini cotton boucle - and wondering why ever am I torturing myself? I hate knitting with this stuff. I don’t like inelastic yarn. In fact - as I type these words I realize I am going to find a new owner for this stuff. There is plenty of gorgeous, springy, compliant, friendly wool yarn in my stash. Why spend pleasure time with anything that doesn’t bring pleasure?

Oh - and I was given a Hog Island fleece yesterday. Here’s what the folk at Sheep 101 have to say about them:

“** Hog Island **

About 200 years ago, a flock of sheep was established on Hog Island, one of Virginia's barrier islands located off its Eastern Shore. The sheep were already native to the area and are believed to have had a substantial amount of Merino blood in them. There were occasional subsequent introductions to the population, the last being in 1953, when a Hampshire ram was taken to the island. In 1974, the island was sold to The Nature Conservancy, which decided to remove all the sheep and cattle. Gunston Hall Plantation in Fairfax County, Virginia, eventually became the owner of the greater number of these sheep and exhibits them as part of its replication of 18th century plantation life. Hog Island sheep evolved and survived for over 200 years in an extremely harsh environment on a limited diet and no medical attention. The Hog Island is classified as a "critical" breed by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.
Breed categories: medium wool, rare”

This particular fleece is horribly dirty. It’s from Wakefield, George Washington’s birthplace and it’s a display sheep. I’ve been there recently and they keep their sheep in pens a good bit of the time. I don’t know I I’ll be able to clean this fleece but I’m sure willing to give it a go. It’s mostly merino and it is deliciously soft. But oh lawsee - what a mess.

So - that is what’s happening at TheCastle. Stay cool.