Sunday, September 11, 2016

Sunday

The ever lovely Snowdrop, who'll sleep late and long at home, wakes up at the farmhouse shortly after dawn and by 7:20 she clamors to come down. Well, that's fine. I'm up with the cheepers anyway.

The little girl is just a bit under the weather -- an expected thing, given her first exposure to school this year -- but you would never know it for the enthusiasm she brings downstairs!

It's too early for all of us to sit down to a farmhouse breakfast and so I give her her beloved yoyo's (aka yogurts) first and, too, her bath and even now it still seems a tad early to rouse grandpa Ed and so we take a little stroll outside.


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She's fine with that, but I'm not. Still too buggy for my liking. We give the cheepers their scraps of bread and come back inside and guess what -- the big guy is up and willing to play and that just makes the little girl so happy.


Play ball? 
Yes....


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And then I tell her that she can join us now for our regular old breakfast and her cup is beyond full!

Yeah, I like everything you guys eat!


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Everything!


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She is to go back home this morning, but I give her parents just a little more time to sleep in -- they're the ones rising early all week to get her to school on time -- and Snowdrop of course is in full play mode now. We dance...


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... she reads...

You say that's a cake, grandma? Do we have cake?


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She is an absolute delight (says unbiased grandma nina).


Snowdrop returns home. And now, Ed and I have this hankering to head out. Jefferson, a town just about 30 miles to our east, hosts the annual Wisconsin sheep and wool festival. We've been to it before (Ocean is a good reminder of such things!), but that was seven years ago and you, of course, know that I've recently taken up thinking sheepish thoughts and making up sheeply rhymes. Basically, I find sheep lovely to behold and terrifically interesting to inspect up close.


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 Sheep, about to be herded by the ever brilliant border collies.


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The collies, anxious to get to their job.


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The preparation at the festival, the excitement...


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The competition.


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The sheep.


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We must stop meeting like this!

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Ed and I watch the sheering demonstration.

Come on out, babe!


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I got her in position!


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... Get that wool off!


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There!


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Me, I like to keep my wooly face wooly!


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The festival is about sheep, but it is also about their coats and the yarn we spin.

This spinner struck me as so beautifully fitted to the task...


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And there are vendors, selling everything imaginable related to sheep. We don't ignore them. We buy five chunks of sheep cheese.

And there are the lambs. These are not yet a day old.


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mom, nudging...


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And oh, those hairstyles!


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Finally, the herding competition...


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The end of a full day. Should I buy Snowdrop a t-shirt? No, I mean -- what are the chances of her loving sheep all the way into adulthood?


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Sheep like to sleep.
Goodnight sheep!
Goodnight, good night...
Goodnight!