Rain = Candle Making

I'm getting ready to leave the house to go meet the farrier at the barn. Which I enjoy, because the farrier is also a friend, and it's fun to catch up with him. And also because Finn Duncan, young Thoroughbred, appears to be growing up somewhat (finally!), and so trimming his feet is not nearly as exciting as it once was. I hate to say it, but I think his current pasture mate Taylor Smith, old Thoroughbred, is doing a better job of training Finn to act like an adult than I ever have. But the results are good, so I'll take it. Of course now that I've said that Finn will probably spend all morning standing on his hind legs while I hang off the end of the lead rope. That's a horse for you - doesn't do much good to try to predict them.

But first I've got to get to the barn, and I need to get an easy bike ride in today, so I figured I'd be hyper-efficient and combine the two. As I stare out the window at the rain, though, my plan is getting more complicated. Now it involves reflective wind vests, and flashing lights, and finding a change of clothes when I get to the farm. Which means I should probably stop typing and start finding that stuff.

However, the rain also means that I've got a full afternoon of candle making ahead, which I'm looking forward to. Not that I can't make candles on a sunny day, but on a rainy one I don't have to wonder much about what to do. Hard to cut flowers for drying when they're wet. Well, I guess I could, but it seems a little counter-productive. Although wreath production is now in full swing, and soooo fun. I'm set up on the porch of the flower building, looking out over the pasture, and it's the prettiest office imaginable. Until December when it's 35 degrees and howling wind - which means I need to be making a *lot* of wreaths now, so I'm not freezing my ass off in December.

Art in the Park!

So Pack Square Park is finally coming along downtown (finally!), and I sort of had been hoping City Market might move there. Alas, it seems that is not to be. But I was still hoping cool things would start happening in the park, preferably cool things I could be part of. And then, eureka! I heard about Asheville Art in the Park. It's a fine art & craft show taking place at Pack Square Park the first three weekends in October - and we're going to be part of it! I'm excited to be joining so many talented artists for this show - go to the website, they have a great video of lots of the artists (not us, because alas I have no professional pictures of my stuff. In fact, I'm slightly intimidated, though very flattered, to be included with this crowd.) So I'll keep you updated on progress, and meantime mark your calendars! It'll be a great way to kick off the park.

Finally!

Finally, here's the post I started some time back - on August 25, to be exact. Because that was the first day of school, and here's a picture of what it looks like to head off to second grade:


I was a little concerned about the first day of school. Sam had the same teacher for kindergarten and first grade, and she was WONNNDERFUL, so I wasn't sure how the transition to a new teacher was going to go. But when he hopped off the bus he announced it was "the best first day of school ever!!!!" I love that kid and his enthusiasm. I'm looking to approach things that way myself. How was your swim today? "Best ever!!!!!"

Here's another thing that's been best ever lately. I've remembered that when I go to yoga, I'm bulletproof.


For the record, that is *Not* me doing downward facing dog. My version of that pose is way less long and lithe looking. I'm the person that the instructor watches for a little while and then says, you're a runner, right? Um, yes. Because I've done yoga off and on for years, and I kind of look like someone who has done some yoga - but then you see me actually doing it and the reality is that running and biking do not actually lead to the effortless flexibility exhibited by this woman. Fortunately I've never had a picture taken of me while doing yoga, and I was forced to resort to the internet for a stand-in. At any rate, even my tight, creaky bastardized version of yoga is enough to make everything stop hurting, and the plantar fasciitis is feeling better. Score!

I do have some actual farm/market related news, but that's going to have to wait until the next post. For some reason blogger was not my friend for a while, and then I got tired of fighting with it and pretended like it didn't exist. So now that we're back together it's going to take me a few posts to remember everything.

The Waterfall

After market on Saturday we jumped in White Lightening and headed to Mt. Pisgah. The plan was to camp Saturday night, and then go to the waterfall on Sunday. Turns out a whole lot of other people had the same plan - at least the first part of it. Because when we got to the campground all of the tent spots (about 70 of them) were full. But then the ranger said we could camp in an rv spot if we didn't mind putting the tent on the pavement. Hmmmm. Seemed a little sketchy, but we didn't have too many other options, so we said ok. And here's where my request (demand?) that I be comfortable while camping really paid off - we had air mattresses, so the pavement wasn't too big of a deal. Without the air mattresses, I'm thinking pavement is a deal killer. But it turned out the rv side was gold! Because everyone over there is old and quiet, unlike the tent side, where everyone is either under 10 or drunk. So now I'm scheming on how we can keep going to the rv side. It was peaceful and lovely and I had a few great conversations with some 80 year old Floridians. There were lots of 80 year old Floridians.

Sam taking it all in - and reveling in his contraband root beer.

The boys kicked back at camp.

Family self portrait.

Sunday morning we woke up and stumbled over to the Pisgah Inn to get breakfast. That's one of our favorite parts of the Mt. Pisgah campground - walking across the street to a real breakfast. It may be occurring to you that we aren't much for roughing it - to which I reply, yep. But the view from the Pisgah Inn dining room is pretty amazing. And they aren't cooking their eggs over an open flame - which highly increases the chance of them being edible.

So after breakfast we set off for the waterfall - which used to be a bit of a secret, but given the number of people wobbling down to it in their kitten heels yesterday, I'm thinking the secret it out.

Most people go to jump off a big rock into the upper pool, but we're saving that until Sam's older. Like, a lot older. Instead we go hang out down below.

The lower pool, where lots of splashing takes place.

The boys contemplating whether they'll really get in.

The official photographer, knowing there's no way in hell she's getting in.

A quick word about the water. It's cold. As in COLD. It honest to god feels like an ice bath. You know, a post-workout, I can't believe I'm sitting in ice water, ice bath. And if it feels like that in August, I'm guessing there's no time when it's even vaguely comfortable. And since I've had enough ice baths, it's a rare day for me to jump into one for recreational purposes. Yesterday was not that day.

But Sam thought it might the day for him to actually submerge for the first time. Usually he does a lot of wading and hemming and hawing before deciding he'll wait until the next time to actually swim.


But - here's the proof. They actually submerged. Mission accomplished.

Wreaths - Before and After

I'm supposed to be at the farm right now, cutting cockscomb and plumed celosia and hanging them to dry for wreaths. But it's raining - and when cutting flowers to dry it helps if when you start they actually are. . . dry. So no cutting this morning. Instead I'm procrastinating and reading blogs and playing on mapmyride and pretending like I'm about to make a pair of booties.

The type of booties I'm allegedly making this morning.
Except the ones I'm making are purple with lavender flowers.

If I *was* actually cutting flowers for wreaths, here's what I'd be looking at (because I love a good before and after):



The celosia in the field (with some cockscomb in the foreground). A lot of it was volunteer this year, so it's not exactly in neat rows - but there's a bunch of it.

The celosia after a few weeks of hanging to dry and some Martha Stewart action on my part. In fact, one of these wreaths is still hanging on my kitchen door from last year. Yes, that means I'm lazy about taking things down. But it also means they last a long time - bonus.

Cockscomb in the field. I love this stuff - it feels like velvet, and it pretty much looks exactly the same whether it's fresh or dried. People call it "brain flowers" because it really does kind of look like a brain. As far as I know.



And behold, after transmogrification into a wreath. You wouldn't believe how many people think I'm lying when I say this is really made of flowers. It does look (and feel) rather velvet-ish. I'm growing a lot more red cockscomb, so hopefully I'll actually have enough of these this year.

All this talk of wreaths probably makes it obvious that I'm about ready to transition from sweating my ass off in the field to a slightly more subdued season of making things. And along with that I've been looking into some good craft shows to add to our itinerary this fall - so if anyone has suggestions, by all means let me know.

Joining the Facebook

After much time on the interweb it seems like this Facebook thing is really here to stay. So I made a page for the farm, and if you wanted to find it and be a fan (really, is there anything less adult sounding than the FB "friend" and "fan" terminology?) I would welcome you with open arms. Or the farm would. Because according to FB we're totally separate. But come to think of it I'd welcome you with open arms too. You can find the farm if you search "Spotted Dog Farm - Asheville, NC". And once blogger starts being a little more cooperative (it's rather cranky today, eh?) I'm going to add a box on the side to find the FB page. Because I'm a social networking maniac.

And, to answer "why on earth would I join you on FB when I already read this blog?", it's because I actually post farm updates on FB - in a, shall we say, slightly more focused fashion than this blog, which seems to offer a lot of room for digression. So if you want to know what's going to be at market the next day, and whether the city has (once again) spontaneously decided we need to close early - FB is a good way to do it.

Saturday at the City Market

I walked around at The Asheville City Market on Saturday taking pictures of vendors other than me (for once). Here it is, a sampling of all the other cool stuff out there at the market: