Day: April 25, 2017

It’s important for the shearer to know that the wool is going to be spun into yarn. He or she shears them differently, they are trimmed in neater rows and the artist or spinner collects them into large plastic bags, each one with the sheep’s name on it. When it goes to the mill – it usually takes six months to come back – the wool and roving is all clearly marked according to the sheep that produced it.

Maria moves from sheep to sheep scooping up the clean wool, discarding the rest.. Here, she works with Tom on Pumpkin.

Our shearer, Jim McRae came to shear our sheep this afternoon with his partner Tom, before he came we gathered the sheep in the Pole Barn, and they gathered around their protector, Maria.  I call them the Class of 2017. Unlike me, she does not harass them with dogs all day, and they are always eager to see her.

They are not so eager to see Jim McRae, a legendary shearer from Vermont. I wanted to post a before photo, as I usually do. We collect the wool and bringing to a mill in Vermont, where they spin it and clean it into yarn and roving. The wool this year is spectacular, our softest and most beautiful yet, we both agreed. It’s also the first time we have shorn the Romneys with their coat fully grown, and we see now why the Romneys are so esteemed by spinners and weaver.

Maria and I love every single thing about shearing. Gathering the sheep, keeping them cornered and calm with Red, gathering up the wool, skirting the wool, taking it to the mill, going to get it. Beautiful rhythms of our lives.

Jim even let me try a portrait of  him on my new Petzval lens. When Jim isn’t shearing, he’s training border collies to herd sheep and repairing old film camera. He’s a loving man and a happy man and an inspiration to anyone who seeks a meaningful life.

It was a lovely Spring day yesterday, and on the Mansion porch Brother Pete, Alice and Madeline were taking in the sun, rocking back and forth and talking. Red came up and sat in the middle and joined in the gathering for awhile, it was a peaceful and calming scene, we will visit the porch through the Spring and the Summer.

Wednesday is the Mansion Art Show, there are about 50 entries. Maria, Scott Carrino and I will be the judges. There will be three grand winners, each will get  free lunch at the Round House Cafe, and a dozen or so semi-finalists, they will get books, puzzles, buttons and ribbons.

The show will be held in the Great Room at 6 p.m., there are some remarkable entries, thanks to the wonderful art supplies so many of you sent to the residents. They will be drawing and painting for a long time, and a half dozen or so new artists have emerged from the show. Thanks so much.

If you wish to write the residents, you can do so c/o The Mansion, 11 S. Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

Two years ago, Maria and I were walking on a country road near us, and there was a barren “posted” sign, the poster warning hunters not to trespass had long disintegrated.  It was autumn, and the world was turning brown.

On an impulse, Maria, ever the artist, returned with a green marker to fill in some vegetation as the leaves turned brown in November and the flowers faded.

We lost track of the sign, and I think somebody pasted a “no trespass” sign over it, we assumed it had fallen down. The other day, walking up the road, I saw that this old wooden sign had been turned over, either by a person or the wind. I turned it back over, and was very happy to see that there was Maria’s lost art, just as creative and inventive as when she first painted it on.

There is something touching about this parable, about the gifts of an artist, about how small things can be beautiful, and about how art transforms and lives. I think the role of the artist is to keep hope alive. That’s what this art does on this country road.

Flo terrorizes Fate at every turn – much like the sheep – but she and Red are old pros and great buddies. They often hang out together on the porch when the sun is out.

I had a grinding kind of morning, computer troubles and back on the phone with Apple, we replaced my operating system with a new one, it appeared there was a software problem of some kind.

It took several hours, but I think it’s working fine now. I don’t react well when my computer is out of whack, so much of my life is tied up in it. Good to be back. More later.