A quiet day…

Well, I did go to Donald’s yesterday, arriving by 9 a.m. when he was considering what to do with a weak lamb.  My being there made it a bit easier, for it is hard to hold a ewe who doesn’t wish to be held, and graft a lamb onto her teat, when the lamb is weak, hasn’t got a strong sucking instinct and also doesn’t want to be held.  So, I held the mama, and Donald grafted her on, or tried to.  That didn’t work very well, so he milked out mama and then fed baby.  Later, he went to the grain store, bought some pritchard teats, excellent nipples for small lambs, and fed her a couple other times. By this morning she was nursing on her own. Victory!  I forgot my camera.  Not very clever, I know, but I had my spinning wheel, a change of clothes, purse, and a bag of fiber, plus some skeined up yarn and plastic bags to contain skeined up yarn to remember aside from the camera, and the camera just didn’t get remembered.  When I left Donald’s, I went on to Sue’s store, Hodge Podge, in Newport, and sat there visiting and spinning til about 1 p.m., then came home.  I did some baking, made a simple dinner, and then we watched two episodes of Downton Abbey, which we are thoroughly enjoying.

Today, I baked another cake, read some in the Sparrowhawk, Volume II, which I started earlier in the week, and took a nap, an easy day.  Nine eggs today so far!  They are starting to lay again with gusto.  Another sign of spring.  Donald’s lambs were very cute, all four that had been born so far, and it was good to see them.  It was a reminder that I need to give CDT boosters to my ewes sometime very soon.

And next weekend is SPA in Freeport, Maine.  I have some fiber put aside to bring.  I will spend the most of three days spinning and knitting and relaxing with 800 other women who converge on the town, filling all the inns and hotels and motels and b and b’s.  I will not do much shopping.  I’m not a recreational shopper.  Some women go out twice a day and return with bags and bags of “bargains” from LL Bean and other outlet stores.  I really seldom found anything in outlet stores that I’d want.  I’m content to sit and spin or knit.

I’ve finished the body of the Einstein jacket and will start on the sleeves tonight while we watch yet two more episodes of Downton Abbey.  I have a cake to frost, but first need to run around the corner to the Downers’ Corner (not to be confused with Downton!) Store, to get some cream cheese with which to make the frosting.  Or maybe I’ll just use butter and forget the cream cheese!

All in all, it’s been a lazy and restful day.