Tuesday 21 July 2009

Open Farm Sunday

Sunday 7th of June saw us heading up to Dovedale for Open Farm Sunday at The Peak District Farm Shop Grove Farm, Stanshope.

It was lovely weather - for ducks! And the thunder kept everyone awake too! The event attracted an amazing number of visitors though, who braved the bad weather to see the various demonstrations on offer. Phil's shearing demo went down well, as did an impromptu shearing lesson during the worst of the thunderstorm:


Nevertheless, we had a nice - if damp - day and had plenty of chance to talk (as always) Thanks to Nick, Helen, John, Janet and David for inviting us. We are keeping our fingers crossed for a dry day next year!

White Post Farm

Must keep up with this blogging thing, I'm letting myself fall behind. I was supposed to be blogging about our latest adventures a while ago but have been so busy I never got round to it.

My diary is usually full up for summer events well in advance but just occasionally I get a job come up at short notice. This was just what happened near the end of May. I knew that Phil was going to be shearing for White Post Farm at the end of the month, what I didn't expect was a phonecall from the Farm on the Wednesday, asking if we would all go and spin for them while the shearing was going on Saturday and Sunday! Never one to turn down a day out, I agreed and so we ended up going along and spinning for the weekend in the Silver Barn ( under a sign that said "Chickens" - don't know of that is relevant!)

We thought that as we were there for two days we would work on another big project and decided on a crocheted blanket. Philip had his orders to find us a good fleece, so he selected, and sheared a lovely soft, colourful Jacobs.

We were all pretty content as we were all doing what we do best, Philip shearing, and the rest of us spinning and having a good natter to the visitors, and the staff.

By the middle of the second day, we were a bit worried that it wouldn't get the blanket finished - maybe we spend too much time talking - but we did mange to get the finishing touches done in time, and here was the result:


We left it with the farm, not sure what they will be doing with it, perhaps they will have to use it to keep the sheep warm now that they have had their coats taken off!

So, for a short notice booking, we had a pretty good weekend, we were really impressed with how helpful and friendly the staff were and want to say a big thankyou to everyone, especially to Simon for inviting us and to Rebecca and Emily for looking after us so well.