demonstrating

This past Sunday was a big event at our local historic house/park, and we were asked to bring a few sheep. So early that morning we chose our victim—this year it was Jasmine, who had the unfortunate luck of being the first candidate caught—and carefully checked eartags to make sure that we had nabbed the correct lambs. Nothing worse than penning up a ewe with the wrong lamb, or even more awful, leaving the wrong lamb behind without a mother for the day. We did a nose-to-nose check before loading them to make doubly-sure we had the right ones. Secondo and my husband dropped them off before church.

After service, Secondo, Terzo and I headed down to the park. I had been asked to demonstrate spinning and Secondo volunteers for the park, so his usual station is by the sheep pen to answer any questions. Terzo was along for the ride, as the third one frequently is, because my husband was picking Primo up from his post-prom party weekend down the shore. (Don't ask. I don't want to think too deeply about it.)

Basically the only spinning I get done all year,

on someone else's wheel,

producing something I have no use for.

It is a beautiful spot, and it was a fairly nice day with the exception of a few sprinkles. I stationed the house's wheel near the sheep pen so I could keep an eye on the boys, and take over on the sheep questions once Secondo had to leave to study for his biology test.

Secondo on the other side of the sheep pen.

What I didn't anticipate was that Terzo would want to stay with me once Secondo left. He checked out the various displays and activities, talked to the cabinetmaker, kept me company between visitors, and listened as I chatted with people. On the way home he asked me, "So, who did you talk to who was interesting today?" He astutely picked up that sometimes the people who stopped to visit had more interesting tales than the ones I was telling over and over again.

The head ranger is a lovely woman who cooks a feast for the workers and volunteers on these event days. One of the reasons I think Terzo stayed was unlimited access to her home-baked cookies. He parked himself and his apple snack in my chair when I left for my lunch break.

Apparently what he had also been doing was listening to my spiel. I came back ten minutes later to find him holding forth to a crowd about the process of turning raw fleece into yarn.

He even demonstrated how to use a set of hand cards! All I need to do now is teach him how to spin, and I won't even have to go down. Or maybe I will sit in the house all day and eat the cookies.