Sunday Stills - Cars

In the car.



On the way back from Rhinebeck and Nistock Farm.

For more Sunday (Stills) Driving...

Catsup Or Ketchup

Last week a group of us set up a Sheep to Shawl demonstration at the Living Arts and Science Center in Lexington.



Guess who played the part of the sheep.



Poor B. Willard and his crazy bewildered eyes.



We used some of Dianne's hand spun and hand dyed yarn for our "shawl". As I prepared to warp the my Baby Mac loom, I couldn't help but notice how closely the yarn resembled the flowers blooming outside the wool house. I especially love this rust color. We used it for the weft (side to side yarn).



The metal heddles all lined up like little soldiers. The warp (back to front strings) runs through the heddles and the frames that hold the heddles raise their threads (using your feet on the treadles/peddles on the floor) in the order you want so as to create a pattern.



We used four harnesses threaded 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4 and our weaver, Charlotte, raised harnesses 1 and 3 and 2 and 4 to create a plain weave pattern - over, under, over, under - like potholders you probably made in school.

I realized that the last four times I've warped one of my looms have been for demonstration purposes. I think it's about time I wove something for myself, eh? If I could just add a couple more hours to each day...

Woohoooo!!!!!

At the risk of making some of my Kentucky friends cry...



I'm not sure if I was more happy to get to meet Sunday Stills Ed and his delightful father yesterday or see the sky break open. As no one else I know got more than a few drops, I feel it's safe to say Ed was the catalyst and I'm taking reservations to rent him out ;-).

I love the colors (well, obviously green grass would have made me even happier) in this picture Ed took as I ran out to let the stupid sheep into the barn. The gate just to their right was open...but they couldn't find it. Mostly I'll defend their intelligence. Mostly. You will note Graham and Keebler are nowhere to be found in this "challenged" bunch.



That's because they were in the barn mugging Ed.

Thanks Diane for the cookies. They loved 'em!

They thought Ed was pretty great too ;-).

Fly The...Pink (?) Skies

I didn't hear any of these seven or eight planes cross over this morning. Other than noticing vapor trails, I am never consciously aware of these planes. The small local planes, yes, but not these big planes, high in the sky. Oddly though, during the days after 9-11, the lack of planes flying was astounding. To the point that I still think about it and how I "missed" something I didn't even know I was aware of.

That, folks, would be your random thought for the day ;-).

At least the picture is kinda' nice.

Sunday Stills - Billboards

You gotta look for 'em ;-).



I love the reflection of the horses and wish I'd thought to try to capture that.



Check out the groom/navigator hanging off the back. The person on the very back of the carriages moves from side to side to provide important ballast. Sometimes you'll see them hanging way off to one side on sharp turns, turns on hills, really fast turns...



A Canadian driver - for our friends to the north :-). Beautiful horses.



From the first shots, you might think it's all refreshing and water-ful around here. This is the reality. Kentucky Brown Grass. It doesn't happen often. Why oh why did it have to happen this year...



You were either driving through water...or dust.



And if you saw any grass, it had been irrigated. A small oasis in the middle of the desert.



The basic idea of driving the obstacle section of the marathon is to find the fastest way through each of the eight hazards. This one is Spook Hollow.

If you watched the video from last night (Head of the Lake), you saw the horses making turns back and forth, around and around. They were negotiating "gates" marked with red and white letters - A through F. Red on the right, white on the left and you have to go through them in the correct order, the correct direction.



Many of the gates offer big, sweeping options for turns. You are penalized for every second you spend though, so a tight turn like this one - if you can negotiate it - can save you precious time. Take a good look here. Measure how close this carriage is to the fence, the width of the gap in comparison to the horses. The FOUR horses. Galloping.



USA driver Tucker Johnson negotiating what, at first glance, looks to be a small hill in the middle of The Spring. Look again. Envision what it might feel like to be that high over the backs of your horses. At speed. With a "hard right" at the bottom.



The look on their faces says it all. Just the most fun.

The Spring was the last hazard on the course. We about killed ourselves running over there to catch the last of the US drivers. As Johnson blazed out of this hazard, he stopped at the top of the hill, turned around and saluted all the spectators. I had put my camera down to cheer and too late realized I'd missed a great shot. I didn't realize how great a shot I'd missed until later. He's retiring. That was his last hazard as an international driver.