Animal Life at Old Sturbridge Village

I had to go do some photography at the HSEAD Research Center at Old Sturbridge Village. When I make one of these trips I try to make a quick visit to the village, particularly when there is something going on. This was a "home school day" so there were more activities than usual on a weekday, including a demonstration of ox training. And I always enjoy seeing the sheep, including these two young ones.

Spring is here!

We thought it would never get here, and it's here with a vengeance. We seem to just be out of freezing weather, and have already been getting near 80!

Spring Cleanup

Now that spring has come full-force, it is time for the annual yard work marathon - cutting trees, new plantings, and replacing some of the overgrown/deer-bitten shrubs.

The hedge at one end of the patio has been on my kill list for several years, and now that deer ate one side of it, it had to finally go.

The Snow is Almost Gone

The longest, hardest winter in recent memory is finally at an end. but here it is April 9, and there is STILL a patch of snow in the driveway! And on a nice spring day with temps in the 50 degree range!

Gesso Day

When applying gesso, it takes a number of coats, and it is best to do them all on one day. If your day is thus occupied, best to have a number of projects going at the same time. In the good weather, I would have done all this outside (and used my air spray system). Instead, I contributed more to the clutter in the workshop, and listened to a lot of NPR.

Victorian Frame Restoration

I bought this frame a few years back. I never seemed to get it out of storage to work on it, and kept forgetting about it, then would occasionally use it to show as a bad example. By that I mean that it probably had losses to the top border ornamentation, and rather than fix, someone just scraped it off and painted the flat surface "gold". Amazingly, the rest of the frame (except for some easily repairable losses), was in wonderful original condition. Now that my latest order of composition ornament has arrived, I can put ornament back on this as was intended. I may then keep it ungilded for a while as a demonstration piece.

FWIW, what appears as lovely burnished gold in the wide band is actually silver-gilt.

Southern Maine in Early Spring

Just wanting to get away for the weekend, we spent a couple days in the Kennebunk area. Most seasonal businesses won't open until the April, so this is a quiet time there. We knew the weather would not be great (especially after the warm, sunny days earlier in the week), but weren't counting on snow Saturday morning. So we shot up to Portland, to visit the art museum (www.portlandmuseum.org), the when the snow stopped, poked around Kennebunkport.
Sunday morning was bright and clear, so we wandered around the coastal area, including Ogunquit and York. During the summer season, these are insanely crowded, so off-season is usually our only time to visit.

The rivers in New Englad are high right now, due to the snow melt and heavy rains, but Perkins Cove in Ogunquit was very quiet Sunday morning.