I can explain.

You will notice, of course, that this is NOT a photograph of the Shaker Museum or anything remotely Shaker-ish.  This, instead, is a pictorial description of how I felt, sitting in the Wash House at the Shaker Museum Mount Lebanon.  No matter how good my intention to arrive early and look around, I only managed to rush into the venue at the last second.  And we were sitting in a large wooden building with no open windows, sun pouring through those closed windows, working with wool and it was 88 degrees with 125% humidity.

Unbeknownst to me, there are multiple Shaker sites.  In my stubborn, itty-bitty, single-minded head, I ventured out on Saturday (with plenty of time, I thought) to the Hancock Shaker Village in MASSACHUSETTS.  Never mind that every reference to the event was for the Shaker Museum Mount Lebanon in NEW YORK.  When I arrived in MASSACHUSETTS, the one alert brain cell managed to struggle to the foreground and yell "Hey, you!  Where did it say Massachusetts on that invitation???"  I sat for a moment and then pulled out the GPS.  Son of a gun.  There was another Shaker site a mere 8 miles away - in New York.  By the time I actually got within range (many sharp right turns and poor signage), I followed a Prius out of desperation, thinking that the driver - a woman around my age - looked like she might be a knitter.  How is that for logic?  I was right, and we both followed more poor signage until we made it to the Wash House.

In spite of the sultry weather, it was a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours and I was disappointed when it was time to go.  I managed 3/4 of one square to everyone's two completed squares, but I have never been a fast knitter.  **This reminds me of a video clip I saw some years ago - there was a Europe's Fastest Knitter (don't quote me on the name) contest and a young Dutch woman had been training intensely for the event.  It had come down to this determined young woman and a grandmotherly contestant from the Shetland Islands.  It was interesting to watch them - the young woman working herself into a hot mess, while the SI knitter sat serenely, knitting needles a blur.  She won.  It's nice to know - when you reach a certain age - that experience counts for something.  Too bad it hasn't sharpened my sense of direction.

I got my first local apples of the season this weekend and whipped out a GF apple cake yesterday.  It was mighty tasty.  I had a friend over for dinner - she has devoted the past 30+ years to bringing an endangered breed of cow back from the brink of extinction, single-handedly - and is now struggling because it is expensive to feed them and, since she is still doing it alone, she cannot have a full-time job and raise cattle.  She is a year older than I and I really don't know how she does it.  Still working through my freezer (I wonder where I stashed my family of 8?), I made a beef stew in the slow cooker with Randall beef, sweet onions, organic local carrots, and local shiitake mushrooms, cooked in red wine with herbs.  This was served over garlic mashed potatoes with an awesome shredded carrot and orange salad.  Yummo!  I always make plenty so that I can send dinner guests home with leftovers.  Then the dogs and I crashed after washing up (they are so helpful...)

And now?  Back to the grind!