I live an hour away from Rhinebeck, home of the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival, but for five years I’ve managed to stay away. Until this year.

I was afraid that what happened would happen. And it happened. I bought yarn. Mucho yarn.

Somehow in these pictures it manages to look like not too much yarn, and I am grateful to my camera for that, but it’s enough to knit a sweater, a cowl, a pair of socks and some sort of lacey shawley something. (I swear, if you’d touched that lace weight angora/silk mix it would be at your house right now, and you probably aren’t even a knitter.)

So let’s ignore the fact that I already had plenty of yarn, and instead focus on the pretty, pretty colors…

After a string of beautiful dry days, today was gray and drizzly. I spent yesterday pulling dead tomato plants and stacking half of the great pile of firewood so it was a relief to have a quiet day inside, and let my arms recover. But the bees didn’t seem to be put off by the rain.

They love the borage.