The Rickrack Rag

Older and deeper in… Well, it’s been quite a year. We are thankful that business has not been as bad as it could be. And that we are warm inside despite this morning’s dusting of snow, not hungry, and relatively healthy. We’ve made our donation to Feeding America, and we’ll make more, I think, because the need is so great.

I can’t believe this blog is now 1 1/2 years old. I had hoped that having a blog would make me more productive, more communicative, even more creative - and it does provide a certain amount of pressure to produce something (anything) meaningful, that someone besides us will actually care about. I’m not sure we’ve been very successful, and I know we’ve been at times neglectful, but the blog has not always been the first order of business. Perhaps the year to come will see us more loquacious, more inspired, even more profound!

The folks on the farm are hunkered down in the cold snowy weather: Our garden chicken,

And one of the fluffier neighbors.

Since we are inside and warm, we plan to stay that way, celebrating marking the passage into the new year curled up here at home, probably sound asleep at midnight. I know I’ll be crossing out dates for a while, as usual, but otherwise will neither curse nor welcome the passage.

And we’ll all be looking through the chilly mist that hangs in the air, hoping for that first glimpse of a spring thaw, ready to go round the seasons once again.

Happy 2010 to all our friends, readers and customers. We’re looking forward to getting to know you all better in the coming year!

A brief posting today, after a busy day at our fall show, with one more day to go. It would be a terrible show indeed if we didn’t find at least a few feedsacks, and we did find some. Probably came home with 2 dozen or so, here’s a sampling:

No doubt a few of these look familiar to you. Now to bed early, another early day tomorrow.

About this time last month I wrote about the problems with my trusty Canon A-80 digital camera. I can’t say enough about the great service from Canon - free return shipping, free repair, and back good as new in only 8 days! Or it seemed good as new, except a little less sensitive to light, and therefore with a slower shutter speed when the light isn’t bright enough. This can be a problem when you’re trying to take detailed shots indoors, with no tripod.

But I didn’t complain, after all it was turning out the usual great pictures again. For two whole weeks, two and a half, even. Then suddenly a series of pictures that came out totally overexposed and washed out. Ok, turn it off, change batteries, back on…. it’s working fine again. For three more days. And then, blackness. Darkness. Nothing.

Canon is again fixing it at their expense. How can I complain about a 5 or 6 year old camera that I’ve used for more than 26,000 photos? I mean, it has to die eventually, right?? So, everything considered, I am still very pleased with Canon, both for quality and service. And when my camera comes back again next week, I expect it will go on working for some time.

All that said, the A80 has always had limitations, most notably the fact that I have to get pretty far away from something to get it all in the picture. A large quilt, or tablecloth, won’t all fit unless I hold the camera waaaay up over my head. And it does tend to use up batteries fairly quickly, though a new set of rechargeable ones will usually go several hundred pictures per charge. Unless I leave the camera turned on after downloading pictures…. (a bad habit!)

SO, I bought a new Canon. This time it’s still a PowerShot but a step (or 2 or 3) up. And since technology has come a long way since the A80, lots of improvements. It’s an SX20, with a much wider angle for near shots, more manual adjustment capability, 12 megapixels vs. 4 in the A80, so lots more detail and definition is possible, and it zooms to 80x for telephoto shots. And a different sort of memory card, too. I have been accustomed to downloading after every 50 shots or so, since my memory card was then nearly full, and a larger one - back when I bought the A80 - was rather expensive.

This time, a 4 gigabyte card was $15 with the camera, and holds more than 900 shots at the highest resolution. A larger, brighter display makes outdoor use easier on a bright day, and I love the lcd that swivels to various positions - one thing the A80 had too, and I didn’t want to be without. Can you tell I’m enjoying my new toy?

My buddy Chiru here is helping me check it out:

A pretty steep learning curve, but the basics aren’t bad. And so far, even with all the zooming, the large display, electronic continuous focus and image stabilization, among other features, still on the first charge of the batteries.

I promise, I will still love the A80, and will probably take it with me more often to lots of places since it will now be the second camera. What a world of difference from my first Kodak digital. 1 whole megapixel, a battery hog, and all. I’m embarassed about many of my old pictures from that one, but I’ll be making up for it.

It seems that I may have prematurely announced the end of rose season. My all-time favorite pink rose has once again burst into profuse bloom. Here’s a picture I took on Monday.

You can see clearly from the many buds surrounding the flowers already open, that it would be a real show of pink bloom. And so it is. Today, there are 5 fully open roses on the plant, (2 are past their prime), and 7 partly opened buds. Absolutely glorious. I would love to show you a picture - but yesterday my trusty old Canon A80 digital camera started showing lines of interference or static across the display. And, much to my dismay, the lines also appear in the saved pictures themselves. So as much as I would love this photo, I won’t have it unless I quickly borrow or buy another camera.

I did find, though, when I Googled the problem, that Canon issued a service advisory about the problem - and if in fact the symptoms my camera displays are due to the condition they found, the repair, including shipping to the service facility, is free of charge. And the camera is long since out of warranty. So it’s already on its way back to Canon, and according to the Canon rep, and backed up by what I’ve read posted on the web, it should be back in just about a week.

So I’m happy that my favorite camera may not actually be terminal. A new camera, and the associated learning curve that becomes ever steeper as I age, is not exactly something I’ve been looking forward to. Then again, a wider-angle of view would be nice, so I don’t need to hold the camera too far away from the subject to get it all in the frame….so I’ve been looking around.

I probably won’t buy another camera before mine returns, but I might get another one anyway, even if the A80 recuperates fully. And based on how long I’ve had this one, how much I’ve used it, the ease of use and the useful features - not to mention my positive customer service experience - I’ll probably get another Canon. That should also help lessen the aforementioned learning curve, assuming that not too many features have changed in the last four or five years.

Still, I’d love to get a picture of those roses today…..

I generally avoid discussing political matters in this blog; though I have my opinions I feel they’re better expressed at another time and place.

What I do believe is that this country’s health care system does need changes. And I believe that most people in this country also feel that way. The difference is not in recognition of the problem, but in the wide diversity of opinion on the solution.

Lines have been drawn in the political sand, insurance company lobbies are pouring $1 million a day into the fight.

Whatever your feeling about our healthcare system, you deserve a chance to make your feelings known. So I decry what’s been happening at the town hall meetings held by various members of congress during their August recess. A mob, a bunch of thugs shouting down everyone else, including the congressional representative, all in the name of free speech.

If free speech is important to you, then it is also imperative that you respect that same right for other citizens. Everyone should be heard, not just those willing to shout loudest and longest.

This will be a work-filled week. The garden has begun to reward us for the little bit of attention we’ve given it:

The pinks and jonquils will help ease our mood as we prepare for the Kutztown extravaganza - where we set up Wednesday to sell Thursday through Saturday this week. It’s our most intensive period of work for the whole season, so yard work will not get done this week and the lawn will be seriously overgrown by next Sunday, considering that rain is predicted for the next 2-3 days.

Last night we had some of the first asparagus of the season from the field, and today we’re enjoying the last little bit of weekend sunshine as we sort, tag and price merchandise for the show. Come visit us, if you can, in booth 220 in the first pavilion!

The spring rains have finally arrived and it’s become my favorite time of year - green season. Between showers, when the sun comes out, everything takes on a green glow, brighter than at any other time. The aura of new life brings renewed hope and energy to the world, and of course reminds me of all the work I have to do to keep up. Soon the lawn, that was still brown a week ago, will need mowing - and I’m still not done raking all the leaves from last fall!

Meanwhile I’m also readying the garden for this season’s planting, as the daffodils begin to open, the blades of iris rise, and the other perennials revive. This weekend we’ll be setting up at the market in Adamstown for the first time this year; it’s the week of the Lancaster quilt show, and we’ll be taking along plenty of fabrics, quilt tops, quilts and more. I guess it’s time to stop blogging and get busy!

Spring is finally here. It’s chilly today, with snow flurries early this morning, not atypical of the first day of spring, but we’re seeing more hours of daylight, and the temperatures in general are rising.

Though spring is our most eagerly awaited and anticipated season, it’s also the one that brings the most responsibility. It’s time to ready the garden for planting and clean up winter debris, and also time to prepare for our spring season of outdoor antique sales as the weekends warm. And it’s a time for beginning new projects, as if we didn’t already have plenty on our plates. Luckily the season brings with it a burst of energy; hopefully the energy lasts long enough to accomplish a reasonable number of the tasks.

Between chilly gusts of wind today I managed to photograph a quilt that I thought was appropriate to early spring both in color and theme. I don’t know if the pattern has a name, or whether it’s supposed to represent anything in particular, but the idea of flowers along with the preponderance of green along with a little Easter purple seemed to me just the thing for today.

With all this greenery, the real flowers won’t be far behind - our snowdrops are blooming throughout the woods, the daffodils are 4 inches out of the ground, and Tim’s already planted carrots and peas in the field.

We’ve been living in the past for so long, little changes seem to take on huge significance in our lives. For years we didn’t watch television at all, then for 4 years or so we watched only a 15 inch black and white. Now that we’ve been using a 17 inch Sony color set for the last 5 years or so, I’m afraid we’ve passed the point of no return.

Living, as we do, pretty far out in the country, and using only the rabbit ears antenna attached to the set, we’ve had to settle for a total of four broadcast channels to get our television fix. With the coming of all-digital TV later this year, and the impossibility of rabbit ears pulling in any channel at all out here in the sticks, we’ve finally entered the 20th century (I know the calendar says we’re in the 21st, but give us time.) and gotten a satellite receiver.

This may explain why we’ve posted fewer blog entries lately, as we play with the myriad choices never before available. After years of running our website with only a dial-up connection, and last year’s switch (finally) to DSL, now this satellite thingy, soon our Luddite friends won’t know us at all. And who knows what will become of us if this awful progress should continue?

Here it is the second of February - winter’s almost over! I wish! Unfortunately, when the groundhog made his appearance in Punxsutawney this morning, he was frightened by his shadow, thereby decreeing that we’ll suffer this season for another six weeks.

Note that the fellow in the picture is looking askance down to his left at the darkened area on the snow where his corpulent form has blocked the sunlight. Living here in Pennsylvania, we have come to accept the ubiquitous grondhog as a part of life; scarcely a summer’s day goes by that we don’t see one along the roadside, or skittering off under the bushes as we approach the garden. The picture above, therefore, is also something of a favorite.

For a number of years I’ve accumulated/collected books illustrated by Charles Livingston Bull. His subject was nature, and he illlustrated more than 135 books from the turn of the century until his death in 1932. I especially like the simplicity of his style, influenced by the Japanese print. At the same time his representations of animals are lifelike and capture moments of motion that typify the actions of those animals. Among the most famous of the books he illustrated were Jack London’s Call of the Wild and White Fang. His leaping tigers poster was one of the most famous used by the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey circus.

In addition, Bull illustrated magazine stories, articles and covers, far too many to count. About 1980 there was a small traveling exhibit of his works that I attended when it was at the Brandywine River Museum in Chadd’s Ford, PA - home of the late Andrew Wyeth. The Brandywine has a penchant for the art of illustrators, since it’s the home of a considerable amount of Wyeth art, and Andrew’s father N.C. Wyeth was famous for his illustrations of many an adventurous tale. The exhibit was sponsored by a museum in Alberta, the Glenbow Museum, which itself has a considerable holding of the paintings and drawings of illustrators.

Back to the picture above - it’s an original mixed media on illustration board which I bought at a local auction years ago. It was published as the cover of Country Gentleman Magazine, January 29, 1916, just a couple of days before Groundhog Day - which has been celebrated in PA since at least 1887. Today, posters of this Country Gentleman cover are available online, given the title “Beaver in Winter”!! Though I suppose he could be construed as a beaver, I doubt that his appearance would have been so close to Groundhog day - and since Bull lived nearby in New Jersey, it is hard to imagine that he was unaware of the custom. Additionally, Bull was a stickler for accuracy, and the erect posture is characteristic of the groundhog, while a standing beaver would usually be more forward-leaning. Compare to this picture of a groundhog from Wikipedia:

Little doubt in my mind, even down to the coloration, Bull has drawn a groundhog here. Too bad he drew a shadow, too! Aren’t you tired of winter?