Day at Las Golondrinas

Part of the family went to the harvest fair at Las Golondrinas, an historic reenactment ranch. It was such a wonderful day. Perfect weather, the kids were amenable until just before left, and my foot didn't become a problem until just before we left. They have an 1880s schoolhouse. Both kids immediately found a seat and began to work on their letters :)

Mom took a bunch of artsy outdoors picture ... I tried to get a few but I'm just not patient enough for framing. A few came out cute.




I don't know why I'm putting up a picture of the sheep. I liked the way they were lined up and I like sheep. There was a lot of spinning and weaving demonstrations going on. For period accuracy they were spinning the wool in the grease. Glad I don't have to. Much stickier but only a little smelly. Bruce got his hands covered in the raw lanolin.

They had a demonstration set up for the kids to stomp grapes for making wine. There was ladder to get up there so of course Bruce desperately wanted to do it. Wasn't too keen on the feel of the grapes on his bare feet though :) We did eventually get both feet in and then he immediately got out. Juniper enjoyed the experience considerably more :)





Yeahhhh ... another decent picture of the kids together.

Bruce really liked the miniature door through the gate. Stood there for quite awhile while we watched the little girls do traditional dancing on the stage.

Did try a little dancing with the kids. Watching them and the dressed up girls really made me miss dance. I'm thinking I could handle another class or maybe I could find a community center with a room and sponsor a mommy-child bellydance class a few times a month (be cheaper). Don't think flamenco is on my horizons though ... too much stomping. Maybe I can find my old gypsy skirt and make one for Juniper & teach her how to do the skirt twirling. She was trying to copy the girls on the stage so perhaps she's ready for more :)

Another activity was an apple cider press. Bruce was enamored. He just loves the machines. We spent so much time with the weaving loom, apple press, and water wheel/grist mill today. Anything mechanical. There were free samples of the cider and the nice lady handing them out actually filled our large water bottle with juice. Juniper sucked it down in a heart beat. I actually had to make her share (she cried) with her brother the last sip. She was going to drink it all!



For my dear friend SB ... some colchas embroidery panels. I'd read about the technique but not had much of a chance to study them. They were gorgeous. The animal and plant images were gorgeous of course but I was really struck by the beauty of the gentle changes in color of the background yarn (homespun creamy whites). The second panel was in the chapel. There were the expected santeros and paintings of the stations of the cross. Bruce studied them very closely and asked a lot of questions about Jesus' injuries and death. Still not sure how to deal with his interest and caution surrounding the topic of death ... it isn't quite like what you read about kids asking about death. I'll see how he deals with it over the next few days. I saw a billboard for a mummy exhibit and thought about taking him (creepy bioarchaeologist that I am) but I'm not sure if he's old enough for the concepts... But look at those colchas panels :)