Think Local
By Chris Hoffman
(Sherburne, NY – June 2013) The only way you’d know it was summer this year is by the fact that there is too much to do in any given weekend. The persistent rain and day-time temps in the 50s and 60s seems more like early October, not mid-June.
These past few weeks, I have been so busy, it feels as if I’ve run a marathon. Whoever coined the phrase “lazy days of summer” certainly didn’t live in CNY in the 21st Century!
First, there was the annual Pageant of Bands in Sherburne, now in its 64th year. When I first moved here, I always left town on the first Saturday in June. If I didn’t get out before 11 am, I basically became a prisoner until 4 pm, because my street is closed off to traffic. Since becoming involved with the Sherburne Inn restoration project, however, I’m now also knee-deep in Pageant activities.
This year we had a table on the lawn in front of the Inn where we sold coffee and donuts from Judy’s Diner in Sherburne, bottled water, popcorn, and t-shirts. Our efforts brought in over $1,700.
The following weekend was the Sherburne Library’s second annual Arts & Crafts Fair in Gaines Park. This art show was originally begun in 1949 by Mariea Brown, an accomplished local artist in her time. It ran until the early 90s when the organizers ran out of energy and volunteers.
Last year, the Sherburne Library Board decided to revive it, honoring Ms. Brown with a display of her prolific artwork donated by several residents who own some of her pieces.
This year’s honoree was Julian Button, a local Sherburne artist who works in several media, from photography to pen and ink drawings. George Deveny and the Blueprints, a local Mohawk Valley blues band, played all afternoon.
Artwork from Sherburne-Earlville school students was displayed under tents, and numerous local fine artists showed their work. Henry Drexler’s painting of a beautifully restored Sherburne Inn won Best in Show.
After working all day at the fair, I went home to shower and change clothes and head to the Earlville Opera House to work the show that night. Joe Louis Walker, who was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame on May 8 this year and has been nominated in an unprecedented 4 categories in The Blues Foundation’s 2013 Blues Music Awards, rocked the house until nearly 11 pm.
The next day I picked up a friend and headed up to Bouckville for the third annual CNY Fiber Festival, with 100 vendors offering natural fibers, yarn, roving, fiber arts supplies, books, and patterns, and all manner of handmade fiber products.
The festival included dozens of different fiber animals, from alpacas to sheep to goats and angora rabbits. There were demonstrations of spinning and both wet and dry felting, and all the artisans were incredibly generous in answering the dozens of questions we had. I saw for the first time silkworm cocoons, little white egg-shaped things that are cut open to reveal the (now dead) silkworm inside. The worm is removed and discarded, and the cocoon itself is then slowly unraveled, to reveal a strand of silk that is over a mile long.
We had a hands-on experience with a beautiful alpaca who had recently been sheered and an accompanying lecture on all of this animal’s oddities, from soft cloven hooves to white eyelashes nearly a half inch long over very large, deep brown eyes. I even got to hold an 8-week-old angora rabbit.
As if to confirm that summer has indeed arrived, yesterday I discovered two fledgling robins on the ground in front of my garage. Later in the day, I heard one of them peeping from inside a thick growth of plants, and decided to investigate. He was sitting inside an empty planter, about 10 inches deep. Wondering if he’d be able to get out, I chose to take him out. He immediately started screeching as soon as I touched him, which brought mama from wherever she had been observing my curiosity. She began to scream bloody murder as she repeatedly dive-bombed me. I put the baby on the ground and retreated to the safety of my kitchen. This morning, all is quiet, and I am resolved to simply let them be.
A look out the window this morning reveals another wet and rainy day, and it’s only 56 degrees. Is this year an aberration, or is this what summer will be from now on?
Chris Hoffman lives in the village of Sherburne in her 150+ year-old house where she caters to the demands of her four cats, attempts to grow heirloom tomatoes and herbs and reads voraciously. She passionately pursues various avenues with like-minded friends to preserve and protect a sustainable rural lifestyle for everyone in Central New York.