random thoughts – Day 2,077 (Sunday) – country road shopping

The chilly weather left a skim coat of ice on the bodies of water passed en route to dance this morning. The reflections on the surrounding water were interesting, but it was another case of narrow and winding country roads with no safe place to pull over for photos.

Troupe dance day involved using our newly acquired red veils and red hip scarves. They are so new, we laid eyes on them for the first time today. You may wonder why we are buying new troupe costume parts mere weeks before a show in the middle of the year’s extra expensive holiday season. I wonder the same thing. It looks like I bought myself a red hip scarf and veil this year for Christmas. It is not what I had in mind, but that is how the cookie crumbles sometimes.

After dance, it was an afternoon out with Mom. Snow began spitting before we headed out, but it was nothing that lasted. We visited four more local shops that are on The Country Roads Tour. Today it was Smith’s Country Cheese (Winchendon), Soulful Body & Mind Apothecary (Baldwinville), The Kitchen Garden (Templeton) and Country Bumpkin’ Antiques (Templeton).

Chicken wire and beads.

I love the cheese shop and it was my favorite stop until we visited the apothecary where I bought a sun catcher made from an embroidery hoop, chicken wire, and beads. I had seen something similar online a couple years ago and thought I wanted to make one.  I have a ton of beads (probably not much of an exaggeration) and a dozen embroidery hoops bought at thrift shops over the years, but the absence of chicken wire in the craft supply arsenal was the roadblock. Now I don’t have to worry about it. 

We tried to visit a shop with reclaimed furniture and home décor, but when Waze said we had arrived, there was nothing resembling a shop in sight and I turned into a daycare center parking lot to try and figure it out. I backtracked down the same road with no luck and decided to head home. On the way back from the shop we couldn’t find there was a sign for an orchard on the tour, but I didn’t see it time to make the turn. I was kind of done with shopping by then and kept the car moving in the homeward direction.