How many Days til When?

With fall officially here, leaves beginning to turn and the outdoor festivals quickly coming to the seasons end, clothing and minds begin to focus on winters arrival, and the Christmas countdown begins. Of course, for some, it began in ernest the day after Christmas past, but for most it will come with the force-feeding of the retail merchants who begin banging the seasons and holidays into our faces a good three months before the impending date. Hence we have come to expect school clothing trends to be shown in June, Halloween in August and Christmas in September. Maybe I exaggerate a tad, but not much I am sure you will agree.

At any rate, in keeping with this "early" trend, I generally have the majority of my Christmas decorations made by now. In fact, in just a few weeks I will have to have boxes made, tagged and packed for delivery to Christmas at the Cabin, which will open for the season for the season during the Fall Festival of the Leaves in Bainbridege, Ohio. This small town lies between Chillicothe, Ohio and Hillsboro, Ohio on route 50, smack dab in the middle of not much, lol. It never ceases to amaze me each year the number of people that actually find this town and its two stop lights to celebrate fall and funnel cakes! But I digress. As the festival start date looms, I am left with the realization that I am further behind than I have ever been. Where did the summer go? It certainly wasn't full of beach days, sun and fun. In fact, I don't think it was warm enough to swim more than a day or two. Such weird weather this year, which could lead to many jumping off conversations, but I'll just ask, if summer wasn't really summer like, what will winter be like? No matter what it's like, I am sure that Christmas will still come on the 25 th of December and that I am behind in my decoration/ornament crafting. Sooooooooo that is what I will be doing for the next few weeks! Wreaths, ornaments, scrapbook pages, sleighs, cross-stitches, look out, here I come!

Kirkwood Winery Grape Festival

Sorry it has been a while since I posted something, but I have been busily preparing for Christmas, yes I know it's early but I have to have my items for Christmas at the Cabin ready by Oct. 15! And, I was also making items for the Grape Festival at Kirkwood winery in Summersville, WV.

The Grape Festival was this past weekend, and it was quite interesting! I only do a few shows a year, and have not done an outdoor festival in eleven years, so it was quite an experience for me!

It was a two day event, the first being sunny, hot, and quite busy. The second day was overcast, and cloudy, gusting wind at times, and an occasional spit and sputter of rain right up until a half hour before closing, when it became sunny and hot without a breeze to be felt! It is always lovely to pack up while sweating, lol! The weather however didn't derail the fun. There were bands playing, cloggers clogging, square dancers square dancing, guests stomping grapes, kids playing on a giant inflated slide, shoppers shopping and of course a LOT of wine tasting going on!!

This truly was a fun event and different from anything that I have ever attended. To get to winery you have to drive back a windey, country road. The kind that has to be two lanes when another car is coming, but really is only big enough for one car. The West Virginia mountains rising all around you, the drive alone was worth the trip. Then you get to this small clearing and find the winery in the field. There is an empty house in front, then a drive that leads to the office and the retail store (with the owners in residence above the store). A large wrap around porch leads you to a path that goes to the distillery that is on the premises. They offered tours, but unfortunately I wasn't able to leave my space long enough to see it.

This is an annual event, and people came from all over to attend. You certainly could tell that it wasn't their first time to plan such an event. They had a stage set up opposite the store for the bands, and the dancers all performed on the pavement in between the store and the stage. They also had a wine tasting station by the store, where visitors gathered all day long trying every wine that the Kirkwood winery produces. When visitors entered the festival they received a wine glass (the entry fee was $6.00) and a wrist band that entitled them to free wine tasting all day long. My unofficial poll showed a tie between peach and blueberry wine being the female crowd favorite and ramp being the male favorite. I personally thought the Currant, the Blueberry, the Niagara and the Merlot were all tops!!!

To see more pictures from the show, visit my flickr account http://flickr.com/uniquegarden later on tonight and click on the collection link for the Kirkwood Grape Festival.

I had a great time and truly appreciated being invited to attend. If you ever visit West Virginia you should try to include the Kirkwood Winery in your plans! They offer tours all the time, just give them a call, but for a great time you should plan to attend next years festival!