Hancock Shaker Village, Part Deux

The weather has cooled significantly starting Sunday afternoon.  What was projected to be another hot, muggy day turned out to be cool enough to be enjoyable, and I attended a Tanglewood concert Sunday afternoon that wasn't stifling.  The concert was all-Strauss;  Richard in the first half, Don Quixote with Lynn Harrell playing cello; Johann II waltzes and polkas in the second half.  The BSO was very good, sounding like they should be in Vienna.

Kristen returned from Ithaca Sunday afternoon, and on Monday we had lunch at a restaurant in Lee and went to the Hancock Shaker Village.  She had not been there since a family trip in high school.  The people at the village were all different from when I went a week or so ago.  They are all volunteers, and work a day a week or so.  No blacksmith present this time, but there was a man making Shaker oval boxes, and lots of interesting exhibits.  The weather was terrific, a glorious New England summer day with moderate temperatures and a nice breeze.  As you might expect, I took some photos.

The "Brick Dwelling" (the Shakers had such a flair with names).  About a hundred people lived here, women on one side, men on the other.

Taken in the kitchen, in the basement of the building.  We're not sure what the paddle-like objects are.  The seem to have blades attached over the holes, so perhaps they were for slicing apples or some other foodstuff.

The rooms all had very tall chests of drawers, well over head height.  They must have used (what else?) Shaker step stools to see into the top drawers.

This room, for the "Senior Elder" as I recall, contained a classic Shaker candle stand.

Several of the wooden structures contain workshops; this one is the basketry shop.  What looks like a lamp with a wooden shade is a mold around which a basket is formed.

A cobbler's bench.  This is a truly specialized article of furniture.  I've seen one just like it in use at Old Sturbridge Village.

The weaving building had examples of yarn dyed with natural materials.  Madder root was used for the one in the foreground.

In the round barn we found this volunteer carrying a rooster around under her arm.  There's a set of pens with farm animals (calves, pigs, chickens), and something had set off a commotion among them.  She was calming the rooster down.

Here's the man who was making Shaker oval baskets.  He had cut a thin strip of wood for the sides of the box (or side singular, I suppose, since there's only once smooth piece and no corners), and had steamed the wood for about a half hour to make it flexible enough to bend.  Here's he wraps the strip of wood around a form, marks where the overlap is, and nails the strip together with copper tacks using a large steel rod as an anvil.  The top and bottom are cut to fit exactly, and are themselves nailed on with tiny brads, but that comes later.

The medicinal herb garden, with the Round Barn in the background.  The woman in the hat is a volunteer gardener who told us something about the garden.

This thistle plant was growing in the herb garden.  It's not used as a herb or as medicine -- it's a volunteer.  The staff rather likes it, though, so they kept it.

A nice visit, followed by a really nice dinner at Jonathan's Bistro in Lenox.  Kristen flies back to Austin on Tuesday.