Hudson Valley Hipster Watch #3: Admit it. You Want to Pat a Llama Too.

I admit I had my snark cannon loaded for camelid when I first got wind of the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival. (So to speak. Barns smell like barns regardless of whether they are inhabited by horses, cows, goats, or alpacas.) But then I gave ear to the insidious little voice in the back of my head that murmured, “Come on, you’ve got to admit it sounds like fun.”

And it was — even if I missed the Llama Leaping and Parade. There remained such spectacles as chopstick knitting, a spinning wheel competition, and the ever popular fleece to shawl race, where fiber artists tried to be the fastest to spin fleece into yarn and then knit it into a garment. Not to mention food trucks, souvenirs, and sheep shearing. And all the llamas, alpacas, goats and even sheep you could pat. I have chased sheep unsuccessfully across the fields in Aberystwyth, Dartmoor, and Rannoch Moor. Finally, redemption, courtesy of a tolerant Cotswald lamb!

I could only work my way up to one snark. I don’t care if they were made by Johnny Appleseed himself, would you wait on this line for hot cider and and a cider doughnut? You can buy them at at the grocery store, you know.

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