RE: “Stretching to adapt in trying times” [Town & Village, Feb. 27]:
I spent a weekend at the smithy with Adam Howard before Christmas 2012, learning some new skills. My wife and I stayed at the Grafton Inn. We even attended the tree lighting ceremony at the invitation of some friendly locals we met over a beer. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay.
Adam is a talented blacksmith, a gifted teacher, and a dryly funny man. He worked his butt off in freezing conditions and, while I was there, was fabricating a handrail for the church, among other things. After that, he was helping out at the inn.
The blacksmith shop was as I imagined it must have been in the 1800s: cold, a bit on the dark side, but alive with the wood fire for heat and the coal fire in the forge.