Spring has finally sprung!

Today is beautiful! Yesterday was beautiful! Not quite in the 70s yet, but the high 60s. Sunny and warm. True, we still have residual snow piles up by our house. They might still be there by May 1st. But maybe not.

Yesterday, we took a walk. I hadn't taken a long walk for some time. It was nice! Earlier, we ate lunch on the deck - first time this year! And before that, we went to Osher to hear Amir Latif talk about Rumi and the interpretation of Adam and Eve in the Quran. Really fascinating! Very interesting differences between their portrayal in the Quran and the book of Genesis. 

           Amir Latif lecturing on Adam & Eve

                         Lunch on the deck !

                The West River - part of our walk

Stained!

Yesterday, we had church in the morning and I led the choir in an Earth Day anthem. Ellen went immediately after the anthem to meet Wallace for lunch and Calvin took me home. I didn't have a chance to get the Sunday NY Times, for the Spelling Bee puzzle, so I decided to make one up for Ellen. I think it's a really good one - it's hard but interesting. But there was an unfortunate side effect. I was using a red magic marker and I dozed off. The felt tip of the pen rested for a while on my trousers - my favorite Sunday best! - and left a large red stain. Permanent ink! I doubt that dry cleaning will be able to remove it. Which is sad because I love these pants. I got them at the church's "Caring and Sharing" event for free, which is very rare - there's hardly ever something my size there. They are very nice, lined, wool slacks; probably were very expensive new.

                                             The stain ! 

Tamar's tallit

We had Tamar for an overnight Friday, mainly so that she and Ellen could go shopping on Saturday for material for her tallit that will be used in her upcoming bat mitzvah (a tallit that Ellen will of course make, as she did for Ben and Miriam).

We met her in Greenfield late Friday afternoon, where her mom brought her; then we went to the Brattleboro Coop, where we had a light supper, and then they took me to the BMC, where there was a concert (by a fantastic wind quintet), which was honoring former trustees (which I am). The concert was great and it was followed by a reception. Calvin brought me home. 

Saturday morning we had pancakes for breakfast, and then while Ellen and Tamar shopped, I went to Staples to do some printing (my home printer is on the fritz). I met them there - they had spent quite a bit of time looking for fabric. 

 

                Tamar and Ellen, at Delectable Mountain, the local fabric store 

Then Saturday afternoon, we all three headed down to Northhampton to the Feinlands for a belated birthday dinner for me -  another one ! - since they were unable to come to earlier ones. Ben prepared a great meal, and Max made a delicious carrot cake. Yes, Max. Not Max Baker. Max Feinland. That's right. Miriam has transitioned to Max. He wants to be regarded now as of male gender! He seems the same to us, but we are all respecting his wishes. 

Today, it was Earth Day at church, I led the choir in an earth day anthem; the lovely tune, BEACH SPRING (check it out on YouTube!), was introduced by Ellen on an alto recorder. After church, Ellen met Wallace for lunch (Wallace is visiting her son, Jim, in the area), and again, Calvin brought me home. Calvin is my Uber!

North Hartland

Today, Ellen and I drive about an hour to North Hartland, VT to the home of Cynthia's cousin, Rob, who does auto-body work. We need a new front bumper and a new passenger door. He's going to get parts, some new, some used. We 'll go back later to have the work done. While we were there we "explored" N. Hartland. There used to be a general store next to the P. O., but now it is a pottery studio and store outlet for a collaborative of potters. We met the woman who oversees the operation, and one of the potters, who was working on some bowls. We were told that most of the artists there do hand formation, not work thrown on a wheel. There was some very nice work on display and it was varied in style.

              The display area

             A vase on display

        Unusual and creative work

Concert choir

We are coming down the home stretch toward two concerts - a River Singers concert on May 6th, and a Concert Choir one two weekends after that. The latter features the Poulenc Gloria and the Mozart Vespers. Yesterday, Ellen and I spent quite a bit of time at home singing along with recordings of both those pieces, and we both felt pretty confidant at the rehearsal last evening. In both groups we now need to work on memorization. That does not come as easily, at least not for this old codger !

Our director, Susan Dedell, at last night's Concert Choir rehearsal (plus a few bass bald spots!).

Post-storm

We got a heavy dose of freezing rain, sleet and snow Sunday night and Monday morning. We checked our emails Monday morning and did not see any cancellation notices so we went to our Monday morning  Osher lecture, navigating down our very icy, slushy driveway. Got there - lecture cancelled due to weather. You had to go to the Osher website to find that out, which we had not done. When we came home, the going up the driveway was really tough, and we stalled near the top, blocking the driveway. Some shoveling and application of ashes made it possible to get the car into a parking area and there it sat until today. We spent the rest of what ended up being a really lovely day sitting by the fire and listening to recordings of Chorale concerts from the 1980s and 90s. Really beautiful.

Today, I went out and did more shoveling and ashes (we have lots of ashes), and got the car up to the house and then went to do errands. Got back up ok coming back - but it was not easy. We went out to River Singers this evening and got back up ok - the ruts in the slush made by the tires are gradually melting. But the driveway is still quite a mess - the worst this year. On April 16th! It's impossible to plow because the ground is so soft, the plow just digs in. Oh well, it will melt eventually. It should be fine by July 4th! (Ha, ha!). 

               River Singers rehearsal. 

  Our snowy world, evening of April 16!

A full weekend

I guess you could call this past weekend "full." Friday evening we went to Twelfth Night, Saturday we had a day-long Hallowell retreat at Hallelujah Farm, Saturday evening we watched The Shape of Water, at home, Sunday morning was church at Guilford (there was some early morning sleet, but not too bad), and in the afternoon we did the Spelling Bee puzzle and then went to a Blanche Moyse Chorale concert at Centre Church. That's full enough! The highlight was the Hallowell retreat and a very special part of that was that John and Cynthia came and played for the group during a quiet time after lunch. Tonight we've been listening to music and reading the Sunday Times.  Time for  bed!

Theater Adventure

Last evening we went to a production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in the "Theater Adventure" program of the New England Youth Theater. This is a very unique program which has the philosophy that literally no disability should prevent you from participating in theater. A remarkable panoply of very creative forms of support are used to implement this philosophy. One of them used last night was to have two actors playing the same role on stage at the same time. Thus, for example, there were  two "Duke Orsino"s, two "Cesario"s, two "Sir Tony Belch's, etc. In a play in which identity confusion is at the heart of the plot (and the comedy), this just added to the fun. Four young people from our church (Katherine, Josh, Nathan and Evan), which is very "disability-friendly," were in the production. I think they had a great time. We certainly did. We live in a very special community!

     Two Sebastian's and two Cesario's

           Two Orsino's  (in center)

Here is an NEYT photo of the entire cast:

 

Jesus Christ, Superstar

Last night's performence of JCS by a local community arts organization called Main Street Arts was beyond outstanding. It was especially stunning visually (sorry, no photos). But it was strong in every way. Herod was played by a high school junior and his rendition exceeded that of Alice Cooper's last weekend on TV ! We all enjoyed it a lot. Before the show we had dinner together (with John and Cynthia) at the Joy Wah - that was good too. When we came out it was snowing huge clumps of snow. Beautiful, but a little slick!

We got our power back today. Yay! This afternoon we had a 3-hour concert choir rehearsal. So tonight we are putting things back to normal at the house. No more cooking on the woodstove. Ellen said it was sort of fun! Like camping inside . 

          The program from last night

It's snowing again!

We've had our weather lately!  Wednesday evening, about 9;00p.m., a strong wind came in. We were coming out of concert choir rehearsal and the wind almost literally blew us off our feet. It was almost impossible to walk into it and make any headway! After we got home, at about 10:30p.m., the lights went out - we lost our power. They are still out, about 40 hours later, and Green Mountain Power Co. says that we are unlikely to have it restored before tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon at the earliest. We know what the problem is - two huge pine trees came down just beyond our driveway and took out the power line completely. But we are not alone.There are trees down all over town, roads are closed and lots of people are without power.

Tomorrow will be too late for Ellen to do all the cooking she was planning to do for my 85th birthday party on Sunday! So after a good talk this morning, we decided to cancel the party. I am ok with that. All the alternatives -  like moving everything to someone else's kitchen - just felt too complicated. Why create stress to have a party? So we will have a relaxed weekend. But on top of everything else, now it is snowing! We have about an inch so far. What happened to Spring?

    Snowy view out the church window

We are fine at home, by the way. We are warm, we have both the woodstove and a propane stove in the fireplace that requires no electricity. We have found that the woodstove works fine as a cookstove. We have brought in water. We are reading by candlelight after the sun goes down. It's cozy!

We are meeting John & Cynthia for dinner at the Joy Wah Restaurant in Bellows Falls and then going with them to a production of Jesus Christ, Superstar in Bellows Falls. That will be interesting, I'm sure.

50 years ago

Today is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN. At that time, April, 1968, I was on the faculty of Keuka College in Keuka Park, NY. Earlier, I had been involved in the Selma-Montgomery March and had met Dr. King when he came to Brown University to give atalk, so I was affected deeply by his death. Keuka College was located in Yates County in upstate New York, a very conservative part of the state. Later in 1968, in the presidential primary election, the top vote-getter in Yates County was George Wallace, the governor of Alabama and a notorious white supremacist. Nevertheless, there were a few faculty and more students at Keuka who cared about Dr. King. So we organized a march - more of a "walk" actually - from the campus to the Yates County Courthouse in Penn Yan, a distance of about 3 miles. We held a vigil at the Courthouse. As I recall, there were some hecklers, but for the most part, it was a fairly quiet affair. It was all we could think to do to honor him. It wasn't a lot, but it was something worth doing.

March for Martin Luther King, Jr., at Keuka College, April 4, 1968. The President, G. Wayne Glick, is leading. I am the tall guy a few places back.

Vigil at the Yates County Court House

Here is a link to some powerful words by Cornel West on King's true legacy:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/04/martin-luther-king-cornel-west-legacy

High Holy Days

These past four days have been intensely  religious. It began on Thursday with a Passover Seder meal at the Guilford Church, followed by the traditional Maundy Thursday "Office of Tenebrae," in which a series of readers narrates Jesus's last day, with a gradual extinguishing of light. Friday was the ecumenical 3-hour Good Friday service with the "Seven Last Words." We heard seven powerful "sermons," and sang eight anthems. Saturday we drove to Stamford, CT for the Feinland family Seder at the Water's Edge Restaurant  followed by a dessert at Doris and Ray's apt. Then today was a glorious Easter celebration at Guilford - great music!   - and dinner at Katie and Savanna's.

   Setting up for the Seder at Guilford

      Office of Tenebrae setting

           Matzah ball soup 

     Ellen with Doris and Ray

  Easter Sunday

         After dinner