Northern Roots

Saturday we went to the northern roots music festival in Brattleboro - a celebration of traditional music, especially with an Irish, Scottish influence. There were fiddlers, flutists, guitarists, singers, even a pipes player. The pipes player made his own instrument. One of the singers was our friend Robin Davis.

 

                      Robin Davis, Amanda Witman and Mia Bertelli

 

                        Dan Restivo on flute and Becky Tracy, fiddle

                                       Intermission

Eric McDonald and Will Woodson

Finale

Ellen had gone to Northern Roots all day, to workshops and a pub sing. I stayed home to keep an eye on the work Zac was doing outside while I started a major project - cleaning, weeding out stuff and re-organizing "downstairs," i. e., my study, what we call the workroom, the laundry area, the downstairs bathroom and the "sauna" which is a walk-in closet off the bathroom that was originally built to be a sauna, and is insulated and wired for a sauna heater, but was never finished off and completed as such. There is a lot of "stuff" crammed in there at present. There are two other closets downstairs. Both very full. It's all coming out, a lot of it is going to be disposed of. That will not get done till we get back from Boulder in March, but that's my plan. On Saturday I cleaned the north wall of my study -  which is mostly window, and started taking books off of shelves to sort into "keep" and "get rid off," and clean the shelves. Everything was covered with accumulated soot from the wood stove. It's a big job. I also cleared out the workroom floor so now you can actually walk into it! Yay! 

Sunday we drove over to Owl's Head, Maine, to visit Jim and Mary, in their new home, stopping at Bob's Clam Hut and When Pigs Fly Bakery as usual. Both were as crowded with tourists as we've ever seen them, even in summer! 

This Monday morning is sunny and mild. Today is Iowa Caucuses day! Go Bernie! And tonight the NC Tarheels play Louisville on the road. Louisville will be out for revenge for previous losses on their home court, and they are a very talented team. But UNC is #1 or #2 nationally (depending on what poll you consult), is undefeated in their conference (the ACC), and on a 12-game winning-streak. It should be quite a game! Go Heels! 

A quiet week

This past week has been one of the quietest we've had in some time, in terms of an absence of scheduled activity. A welcome situation after a very full weekend. No scheduled rehearsals, for example. Ellen read and knitted quite a bit. I got to the pool, spent some time on the fitness machines in addition to swimming, started doing a major clean out in my study, things like that.

The week was not without incident, however. Rob called and asked if we could come out to Boulder and provide some respite, especially for Katie, but also for him. So we'll be leaving Feb. 10th, driving again, and we'll be gone about a month. More on that later as it unfolds.  

Meanwhile, last evening we had a Hallowell sing for a lovely man in the Brooks House - newly refurbished after a fire a few years ago. Beautiful apartments we had been curious to get a glimpse of. 

Today we went to Tamar's school and heard her and Mimi sing in a variety show the school puts on now and then. Mimi had written the song and accompanied on the ukulele. That was fun. Then we had lunch with Katie and Savanna. 

Now it has turned colder after a milder day, the wind has come up, and we are hunkering down. 

                                    At Tamar's school 

More photos from the past weekend

Andy, Larry and Daniel at the Guilford Community Church

Ellen and Larry after the concert Saturday Evening

Andy, Aunt Hazel and Daniel at Hazel's facility

The whole group at the restaurant in New London, NH

Ellen, Larry, John, Daniel, Andy and Cynthia at Panda North restaurant

Good, full, weekend

Well, this past weekend came off pretty well. Dan and Andy, flying in from Chicago, were very fortunate to miss the big east coast storm, we had a lovely time at lunch with them and with 107-year-old Aunt Hazel and her son and daughter-in-law, Bob and Nancy, at a restaurant in New London, NH.

                               At MacKenna's Restaurant

                               The amazing Hazel Nilson, a young 107. 

Then we came home and got ready for our concert. D&A went to a Thai restaurant in Brattleboro and despite slow service made it in the nick of time to the concert, which was a success with the audience ("The best thing you have ever done," said one), even if we felt we could have done better. 

                            Waiting in the parlor for the concert to begin

We chatted afterward at home, then got a bit of sleep before Sunday morning breakfast and church, where D&S joined us for the choir, led by a charismatic African-American couple, Kim and Reggie, singers and preachers extra-ordinary. 

 

                           Reggie speaking with a member of the congregation

Then we high-tailed it to Panda North where we met John and Cynthia for dinner - very nice for the cousins (Dan and John)  to be together a bit - and then Ellen and I dashed to our second performance, which was also quite well-received (but again, we could have done better) and then we came home (D&A having in the meantime gone back to Boston) and I got a bite to eat (literally) and went to a rehearsal (YES!!) of Carmina Burana. A glutton of sorts, I guess. Ellen stayed home of course and watched Downton Abbey. I'll watch a rebroadcast tonight. Today we really took it easy. After a weekend like that, I guess we are entitled. While we were doing all that, our neighbor, Zac, got busy taking down some white pines and opening up our view - sort of restoring the way it was when we built the house 43 years ago ( emphasis on sort of), and all part of the larger plan of making the house ready to put on the market (someday, not tomorrow). Still a lot to to inside and outside, but progress is being made!

Rehearsal

Last evening was our dress rehearsal for our concert which will be Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. We are performing choral pieces by Morton Lauridson (O Magnum Mysterium, Ubi Caritas, Prayer and Sure On This Shining Night), Norwegian composer Ola Gjello (Dark Night of the Soul,  Luminous Night of the Soul, and Serenity) and John Taverner (Svyati). We will be accompanied in all but two pieces by piano, string quartet, or cello, alone or in some combination.

My nephew Daniel and his friend, Andy, are arriving tomorrow for a visit. They will first be visiting Daniel's great-aunt, Hazel Nilson, in New London, NH, and we will meet them there. Hazel is 104 years old. I should be able to get some photos and post something about that.

Earlier today I cleaned up the upstairs bedroom and made a major trip to the landfill. It's always good to have company - you get things done you had long intended to do!

Chorus member Marjorie McCrum warming us up last evening at Centre Congregational Church in Brattleboro

Getting ready

Today is a day of anticipation and preparation. We have a concert weekend coming up. Last night was our first rehearsal with the musicians that are accompanying us - a pianist, a string quartet and a soprano soloist. It was a rough rehearsal, as such first times usually are. Tonight is our dress rehearsal, which should go better.

We are also preparing for the visit of my nephew, Daniel, and his friend, Andy, who are visiting from Chicago. They will arrive Saturday afternoon, attend our concert that evening, spend the night with us, go to church with us in Guilford, and head back to Boston Sunday afternoon. Their visit involves getting a couple of bedrooms ready that have not recently seen guests. 

We thought earlier in the week that we would be getting ready for the big snow storm that will hit D.C. and NYC tomorrow. But now it looks like we might dodge that. 

Meanwhile, it is cold. I'm running the stove hot. It makes a beautiful sight. 

         Fire in the wood stove 

Communities

Ellen and I are fortunate to live within several communities of friends and acquaintances. We sing in several choral groups, each of which is a community of friends, we are involved in two churches, and through our respective family members we have additional communities. So, for example, Saturday, after the basketball game at UMass, we went to Katie and Savanna's house for a supper with three other couples who have been in a kind of gourmet club with K&S for many years. We have not been a part of this group but we know all the people in it through K&S. They take turns hosting, but each couple brings something, and there is a cuisine theme each time. This time it was "French." The central dish was a beef, noodle, mushroom, onion dish which I guess was a beef bourguignon. Ellen brought a Brussel sprout dish and others brought hors d'ouvres, salad and madelaines. It was a very nice meal.

     Supper with the "gourmet club."

Then Sunday morning I led the choir at Dummerston, another community, and Sunday afternoon we went to an Inter-faith M. L. King, Jr. service, yet another  community. We sang in a choir there led by Andy Davis, composed of people from several different churches. When I wasn't singing I was able to sit with my son, John. Many young people were involved and they put on a spaghetti supper afterward to raise money for youth trips to a South Dakota resercation and to Kenya. Our Guilford Church pastor, Lise Sparrow, is very much involved in both of those trips. 

           M. L. King service

Then today, we went to an Osher lecture on the current political campaign - yet another community. There is some overlap among these various communities, but not a lot! 

Massachusetts Minutewomen

We are at a women 's basketball game at UMass, against the Richmond Spiders. We're here with Katie and Brendon. The Spiders are ahead 56-44, with 5 minutes left. The student body is on break, so there is a sparse crowd. The Minutewomen are 0-4 in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

               The fans

    The Minuteman Mascot

       Action on the court

             The UMass band

Cold

These past few days have been cold and windy. A couple of days ago I came downstairs in the morning to discover that the front door had been blown open by the wind during the night. Brrr! It took a while to get things warm again. We're living in our bedroom which we can keep cozy with electric heat. 

Today, Ellen is meeting with friends to play recorders, I'm in a Hallowell sing and tonight is a Dummerston choir rehearsal. 

At Brooklyn

Tonight we are at the movies. Brooklyn. Earlier we were at an Osher lecture on the  "future of American politics." Very interesting. Today's special topic was "are we moving toward oligarchy and authoritarianism?" Implicit "yes."

    Preview of Youth with Michael Caine

Stay at home!

We went out to church this morning and it was a lovely service, which included a powerful new song about Martin Luther King by Peter Amidon. But coming home we had a hard time getting up our driveway, even with the Subaru, because of ice and slush. We made it, but we have no desire to go out again. Fortunately, an evening Carmina Burana rehearsal has been cancelled. We hope to watch Downton Abbey tonight, but the rain and fog are seriously affecting our TV reception (we have an antennae), so we may be out of luck. But we are happy just to be home by the fire.

                        Outside at the moment

                                    Inside at the moment 

Where would you rather be?

We're home

We have arrived home safe and sound after a journey of over 5500 miles, thanks to Ellen's fine driving and remarkably good fortune in the weather. John had come in earlier today and warned up the house, so we are quite cozy.

We did make one stop today at the Women's Rights National Historic Park  in Seneca Falls, NY., a place we had noted many times as we passed by on the NY Thruway, but had never taken the time to investigate. It is built around the convention of 1848, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and others, held at a Methodist chapel in Seneca Falls, at which a "Declaration of Sentiments" affirming that "all men and all women are created equal" was passed. The Declaration asserted that "the history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpation on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her," and went on to specify the inherent rights of all women, single and married, e.g., to vote, own property in their own name, and attend the college of their choice, none of which was possible at that time. There was an informative half-hour film and a great many very interesting exhibits. 

It was of particular interest because Lucretia Mott had been the subject of one of Ellen's father's published books (Slavery and the "Woman Question" - Lucretia Mott's Diary of Her Visit to Great Britain to Attend the World Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840 (Haverford, 1952). Mott had met Stanton at this convention and both had been outraged by the fact that the men there had debated whether even to allow them to be seated at the convention and had finally relegated them to a back bench and forbade them to speak. That humiliation led eventually to the Seneca Falls Convention eight years later. 

       Statues of James and Lucretia Mott

An exhibit describing Mott's and Stanton's experience at the Anti-Slavery Convention

                  Lucretia Mott

Mott went on to be one of the founders of Swarthmore College as a coed college in 1864. 

Statues of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who authored the "Declaration," and Frederick Douglass, one of the signers. 

Bath, NY

We made it as far as Bath, NY last night, on I-86 in the southern part of upstate NY near Keuka Lake.  Got into the Days' Inn motel after 11p.m. - another long day's drive - close to 660 miles. Aided by clear roads and good music. It will be a reasonable trip home today.

Near Toledo

Well, here we are at a rest area plaza on I-80 near Toledo, OH. I've been reading aloud from Jayber Crow, a wonderful novel by Wendell Berry. We also listened to Fresh Air, an interview with Robin Wright, a very knowledgable author about the recent flare-up of hostility between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which threatens to undo a great deal of recent efforts toward diplomacy.

                 In the Plaza

Last leg

We dodged freezing rain this morning. No precip. and in the high 30's as we head out. Last night was a great gathering of the clan with Susie and Dennis, Dan, Becky and her friend Mark, Peter and Lori, and also Damon, who is now officially Dr. Crockett, having received his Ph.D. from UC San Diego. His field bridges philosophy of the mind and neurology of the brain, specifically visual perception. But he is branching out into a job in L.A. later this winter which will attempt to analyze cultural phenomena mathematically. E.g., it will analyze the millions of images transmitted daily on social media in an effort to determine what they tell us about our society. So ponder this question: what would it tell us about city "A" if the images sent by residents of that city consistently contained an average of 4.2 faces, compared to city "B" where the average # of faces was only 1.4? Is that significant? And if so, in what way?

Sadly, I forgot to take pictures. The conversation was too engaging. It did include a very funny look at research into what Google search terms are most common in various states. So, e.g., in Alabama, "Obama the Anti-Christ" is a common search term, whereas in Illinois, "deep dish pizza" is very common, and in Vermont, "Kale recipe" gets the prize. Now that is fascinating! And perhaps even significant for an understanding of culture. 

We'll be home tomorrow!

Hamlin and Anamosa, IA

Today we drove from Kearney, NE to Dixon, IL. On the way, we stopped for lunch at a Road Food restaurant called Darrell's Place in the tiny hamlet of Hamlin, IA., which is about 90 miles west of Des Moines. It is famous esp. for its sandwiches, pies and home-made root beer. We each had a tenderloin sandwich, Ellen had a root beer float and I had rhubarb pie. All met expectations.

200 miles down the road or so we stopped to see Betty Remley in my old home town of Anamosa. Betty is 98 and sharp as a tack. She was choir director in my father's church when I was in high school! It is always lovely to visit with her. This time I was able to play a recording of my mother and father for her and she was very moved to hear their voices again after 60 years or so. 

                    Darrell's Place - a fairly non-descript exterior

                                      Ditto interior

                        The founders, Darrell and Marilyn Munch

                                 The root beer float 

                             Betty Remley and me

We'll be in Bartlett tomorrow late morning.

Ramada extravagance

Last night when I had to go back to the front desk three times to get working key cards I kept getting lost! The problem was that we came into our room from a secondary entrance off the parking lot that led into a small hallway, but the other end of the room also had a door leading out into an interior lobby. This place is a conference center and it is huge! Here are some shots:

             The pool area with Hawaiian-themed bar overlooking pool

                 The lobby in front of our room 

 Turn the corner - another big lobby. But where is the front desk? No signs. 

The breakfast bar area - complete with customized omelettes and an extremely attentive attendant. 

Long driving day

We're in Kearney, NE tonight, which is about 750 miles from Alpine! We didn't really intend to come this far, it just worked out that way. Partly it was because we had perfect driving conditions and were enjoying just sailing along on I-80 while I read aloud or we listened to music. 

We're in a Ramada Inn. Not our usual place. The front desk was incompetent. I made a reservation by phone an hour before we arrived. But when I checked in, they couldn't find it. Then I made three trips back to the front desk because the key cards didn't work. They finally gave us another room and took $20 off the price. 

When we left Alpine it was early (7:30) and cold (about 2). But here it's in the 40's. 

                        Looking out the car window this a.m.

Yesterday I went to church at Star Valley United. It was good we hear Pastor Allan again. He talked about being incarnations  of the word and invited each of us to choose a word we would try to incarnate in our lives this week. I chose "hopefulness." It has already helped me a great deal!

Sunday eve we watched Episode 1 of the last season of Downton Abbey. It was satisfyingly juicy. 

                            Violet and Lord Grantham

Not sure where we'll be tomorrow night. We'll see.

Star Wars again

Yesterday we went to Jackson and met PJ&M at the Snake River Brewery for a late lunch after Max's 1 pm ski lesson at Snow King. It was in single digits temp-wise for the lesson, but Max braved it for an hour and improved. Lunch in a warm place was welcome!

                                      Lunch at the brew pub

                                     The big vats 

Paul

Then after lunch we had a little time to kill before our 5pm tickets for Star Wars so we went to Teton Toys, which is adjacent to Starbucks - something for everyone! The toy store had a huge inventory but we just looked. 

We understood Star Wars better the second time, but it is still not clear whether Rey might be related to Han and/or Leia. She seemed to pick up flying the Millenium Falcon awfully fast. We commented that in many ways this film is just a re-make of the first one. We understand George Lucas was not happy about that "retro" aspect of the film. But he has his $4 billion from the sale to Disney to comfort him!

New Year's Day walk

I just did our usual walk up the hill above Paul's house, but it was about 8 degrees. However, it was very sunny, there was little to no wind, and I was warmly dressed, so I was not uncomfortable. One unexpected event was that a small group of elk crossed the road in front of me. I kept a respectful distance.

                       Elk approaching the road

                                   Coming up the bank 

                               Crossing the road

By the time I got to the point where they had crossed the road, they had disappeared into the woods, leaving their tracks behind them in the snow.

Another little surprise was that the folks in the big house at the top of the hill are adding a garage. I think I would have sited it differently, but it's their garage. 

                            The new garage

One thing this house has is a nice view:

                  View from near the top of the road

Jenny had to work today - on New Year's Day! The girls next door are visiting and playing Clue with Max and Ellen. 

                                     They've got a Clue! 

Tomorrow Max has a ski lesson in Jackson and then we'll see Star Wars (again - for us).