The quilt

One of the things Ellen has been working on, off and on for years, is a quilt designed by Eliza Greenhoe Bergh that was to be a gift for Mary Cay. Brass, our River Singers director . Finally, this session, it was finished. Just in time for the 25th Anniversary of River Singers! It is an amazing quilt. Many hands involved. "Sunflowers and Forget-Me-Nots." Mary Cay was bowled over. It was presented at the pre-concert supper:

                               The quilt for Mary Cay

Heading out

Well, we are about packed up and ready to go on our trip west. It's been a bit more of a chore than usual because we feel we need to leave the house sort of ready to be used temporarily by the Feinlands, in the unlikely but remotely possible chance that when they have to move out of their house on July 1, they have no place to go. I say "sort of ready" because we haven't done a major cleaning, for sure. But, e.g., I cleaned up the downstairs bath, which is sort of funky to say the least, in a way I don't usually do.

These past couple of weeks have been crazy busy. Just as an example, last Saturday, I got up at 6a.m., packed the car to the gills with trash for the landfill, which I had been accumulating for weeks, and took it and was there before they opened at 8. Then I came back home and vacuumed out the car thoroughly, and wiped it down with Armorall. Then I quickly showered and changed and we headed off for the Guilford Community Church where we sang in the choir in a service for Rich Hiler. A remarkable man with a complicated family life, and it took two hours for people to say what they wanted to say. Then we had to quickly come home, change again, grab a quick bite to eat, and go to Grafton for our River Singers rehearsal, supper and concert. By the time we got home, I was pretty wiped out! I went to sleep pretty quickly, but was not fated to get a good night's sleep. At about 2 a.m., I thought I heard Ellen bustling about in the kitchen. She was making a lot of noise and I wondered why. But then I reached beside me and -- she was asleep in bed! Soon I realized that what was in the kitchen was a large animal! What to do? I shut the bedroom door, so that whatever it was wouldn't jump up on the bed. To make a long story short, a raccoon had found it's way into the house and was feasting on granola bars.  It eventually went back outside and we got a good look and a photo - it was dark but I was able to enhance the photo:

Raccoon in the night

The whole experience set my heart racing - not much sleep that night!

 

Emmy leading a rehearsal, with Mary Cay in the background.

The River Singers concert featured Emily Miller and her husband, Jesse Milnes, both fine musicians in the Appalachian tradition. 

                                   Donald Saaf, Jesse Milnes, Will Danforth

Windshield woes

We got hit twice by stones on our most recent trip west, and those chips blossomed into four cracks that spread over the windshield. Our inspection expires end of June when we'll be in Boulder, so we took the car for inspection and found we needed a new windshield. The glass company sent a mobile unit to our house. They quickly and deftly replaced the windshield!

                                     Out comes the old one

                           The new one being prepped

On the beach and this and that

Ellen and Mary at Crescent Beach

View of Treasure Island from Crescent Beach

We saw this beautiful frog alongside the road on our walk to the beach

Last week, Tamar sang wih her class from Hilltown at Rockridge nursing home

That evening after Tamar's concert we went to a Northern Harmony concert at Bramble Hill Farm Barn near Amherst. They are absolutely stunning singers, with a rich repertoire of African, Georgian, Corsican, Albanian, Roumanian and Shapenote songs.

The Feinlands' house progresses

Spring is bursting forth in all its glory

Andy Davis and I compared ties on Pentecost Sunday

Ellen and Tamar enjoyed Herrell's ice cream on the bank opposite the store

Art and music

We are in Owl's Head, ME, at Jim and Mary's. Their house is now fully shingled and Jim and Mary are turning their attention to the garden and to landscaping.

                       Jim and Mary's house in Owl's Head, ME

Earlier today we went to one of our favorite museum's, the Farnsworth, in Rockland. It was a little disappointing, because two areas were closed down, awaiting new exhibits. But an exhibit of Japanese photographer, Koichiro Kurita, was worth the price of admission. His process of photographing, developing and printing is based on the salt paper and calotype processes of 19th c. Henry Fox Talbot. He has also been very much influenced by Henry David Thoreau. The results are stunning. I could have looked at his photographs all day.

 

                            A Kurita print, with museum reflections 

We took a walk around Rockport, admiring the waterfront, the flowers and the architecture and the art galleries.

                   The ferry terminal to Vinalhaven

                                    Tulips in full bloom

                                       An old bank facade

                       A porcelain fish in a gallery window 

Last week - lots of music. Posted later. 

The audience gathers

Looks like we'll have a good audience. Ten minutes to go and it's filling up!

                                The audience awaits! 

Waiting for Rachmaninoff

Here we are at Centre Church, Brattleboro, gathering to warm up and get last minute notes from our director, Susan Dedell. In about a half-hour, we will begin the All-Night Vigil, which is one of the most beautiful choral works ever.

Lots of things

We went to the annual Hilltown School Music Fest, in which every class performs in some way. It was pretty impressive. Hilltown has a varied music program. Tamar sang in a couple of choruses.

Tamar is in the center in the back row

The next night we went to a concert given by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, who catapulted to fame when Jay's Ashoken Farewell was featured in Ken Burns' Civil War film. The church where it was held was full to overflowing and it was a very enjoyable evening of music.

     Jay Ungar and Molly Mason

Sunday morning after church we went to the Mothers' Day brunch at the Grange, which is a very bountiful meal, partly custom-made omelettes and partly a buffet of baked goods and fruit. I was struck by the simple beauty of a "Patrons of Husbandry" syrup pitcher. 

      Part of the buffet spread 

            The PofH pitcher

Monday afternoon we went to Osher lifelong learning, which this time was a dramatic Louisa Mae Alcott monologue (part of a series on the Civil War). Very interesting!

         Louis Mae Alcott

This week has been dominated by music - rehearsals Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! But we found a space to join Katie and Savanna at Lilacland in Pelham, MA, on a beautiful spring day. It is a private estate owned by an artist, inherited from his parents, who had collected hundreds of varieties of lilacs from all over the world. He has opened it to the public free of charge. Lots of lilacs, lots of birds, and some funky outbuildings in a state of disrepair. 

Lilacs in full bloom

        Dogwood too

  Savanna found a spot to do some sketching. 

      An abandoned wheel

      Spring beauty!

We stopped to drop off a birthday present for Ben, and got a glimpse of the Feinland's new house being built. It's going up fast, but maybe not fast enough.

       

The new house won't be ready for occupancy until December and since the Feinlands have sold their present home at Pathways and have to be out by July 1, they are urgently in need of temporary housing! 

We perform Rachmaninoff tonight and tomorrow, and have a huge service tomorrow morning to celebrate Susanna's retirement as pastor at Dummerston. Lots of music! A full weekend! 

Grandparents Day

Friday was grandparents day at the Hilltown Charter School. We were joined there by Doris and Ray Feinland. It's an annual event. It begins with a welcome from the administrative team to all the grandparents, accompanied by a very nice buffet breakfast, followed by visits to the classroom of your grandchild, in our case, Tamar, where there were planned activities designed to give you a sense of what she has been learning. Tamar read us a story she had written in which she "became" a paper bag at the grocery store. She had imaginatively entered into what it would be like to be a bag and get thrown about, or have things thrown on top of you. We also did an exercise in which we compared our childhood schools with Tamar's school, using a "bubble" format they have learned to use to "compare and contrast." (See photo). We also learned about her study of China and the many dynasties in its long history.

One of the principals at Hilltown addresses the grandparents. 

Tamar with a classmate, Aoifa. 

        Tamar with Ray and Doris.....

         .... and with us

    A time line of the history of China

        The bubble exercise

It was very interesting to compare our schools and see both what was very different (e.g., we had ink wells and chalk in our day), and what is still the same (e.g., there are still pull-down maps on the wall).