Boldly venturing forth

This morning, a Sunday morning, a church choir morning, was also a bad weather morning - freezing rain. But we went to church anyway. We were pretty sure our driveway would be no problem because there was a couple of inches of snow on the road before it started to rain, and we know from past experience that that only makes it crunchy, not slick. We were right. And we figured that the main roads woud be treated. We were right again. We had no trouble with travel, going or coming back. However, the parking lot at the church was treacherous - but Ellen dropped me off right at the door. Peter Amidon was surprised to see us - some other choir members had opted not to come. So we were glad we came. There were eight of us all together. One of our anthems was I Am Sending You Light, as sung by Melanie DeMore. It is beautiful - go to YouTube and search "Sending You light with Melanie DeMore and Julie Wolf. It is quite touching. It was the Epiphany service, and quite lovely. I took with me to church this morning 10 sets of CDs about The Magnificat of J.S. Bach. Our contemplative prayer group which meets on Zoom Wednesday afternoon had spent a Wednesday in December talking about Mary's song when she greets her cousin Elizabeth - that song is the text of The Magnificat. I told them about a lecture I had given with Blanche Moyse on The Magnificat 32 years ago at the Brattleboro Music Center, and that I had a recording of it, and also recordings of rehearsals and performances of Bach's Magnificat in D Maj. They were interested and I promised them a packet of CDs, which I delivered today. There are 3 CDs in the packet - the lecture/presentation; a rehearsal led by Blanche in which she meticulously works with the Chorale on the opening chorus - especially the word "magnificat." And thirdly, a complete performance of Bach's Magnificat in D by the Chorale with the Orchestra of St. Luke's (based in NYC) recorded on October 8, 1989 at Marlboro, VT. It's a nice set, which I packaged using card stock. It took me most of the day yesterday to make the CDs - 30 in all - and the packaging for 10 sets. But I had spent time earlier setting it all up and printing stuff out. So that was satisfying! This afternoon we have just enjoyed being home by the fire! It was Ellen's turn to do the Spelling Bee on the phone, but I did it on paper. I read aloud from LeFevre's book on Kierkegaard. Ellen has fixed a delicious brunch and supper. She is also making acorn ornaments by felting wool and attaching the balls to acorn caps we have picked up from the acorn harvest of our many red oak trees. The felting involves wetting the wool, so they are drying by the fire. Later, we will watch Around the World in 80 Days and All Things Bright and Beautiful on PBS. A nice day!******************************************* But boy, the Omicron Variant is causing havoc. I have had a runny nose, so I did a self-test this morning - negative. The test kit was different from what we are used to; not as easy to use, in my estimation. The ones we had earlier were from CVS, bought online. The ones we are using now we got free from the Vt Dept of Health - BinaxNOW, made by Abbott Labs. I guess it will get easier as I get used to it, but the way they have designed putting the swab into the test fluid is badly done, I think. It's unnecessarily complicated. However, John tells me that this brand is particularly effective in testing for Omicron. So maybe it's worth the extra effort.

Binax COVID Test kits

Ellen's acorns drying by the fire

The front and back panels of the CD set

Singing in the choir this morning (taken from the video of the service on YouTube).