The final concert

Susan and Christian made it possible for us to attend the final Marlboro concert. It was a varied concert: an Alban Berg String Quartet, Two songs by Adolph Busch, a Brahms Horn Trio, and the Beethoven Choral Fantasy, which involves a chorus, orchestra and soloists. It was a beautiful afternoon. We all went to the Guilford Church that morning - a very special service which was the last one led by our current pastor, Elisa Lucozzi, who is leaving. What could have been a very difficult situation was handled with grace and dignity. We went to the Guilford Country Store for lunch, and then drove up to Marlboro. Then after the concert, we came back to the house and Christian did some more work - he had three major projects at our house: (1) stacking wood; (2) Repairing the screen door that the bears damaged and (3) repairing a broken arm on our rocking chair. He finished all three! What a tremendous help! I would include pictures of all three, but I'm not at the house right now. We visited in the evening and got to bed in good season.

our seats at the concert were under the canopy attached to the side of the concert hall. We could hear the music through open screened doors along the wall. MONDAY MORNING we said our goodbyes and Susan and Christian went on their way to points east in their itinerary, which includes Cape Cod, Maine and northern Vermont. We packed up for our trip to Maine and got on the road after noon. We stopped by the "tiny house" where Katie and Brendon were staying on Damariscotta Lake - something they got through a silent auction at First Church in Amherst. It was very nice - a little house on wheels, very well-designed and in a lovely location. Katie, Ellen and I went out for pizza supper at "The Penalty Box," a pizza and pub on Business Route 1 in Damariscotta, near Round Top Ice Cream, where we often stop. Brendon didn't want to come, so we left him at the tiny house, but Katie brought a lot of pizza back to him. Ellen and I went on our way up to Friendship - to stay with Phil McKean in his cottage in Friendship, ME, not far from Owls Head. We will all gather at Jim and Mary's on Tuesday, which is where I am right now as I am writing.

Scenes at the tiny house.**************
The McKean cottage in Friendship is over 120 years old and was built by Phil's great-grandfather. Obviously, there is a lot of family history there. It is a classic Maine summer cottage. It now is jointly owned by Phil's two children - Tom and Susannah - and his sister Ruth's three children. One of them - Mack Jacob = was there when we arrived, along with his wife, Susie, and Phil himself. We had a nice double bed on a sleeping porch with lots of fresh ocean air. A good night for sleep. This morning we came to Owl's Head and Katie and Brendon just arrived a bit ago. They are all taking a walk. *****
Meanwhile, some very, very difficult things are happening in Cynthia's family. There is really nothing we can do to help, and I hope that it will somehow not be too traumatic especially for John and Cynthia.