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).

Another nice walk

After church today we came home, had a little lunch, I read and Ellen sewed, then in the late afternoon we took a walk along the West River. It was breezy, cool but lovely. It is still early spring here. The leaves are just starting to come out. There are bluets, little dog-toothed violets, flowering shrubs. A good time to walk. 

                 Bluets 

           Violets

        Unknown flowering shrub 

It has been fairly dry, but Fall Brook is still sending a fair amount of water through this culvert.

            The West River

       Our beautiful covered bridge 

      Early spring view from our deck

A nice walk and other things

Ellen and I took a nice walk along the old West River Railroad Trail earlier this evening. Naturally, I forgot to bring the phone, so no photos. But we saw bluets, violets and saxifrage in bloom. Part of the trail goes along granite ledge walls covered with lichen and moss. Very lovely.

Earlier today, I went out to do errands at the drug store and stopped at SIT to download and send email. There is a 24/7 study room at the library there with a really fast WiFi connection, one of my favorite spots for doing that sort of thing. 

Yesterday, I met with our Dummerston pastor, Susanna Griefen, to plan music for her final Sunday before her retirement,  May 15th. It will be a music-filled service. The Dummerston choir will sing, but we will also be joined by folks from Guilford who will be worshipping with us that day. 

John and Cynthia will also play during the service. That is also the weekend of our Rachmaninov Vespers concerts. That will be quite a weekend!!

After my meeting, Ellen went to a quilting session, and then we took a little trip together up to Jamaica and Londonderry,   VT, to Grandma Miller's bakery and the Jamaica Cottage Shop, where they build sheds, small cabins and tiny houses. We are still trying to solve the question of what to live in after here. 

This is one of the larger pre-built cabins at Jamaica. I think this one is 40x14. Sort of like a trailer. It comes with kitchen and bath, and a walk-in closet. 

         Interior view - I think they are in the process of installing a kitchen. 

We are not the only ones thinking about houses. The Feinlands had an open house to put their house at Pathways on the market and got two offers! They settled for one at a price higher than their asking price! They have to be out by July 1st. Their new house won't be ready until end of the year. So they will have to find temporary housing for a half-year. We had Tamar for three days and saw their house in pristine condition for the open house when we took her back Wednesday.

The Feinland's living room with no clutter! They had the floor re-finished. 

               Looking the other way. 

One last shot: when we came out of church last Sunday in Dummerston, we saw this hellebore plant in a little woody patch near the church:

         Early spring hellebore

Last Sunday, the service was centered on a couple, Sam and Carol Farwell, and their family. They had been married twenty years before by a J.P., and wanted a church wedding. So Sunday they got it! It was lovely. Just a simple ceremony during the children's story - very similar to what Ellen and I did in 2005. There was a very special coffee hour afterward.

Coffee hour - you can see the "bride and groom" in the center in front of the stove. 

Our pastor, Susanna, is just to their left in a blue jacket with her back to the camera. 

Playing catch-up

Wow, it's April 13th. It's been almost ten days since my last post. And what has happened in the intervening days? Well, a lot of singing, for one thing. A week ago Monday, I was scheduled for two rehearsals - one for Carmina Burana, the other a bass section rehearsal for the Rachmaninov Vespers. Both were cancelled because of a snowstorm. Carmina was rescheduled for Wednesday, which meant I sang the full Carmina Burana Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It got better each night, and Saturday, in the Brattleboro High School Gym, it was outstanding. The audience of 500 went wild. Then Sunday morning, we sang in the Guilford Choir, and last night I had the makeup bass sectional. Tonight is the full Rachmaninov rehearsal, tomorrow I will sing Carmina again, and Friday will be Dummerston choir!

Rehearsing the Carmina in the Bellows Falls gym.

Last Saturday we had singing lunch at our house. We were hosting Paul Jones,  visiting from D.C., and a group of his and our friends. It was a lovely lunch and great singing. Different folks brought music to share.

Today we came down to Northhampton to pick up Tamar at Hilltown School and take her to her piano lesson. Now we are headed back to Brattleboro for rehearsal. We'll just make it.

This afternoon we had Harell's ice cream after we picked up Tamar. Ben joined us.

Tamar likes the tire swings 

A bit of artwork at the Hilltown School

Getting ready for lunch last Saturday

         Rehearsing Rachmaninov