Sam's music books

Zara's sweater, voila!

Here's her last year's Christmas gift I made from Simply Shetland patterns. Eureka!

Merry Christmas!

Here's a rehearsal of some youth who will sing Peter's arrangement of Brightest and Best on Christmas Eve at our midnight service. Merry Christmas!

winter scenes

Views while skiing on Mt. Wanstiquet,Brattleboro, Vt and hiking on the Appalachian Trail in Mass.

My new hat

thanks, Sue!

snowhill on Willow St.

My neighbor Bob Henry does this every year in his backyard:

icy fetters

Our friend Chip Greenberg discribed this very aptly:

The countryside was gorgeous all weekend after a night of freezing rain and then a cold morning. All the branches and twigs of the trees, and every stalk of grass, was encapsulated by a tube of ice. In the mornings, the low sun glimmered and sparkled off everything. As the sun rose and the ice began to melt off the trees, tinkling breakage was everywhere and the ground littered with half-tubes of “glass” of many diameters. The gound crunched wherever you walked adding sound to the beauty.

His hoary frost, his fleecy snow, Descend and clothe the ground,

The liquid streams forbear to flow, In icy fetters bound.

("Winter", from the Sacred Harp)

Our weekend in the Berskshires was a wonderland.

Louise Lindsay Read

We celebrated the life and mourned the death and wept for the love for our dear Louise yesterday in Warren, CT in a packed church. Sam sang All is Well; Colin Lindsay played concertina (Fredric Paris tune) and Hallowell was sung by Colin and Rachel, Mary and Julia. The website Caringbridge.com kept hundreds of people informed and able to write in letters of love and concern; four readers read excerpts from the letters. And Wordsworth's poem about daffodils (which folks have planted for Louise) was read. The photos of the lakes are taken by my sister Annie just by Wordsworth's cottage in the Lake District.

"Daffodils" (1804)

I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretch'd in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

By William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

Sam in Copenhagen

Rlke's Book of Hours

I live my life in growing rings
which move out over the things around me.
Perhaps I'll never complete the last,
but that's what I mean to try.

I'm circling around God, around the ancient tower,
and I've been circling thousands years;
and I still don't know: am I a falcon, a storm
or a great song.

Praying

Thanks to my neighbors for this gift of a poem for my "space":

thanksgiving

(pilgrims feasting made by students at Beekman Elementary School)
We had a beautiful day in Monterey, (Mass.) with the Amidon clan and phone calls from Sam in London and Stefan in Paris.

my birthday/salutations

I hiked up Mt. Wantastiquet (solo) in one hour and enjoyed this view, went for a message (ahhh), had breakfast, dinner and drinks with friends, lunch with my husband of 30 years, went to Bratttleboro Museum and Art Center and was joyful. Salutation to the Dawn seems appropos.
LISTEN to the exhortation of the Dawn!
Look to this Day! For it is Life, The very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the Varieties And Realities of your Existence;
The Bliss of Growth,
The Glory of Action,
The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And To-morrow is only a Vision;
But To-day well lived
Makes every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every To-morrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn.

Ooooooooklahoma!

We performed school shows for three days in six schools in Stillwater, Oklahoma thanks to our friend and music teacher, Trish Ranson who as she puts it, does best "when her hair is on fire".
(she has great hair and you can imagine this). Saw the Capitol Steps at the University, very funny, and ate some great Mexican food. The license plates all say Native America on them and we heard a Native show on Oklahoma public radio. Thanks, Trish!

gospel singing weekend

Last weekend was an incredible gospel singing weekend with our idol, Kathy Bullock of Berea, KY and John Harrison of Plainfield, Vt and 80 singers in Ashfield, MA. We sang as part of the church service and had everyone up clapping. It was held at the church in Ashfield, MA and we got to stay in the big colorful home of the cheese queen Ricki.
www.cheesemaking.com/

O Connor's pub in Worcester, MA

Two days in Peter's birthplace, "Worsta" we found a great pub for dinner. We worked in an amazing publice school, Worcester Arts Magnet School which has a theater teacher, music, art, dance teacher and a choral and composition teacher. Yes!

Childsplay in Brattleboro

At the Latchis Theater in Brattleboro, a beautiful concert of fiddlers with fiddles made by Bob Childs. They are making a new cd this week. Full of singing by Aoife O'Donovan and others, dancing by Pierre Chartrand and Molly Gawler. The program opened with a new tune by Keith Murphy called Samsamamidon: smashing!

great book, great cd

I got to hear a solo concert of the Irish fiddler Martin Hayes recently and am loving his new cd; its stunningly beautiful.
Also just started this incredible book about the dust bowl called the Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan. Seems appropriate since we are spending the week in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

more autumnal bliss

I finished it! Sam's new sweater!

the wool is called Cloud Nine, 50 percent angora and 50 percent wool, so soft.

Barack Obama, please

(a house in West Brattleboro; this was for the primaries, hence the date, but its still up on the house)




Ralph Stanley tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/new_obama_ad_in_south_stars_bl.php>
Endorsements by Chicago Tribune and the Anchorage Daily News!

movie reco

The Winslow Boy, great movie by Terrence Ratigan based on a true story, with actress Rebecca Pigeon who is the wife of David Mamet who directed the film.

Long Island sound, ferry from Port Jefferson, NY

Sunday night's sunset

cool stuff

Zen Habits a blog about organization, goal setting, time management, etc. and can deliver to your email. Thanks to the Heatons for this one!
www.ted.com/.../speakers/benjamin_zander.html
The Art of Possibility by Benjamin Zander, conductor and inspiring speaker, can be heard lecturing on TED talks which is full of great speakers. Positivity and musicality abounds here.

Younger Next Year Live Strong, Fit, and Sexy till your 80 and Beyond by Chris Crowley and Dr. Harry Lodge is very inspiring. Our bodies are geared to hunter/gatherer modalities and not to modern day tv watching; keeping active signals to our brians that it is spring, not winter and therefore anti decay. Excercise every day (two days a week strength training, and four days aerobics) for the rest of your life!

KenKen, Will Shortz presents a new puzzle like Sodoku created by Tetsuya Miyamoto

Autumnal Bliss