Old Songs Festival 2008

It was a pleasure to meet the banjo player, singer and fiddler Riley Baugus who is coming to Brattleboro for a concert tomorrow. I'm enjoying his cds of old time tunes:Life of Riley and Long Steel Rail.What an honor to be sharing the stage with Si Kahn, song writer extraordinaire and lovely man and also Sparky Rucker and Linda his wife singing the blues and civil war songs.

memories, dreams and reflections

I feel like I'm cayaking in the sky

80 year old hiker

My mother's side of the family, Tear as from Ballykeneag in the Isle of Mann where my grandfather came from on a boat as a boy, had a family reunion last weekend called Schroon in June, meeting on Schroon Lake in Adirondack, NY. 35 of us met and many hiked up the mountain to see this view, including my 80 year old Aunt Evie! It was a steep, straight up almost bushwacking hike up the rocks so I was quite amazed at her sprightliness and good humor.

Delora

My dear friend Delora lives in King George, VA (the one I went to visit who is in the Neptune photo below). She and her family live off the grid, have 12 chickens and goats, make goat yogurt and goat cheese which they sell and also have a CSA garden. Delora is a wonderful being and great singer. She teaches Music Together classes and calls family dances accompanied by her fabulous fiddler husband Steve Hickman (pictured in stained glass below). We'll be with them this summer at CDSS camps Family Week II at Ogontz, in NH and Pinewoods Family Week in Plymouth MA. Y'all should come and sing and dance with us!

fiddler's door

recent faves

cool bumper stickers:
Eat More Kale
Visualize Using Your Turn Signals
Find What You Love, Love What You Find
HBO: John Adams Paul Giamatti rocks
memoir Without a Map by Meredith Hall; story of a teen pregancy in the 60's
best concert: Coleman Barks reading Rumi poems with musical accompaniment by Keith Murphy, Becky Tracy and Eugene Friesien
best quote "Stories are to human development what facts are to science" and "When you die you'll be watching the movie of your life with God so it better be something good."
(both from the concert and quoted by Coleman Barks)

Come now and gather in the glade

Come now and gather in the glade where the emerald stream and the evening shade....
Seth Houston from the song "Emerald Stream"

Neptune at Virginia Beach

My friend Delora Padovan invited me to visit her home in King George, VA and we took a day to go to the beach! See us?

Robert Frost's grave, Bennington, Vt.

Fireflies in the Garden
Here come real stars to fill the upper skies
And here on earth come emulating flies,
That though they never equal stars in size,
(And they were never really stars at heart).
Achieve at times a very star-like start.
Only, of course, they can't sustain the part.

Robert Frost
(in honor of the fireflies I watched last night and the grave I came upon today)

Fem tech zeitgeist

Great book: Stoner, by John Williams. Both Peter and I loved this story of a professor's life and relationships during WWI and after. Peter actually stayed up all night reading it.
Great movies: Waitress: funny and poignant given that the director who also acts in it had died after the whole thing was filmed. Her daughter is in the movie.
Feast of Love: I loved the book and the movie didn't disappoint
Great phrase Fem tech zeitgeist I heard this on the radio referring to a new cell phone type thing on the market which they were marketing to the female sector.

New folks on the street, Bennington, VT

J Seward Johnson sculptures

Recipes, recipes

Strawberries with Cream Cheese Filling
1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 3 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened In a large bowl beat the cream cheese, powdered
1/2 cup powdered sugar sugar and almond extract till smooth. Stir in the
1/4 t. almond extract grated chocolate. Set aside.
2 T grated semisweet chocolate Cut a thin slice form the stem end of a berry.
32 large strawberries Stand the berry upright on the flattened end.
choc. shavings (optional) Cut into 4 wedges, cutting to but not through
the stem end. Put the filling into the center using
a pastry bag (or one improvised from a plastic bag with corner snipped off) and serve.

Nutted Wild Rice
Put one cup raw wild rice in a strainer and rinse. Put rice in a med. sized heavy saucepan and add 5 1/2 cups chicken stock or water. Simmer for 45 min. uncovered. After 30 min. check donnes so rice is not too soft. Plad a towel in a colander and drain rie. In bowl put the rice and :
1 cup helled pecan halves
1 cup yellow raisins
grated orange rind
1/4 fresh mint chopped
4 scallions thin sliced
14 olive oil
1/3 cup orange juice
1 1/2 t. salt, black pepper to taste.
Let mixture stand for 2 hours and serve. (6 portions)

queen of the seas

Retreat Meadows

Memorial Garden planting

Our hospice singing group Hallowell sang last Sunday for a memorial planting. Doves were released from a cage just as we were singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". Breathtaking.
We've been singing this beautiful setting of this Tennyson poem, written by Rani Arbo and arranged by Peter called "Crossing the Bar".

Sunset and evening star
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;

For though from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.

garmin we thank you

My sweet sister Susan gave us a Garmin nuvi (gps sattelite system for the car) as a gift and its not only saved our marriage, but took me on these great roads I'd never taken before, even though I've been driving to the same schools for years. Here's what I saw this week en route to Corinth, NY.

Sacred Harp sing in Monterey, Mass.

Eight of us shape note singers led a workshop in the church of Monterey Mass, and gave a concert which including singers from the workshop, including Peter's parents, Fran and Dean Amidon. Monterey is a town of about 500 in the Berkshires, near Great Barrington, MA. It was great fun.

"Now shall my inward joys arise and burst into a song
Almighty love inspires my heart and pleasures tune my tongue."