Double Choir, Double Pleasure

Our focus for the day was going to Evensong at St. Thomas on Fifth Avenue. However, in the morning we enjoyed going to the church we belonged to for 50 years. We sang the anthem with the choir and went down to sit in the congregation for the rest of the service.

Friend Ruth left church with us, and we drove to Manhattan from Long Island. As John wove through city streets, he directed daughter Kate uptown via phone as she came from New Jersey. How he could do that is totally beyond me. We pulled into the parking garage closest to St. Thomas, and Kate was right behind us. We hurried to the church, knowing there would be a crowd. The boys and choral scholars of Kings College Cambridge were singing evensong with the St. Thomas choir of men and boys. It was going to be a fantastic worship treat.

033119 At St Thomas Ruth Kate JC David.JPG — Ruth, Kate, John, and David inside St. Thomas church

The choirs rehearsed an hour before the service began. In the photo below, Daniel Hyde was directing the double choir. He stood out wherever he was, because he is 6’10” tall. Mr. Hyde is the current director of the St. Thomas choir.

033119 Daniel Hyde directing St Thomas and Kings.jpg

We were interested in seeing Stephen Cleobury, who has directed the English choir since 1982. He is retiring, and Daniel Hyde will be taking his place. I zoomed in on the man as he sat listening to the choirs. Both of the men are world-class musicians, at the highest peak of liturgical church music.

033119 Stephen Cleobury dir of Kings College Cambridge choir.jpg

If you’d like to hear this service, go to www.saintthomaschurch.org. Click on “Calendar”, click March 31, 2019 and scroll down to Festal Evensong. I know you won’t be able to pick out our voices, but we four were singing all the congregational hymns. The bishop who was preaching lost the screen that had his sermon. He controlled his panic and soon has the words in front of him again. David and I listened to the broadcast and found they edited out this painful interlude.

We went to a classic New York diner in Queens for a light meal. John chose it because it was near the best road for Kate to use to go home. After eating, he talked her through the route as he drove in the opposite direction.

033119 JC Kate David Ruth at diner in Queens.JPG — John, Kate, David, and Ruth in the diner

Old Stompin’ Grounds

Traveling to our old home area, David kicked back and made himself comfortable in the car. He pulled the front seat back and draped his legs over it. I couldn’t have slept that way, but he did. It improved my viewing area, as well.

033019 David selfie in car.jpg

We are staying in the home of John’s sister Barbara and Thom, although they are away on vacation. John and I walked at dawn and were pleased to find Dave and Dennis parked at the harbor where we used to visit with them. It was marvelous to see them and hear them say nothing had changed. I took a picture of the old Game Cock Cottage across the water. There were no vibrant colors at that time of day.

033019 Stony Brook Harbor at dawn.JPG

I always enjoyed the mill pond area and took this quick shot of the mill in the distance as we walked past.

033019 Grist Mill.JPG

John checked ahead with friend Ruth to make sure our former choir was still rehearsing on Saturday morning. As the others came in, we got a laugh with the story we concocted. We said Barbara and Thom told us there was a new rule that if singers were going to miss a service, they had to find replacements. Of course, nobody could replace them. I took a quick picture of the choir that was left. John’s and David’s voices came in handy.

033019 Choir without Barbara and Thom.jpg

I was very impressed with Chris, the man who followed me as organist. The organ died, so he put together a system that uses two keyboards and two large speakers. He routinely plays both keyboards together! I could never have done that.

033019 Chris at the consoles.JPG

We had a most delightful evening with friends of long standing. A trip to Stony Brook would not be complete without our seeing Karen and Al. We caught up with news, had a few serious discussions, and laughed over almost everything else. To me that is absolutely priceless. The dinner they served was scrumptious. For the foodies: baked Brie, humus, cheese, Chinese dumplings, baked ziti, meatballs, sausage, spinach salad, Italian bread, apple tart with a fancy name and fancy taste, ice cream, and coffee.

033019 John David Al Karen.JPG — John, David, Al, and Karen

Visiting Other Mountains

Niece Chrissie came bounding out when we drove in. Nephew Chris joined us as he finished his snowboard run down the mountain. They love their mountain retreat in the Berkshires, and we enjoyed seeing it. One of the first photos I took shows Chrissie and grandson David with the ski trails behind them. A few days ago I went snowboarding down one of those trails via cell phone with Chrissie. That’s the safest dangerous thing I’ve ever done.

032919 Chrissie David near chair lifts.jpg

Chrissie has a stand-up desk in their condo for work, but when she wants to be in a larger space, she goes to the lobby or sits on the porch. I wanted photos of her unusual work spaces.

They served us a lovely lunch, after which they swam with David. The fellows chatted in the hot tub, and I took a picture of Chrissie and David in the heated pool with snow on the ground behind them.

032919 Chrissie and David in the pool.jpg

We had a quick photo session before we left, souvenirs for us to keep.

I found this a most satisfying visit, catching up with this special couple and seeing how they live. I was looking out the window as we drove toward New York. We passed some very expensive homes in exclusive areas, and we saw glittering Manhattan from the Whitestone Bridge. I thought how blessed they and we are to live in the mountains of our choice. We don’t need the trappings of success to be very happy with our lives.

Choir Tour from Sheboygan

Our church hosted the Sheboyan Lutheran High School choir and symphonic band. This large group from Wisconsin was fantastic. The first half of the program was choral, and the second was instrumental. The choir had phenomenal diction, better than many professional groups I’ve heard. Their dynamics were astounding, responding to every movement from the director’s hands. They sang their entire half of the program from memory.

The band was equally good. I had never heard any of the pieces before, and they were outstanding. There was one that I found absolutely entrancing. We all enjoyed watching the performance, especially the percussion section, as they rushed about using various instruments.

We brought home four girls for the night and enjoyed talking with them. We had a snack before going to bed, and the girls graciously agreed to pose for a photo.

032619 Sheboyan Lutheran High School choir girls.JPG

Because we live far out of town, breakfast was at 6:30 so John could get them back to the church. They sang for the school chapel service before continuing on their tour. If this group ever performs near you, go hear them! On this tour they sang in Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Art in an Odd Place

Halfway up the steep hill is a rough building that was used as an iron worker’s shop. When the iron man left, his cousin came in with a landscaping and firewood business. All winter this mountain man and his workers split huge logs into firewood. They stacked it neatly at the back of the lot and burned what could not be sold. I laughed as we passed it this morning on our walk. In the burn spot were logs that someone piled and balanced into a work of art. I’m calling it flash art, because it was put together quickly and will be burned in a matter of hours.

032619 Burn pile art.JPG

We had a Ball!

Our afternoon was as active as could be. We had a ball, which grandson David and neighbor Logan (8) tossed in the yard. I was very impressed with Logan’s accuracy, both throwing and catching. David did well, too. If you can, use your cursor to slowly move through the first three seconds. The ball doesn’t appear until Logan seems to pick it out of the air.

The fellows retrieved an airplane on the roof, left from the last time Logan was here. As they began playing with it, horse DW galloped down the pasture and stood expectantly at the fence. I took horse treats friend Sue sent me last year and apples so the boys could interact with DW and Vixen. The weather had been too wet and raw for us to find pleasure in standing at the fence. I verbally played airplane with Logan while David had a long conversation with DW.

Rain began to fall as the young men flew the airplane. Their actions were typical. David pulled up his hood as Logan took off his jacket. Logan pointed out the rainbow and posed with David while I tried to capture it.

032119 Logan David pasture rainbow.JPG

According to Logan, the name of the dog that runs free in the neighborhood is Pepper. Logan and David talked to her, and David sat with her when Logan had to go home. Pepper is a ball of energy and rarely stays to visit.

032119 Pepper David.JPG

Blogger Linda (WALKIN’, WRITIN’, WIT & WHIMSY) sent us a link yesterday to Google Doodle. .https://www.google.com/doodles/celebrating-johann-sebastian-bach

There was an amusing celebration of the birthday of J. S. Bach. We put a melodic line in two measures, and the program added chords to make it sound like a Bach composition. David found it addictive. He continued this morning, sharing the site with John. It was great fun.

032119 D on Bach's birthday.JPG

Neighbor Bob to the Rescue

Good news! The skunk is dead! For some reason, a sick skunk took a shine to neighbor Joyce, or at least the area around her house. I saw it twice when she texted me that she could see it in the pasture. Although it should be a nocturnal animal, we saw it shuffle between her shed and ours in the middle of the day. One night the stench was so great that Joyce couldn’t sleep, even with a blanket over her head. The skunk finally died on Joyce’s driveway, luckily without spraying anyone on the street. Neighbor Bob looked at it, waited some hours to make sure it hadn’t moved, and took care of the carcass. He told us this morning that despite his waiting, the skunk’s body was not totally stiff. Needless to say, our neighborhood smells a lot better now. Thank you, Bob!

On David’s day off, we went up on the Blue Ridge Parkway for the first time this year. Driving there is like a mini-vacation for me. The road is high up on mountains when it isn’t actually on a ridge. There are sweeping views of ridges to the horizon, often filled with that blue haze for which our mountains are famous. There wasn’t much color at higher elevations, but we saw tons of icicles hanging from boulders beside the road. The breezes coming up the slopes were sweet, with not a hint of skunk odor. I asked David to pose with the Woodfin Cascades behind him. We could hear the roar of the water, even at that great distance. He added an appropriate splash of blue to the pre-Spring landscape.

031919 David with Woodfin Cascades to left of his shoulder.JPG — David with the Woodfin Cascades to the left of his shoulder

Reconstructed Rind

I had a tough mandarin to crack, so grandson David started it for me. He often peels his in a circular way, ending with one spiral piece. I said I would do it that way because he gave me a good start. As he peeled his, he said, “Cousin Anders is awesome at this. You should see him do it.”

After I ate the innards, I put the shell back together, not terribly successfully. Now David is really good at balancing things and fitting pieces together. His fingers are calibrated to a finer precision than mine. Can you see that his rind is smirking right into his hand? Mine turned its back and had a squinty-eyed scowl.

Thank heavens we quit when we did. If we’d squeezed them to make them talk, who knows to what silly depths we would have fallen.

031519 David's orange and mine.JPG

Snowboarding with Chrissie

Niece Chrissie wrote about enjoying the slopes and taking me with her down the mountain. Snowboarding by phone was tremendous fun, but I had no photos to share. Click here to see her post about our shared adventure, Part 1. She includes pictures of David and me, as well as one of herself. If you continue to Part 2, you can see videos she and husband Chris made last November and yesterday. Here is your chance to go down the mountain just like I did!

Chrissie is the one who encouraged me to write and helped me set up my blog. This has added another dimension to my life, and I am most grateful to her.

Snowboarding!!!

Life is exciting in the mountains! I went snowboarding today! I was in my kitchen in the Smokies, and niece Chrissie was snowboarding down her mountain in New England. She took me with her by phone, up the lift and down the slope. Whee! It was great fun. She is so technically savvy that she could talk while whizzing down. She paused from time to time to show me a windmill, their condo building, other trails, her husband Chris going down ahead of her, the junction with a ski trail, her feet on the board, and the slow sign at the bottom. She pointed out that Chris was using his toes. She is working on that, but is more comfortable on her heels. If I had been adroit with my phone, I would have taken a screen shot to include here. David came in to catch the last half of the run and could greet his cousin when I turned on my camera. This was a marvelous experience that I would like to repeat. Next time, maybe I’ll stand up and burn a few more calories.