Rain and Sun, Beethoven’s way

Have you ever wanted a fun and quick way to explore classical music? At manuscriptnotes.com Nick provides this with posts about various composers from different ages. His lively comments are easy to read, and he includes a link to the music he is writing about. You’ll want to listen and watch this one, with gorgeous scenes displayed as the music unfolds.

Manuscript Notes

Somebody recently asked me which of Beethoven’s nine symphonies is my favourite.

After going through them quickly in my head, I could only reach one certain conclusion. “As long as it’s not the ninth, my favourite would have to be the one I’m listening to at the time.” That’s how hard it is. I exclude the ninth, because it just doesn’t connect with me, despite it having perhaps the most exquisite of all his symphonic slow movements.

That said, as I get older, so have I come to appreciate more the pieces by composers introduced to me in my younger years. In that context, I have not the slightest doubt that if you were to ask me which one piece I would recommend to anyone wanting an introduction to classical music, it would have to be Beethoven’s 6th Symphony, more usually known as The Pastoral.

Which still doesn’t make it…

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Bird Spa and Restaurant

When I thought we were going to have Spring, I ordered a solar bird fountain. It sat in its box for several weeks until the sun finally came out. While John was away playing with trains, I set it up. I chose the most conservative-looking tip, one that I thought might not spray water everywhere. The spray was lovely, but much too enthusiastic. The height of the water should have been no higher than 18 inches, but it was probably six inches higher than that. Water spewed everywhere on this windy day.

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There is no battery, so the fountain runs when the sun is on it and stops in shade. I held my hand over it and took it out of the water. With the spray tip off, the fountain was much tamer. John would not have been a happy camper if he had seen how far the water sprayed the first time. In the second photo, you can see how far the water dampened the deck before I squelched it.

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I put fresh seeds on the deck and retreated to my computer to see who would come to the bird restaurant or explore the water feature first. A song sparrow felt food was more important and swooped down for seeds. A dove perched on the birdbath, watched the bubbling water, and took a drink from the pool. A bawdy blue jay wanted to go skinny-dipping, but he lost his nerve and flew off. I was pleased to see a female hummingbird sip sugar water. The males return first, followed by the females. This must be nesting time for them.

Later in the afternoon there were clouds floating by. The fountain was very sensitive to that. It spurted up proudly in full sun and exploded sporadically when a cloud went over. I predict the birds and I are going to enjoy their new spa.

Youthfulness

Many older people comment that their doctors look like children. John and I went to a financial institution where we were served by a young man with a full set of brackets on his teeth. In addition, he had heavy-duty bands linking the upper and lower teeth. Despite his appearance, he was very competent. I still had a wild desire to ask him, “Have you graduated from high school yet?”

Neighbor Marla is another youthful person in my life, although she could pass for a college graduate. She was walking Albert as I came huffing and puffing up the steep hill. The temperature was 43F (6.1C). I had already shed my spring jacket on the hill. As we stood talking, I realized my shoe had come untied. Marla noticed my looking down, saw my hesitancy, and held out her hand to hold my jacket. Now that was awareness coupled with problem-solving! If I hadn’t been called a photo-stalker, I might have asked her to pose. Instead of hanging my jacket on her mail post, I hung it on her hand.

I caught a youthful spot of fog sitting on the road. I guess it got lost from its family down by the creek.

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Cracker Etiquette

Is there a right or wrong way to serve salted crackers? I never thought to question it, because all my life, I knew which way was correct. What was there to question? Like so many of my preconceived notions, this one had not been thoroughly examined.

To set the stage, I’ll tell you about the Law of Wind according to Anne. I grew up in the South before air-conditioning was available. Most folks went to church, and they used the cardboard fans in the pews just to stay alive through a long sermon. Since most of the fans were provided free by local undertakers, I eventually made the connection that you’d die of the heat if you didn’t use the fan. Before that, though, I observed that the moving fan generated wind to cool the face. I should have realized it was only a theory. One of my most embarrassing moments came from my faulty Law of Wind. Someone at the dinner table spoke of the wind, and I said, “It can’t be windy because the trees aren’t moving.”

Someone older and wiser asked, “What on earth are you talking about?”

I explained my 10-year-old reasoning, “The trees make wind by moving their branches. You know, like when you use a fan.”

Everyone cackled. At that point in time, I learned that trees did not generate breezes. I wondered for years after that where wind came from. You can list things like temperature, rotation of the earth, oceans, and barometric pressure, but wouldn’t you agree that my premise is much easier to understand?

Now, back to crackers and how to serve them. I’m talking about the standard ones – saltines, Ritz, and club crackers. I need to check this out, but I think the pictures on boxes of crackers always show the salted side facing up. Why only one side has salt is beyond the scope of this post. All my life I KNEW the proper side to add cheese or peanut butter was on the top side where the salt was. Old age brought me up short. Failing eyesight and low light were the two factors that made me question the Law of Crackers. I couldn’t see that I had put crackers on my plate with the salt side down. I would NEVER have willingly spread peanut butter on the bare side. Proceeding in ignorance, I did just that. My eyes opened wide in surprise as the salt hit my tongue and gradually mingled with the sweeter peanut butter. What a revelation! I am going to have to carefully reconsider the rule I followed for 70 years. There may be times when food tastes better when crackers are wrong side up. Could we have a vote here? Right side? Wrong side? Buy unsalted? Switch to bread?

Delighting in Technology

Back when I was a girl, people rarely talked to others outside their town. You either saw each other face to face or talked on the telephone. Calling outside your area (long distance) was reserved for emergencies. When I was in college 50 miles away, I dropped my parents a note in the mail if I wanted to tell them something. Mailing letters continued when I married and lived in New York. It’s a wonder I remembered how to use the phone, since I had such little practice. There was no such thing as losing a phone. There was generally one per household, and it was wired to the wall. This is beginning to sound almost prehistoric. In the early 80s, when we lived in England for two years, we had two transatlantic phone calls. One let us know a favorite niece was going blind, and the other told us my brother’s wife died.

I would never have dreamed of something that happened today. I was walking around in the house, involved with three conversations (texts) on my phone at once. One person was across the street, another in Denmark, and the third in Qatar. That is amazing to me. With a bit of planning, we could have seen each other’s faces as we talked! I cannot imagine the inventions that will come in the future, but I hope people will delight in them.

7010 Kathie on 3rd birthday talking to E

The photo: In 1970 I took a picture of niece Kathie on her third birthday in NC talking to her grandmother (my mom) in TN. Note the wire attached to the clunky phone. I suppose I was impressed with our modern technology at the time!

Three Resets!

Three big resets fell on the same day. So far, the outcomes are good.

My brother Bob had a pacemaker implanted, and Beth let the family know he was doing well. It was only two hours from the time they took him until he was back in his room. He will spend one night in the hospital, have an x-ray, and if all is well, he should be home by noon.

Daughter Lise waited for weeks to find out if she would be hired by the company that bought the one for which she worked. She was one of the first to find out that she will be working for a former boss that she liked.

The first reset could have been a life-or-death matter. The second was a life matter. The third was just a major annoyance. My tiny laptop did not have enough storage space from day one. The final notice came that in two weeks the laptop would no longer be supported because the operating system was out of date. Knowing it would be more vulnerable to hacking, I took the drastic step of resetting it. Everything was removed, and the original system was restored. There ensued hours of updating, and the verdict isn’t in yet.

I took a ghostly photo that might have been a major reset for some bird. Having washed the glass only yesterday, I knew a bird smashed into the door today. There was probably a loud thud, but I wasn’t in the room to hear it. Golly Pete! What if it was a bird-sized angel????

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There was more activity at the hummingbird feeder. The tiny birds needed to stock up if the temperature went below freezing, as forecast. This was the first day I saw a hummer successfully sip from the new feeder. For days he hovered over it, not knowing what to do. I thought there was just one bird, but toward dusk there was a high-speed chase as one bird hurled itself at another. In the picture, can you see the bird’s feet curled up in the air as his wings made a blur?

041918 Hummingbird hovers.JPG

15-Hour Spring Break

We set off for South Carolina, seeing snow on the mountain tops around us. There were even a few cars coming down from higher elevations that had snow icing on their tops. The further south we drove, the more advanced the evidence of Spring. I was shedding layers all along the way. We met John’s sister Chris and husband Steve for lunch to celebrate all our birthdays. As we went into the restaurant, I noticed bushes were laden with Spring blooms.

After lunch we went back to Chris and Steve’s house for birthday cake. I asked them to pose with the cakes, keeping in mind that one friend thinks I stalk people with my camera. Can you tell if they are cringing?

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We were delighted to visit with their daughter Barbara. We hadn’t seen her for perhaps a year. I am not good with time or numbers, but it seems to have been quite a while. The time flew by, and we left a couple of hours later than we had intended. As we were leaving, I included myself in the punishment by asking for a selfie. Chris’ face was photo-bombed by my hair. Barbara was tending to dogs inside and managed to escape being photographed. One of these days I might learn to leave that camera in my pocket.

041618 Summerville selfie JC AM Chris Steve.JPG

The drive home was uneventful until we began seeing snow in the headlights in Asheville. We reminded ourselves to bring in the hummingbird feeders. The sugar water had not frozen, but the ant moats above them were solid ice. If ants discover your feeder, there will be a steady stream of marauders the rest of the summer. To stop them, hang a moat filled with water so that they drown on the way down.

The next morning neighbor Joyce stopped her car to speak to us, as we were walking and she was going to work. She had not taken in her hummingbird feeder. The water was still moving, although there was ice on top. The first thing we did when we got home was to put the feeders out again. Before we finished breakfast, one little bird had his first sip of the day beyond the porch. I took a picture of my deck, with the usual squirrel raiding the bird seed under the hummingbird feeder. The snow will melt when the sun reaches it. The birds have not yet learned how to use this new type of feeder. Perhaps they will be desperate enough to try it.

041718 Squirrel and new hummingbird feeder.JPG

We are again waiting for Spring to come to stay.

Post Announcement – Spring!

I think John said it was 49F (9.4C) degrees when we went out to walk. All I know for sure is that my spring jacket had to come off. The neighbors near the stop sign had given me permission to borrow their mail post until I came back from the creek. What life-savers they are! After picking up the jacket, I shed the light windbreaker, too. We may still have a few more cold days, but the post has officially declared it is now springtime.

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Just ten days before, Marla took a photo of my heaviest sweatshirt and knit hat on their post. She had a slightly different angle from the one I took. Many people viewed it on her Facebook page.

040318 Marla's take on my jacket warming her mailbox.jpg

As we ate breakfast, I saw a hummingbird hover by the red crystal in a garden wind-spinner. I jumped up and put sugar water in the microwave to boil. It didn’t take long to cool. When we sat in the same chairs for lunch, a hummingbird stayed on the feeder long enough for me to tell John to look. We both saw it. I also saw one check out the feeder on the deck near my computer. Within an hour, he was back, tasting nectar from all three flowers on the feeder. The flowers share the same well of sugar water. I’d love to ask that bird if it tasted better from one flower than another.

April? Where are You?

We had instantly-melting snow last night, so I didn’t expect to see anything unusual today. The mountains are trying to teach me to take nothing for granted. We set out for Tennessee on the interstate highway. There was rime ice on some of the steeper mountains. It was a bit late in the season to see it, but you can’t argue with wind, moisture, and low temperatures.

We easily found the church in Sevierville that John had discovered on line. We were skipping church in Asheville in cheerful protest. They were having a bluegrass concert instead of a formal worship service. We heard the group last year, and it was excellent. Our complaint was not against the band, but about calling a service “liturgical worship” when there was no liturgy. We were welcomed as we walked in. Glancing at the bulletin, we could see that every part of the service was there. Most surprising was hearing the pastor and congregation chant it. Wow! What a reward for our drive over there!

Neighbor Marla, who used to live in that area, suggested several restaurants we might like. She knows we prefer locally-owned eateries. Holston’s Kitchen was excellent. We ate leisurely and headed home on the back roads through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This was now mid-afternoon, when you’d expect all traces of yesterday’s weather to be erased. We could see whiteness on a distant mountain, wreathed in clouds.

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As we drove upwards, ice from the trees began falling on the car.

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Traffic came to a halt, and we soon saw there were three small bears playing in the woods. Every car paused as a hand extended, holding a cell phone. John dutifully waited for me to aim my camera. Although I had zoomed in, you can’t really distinguish bears from the black spot in the picture. They were very cute, paying not a bit of attention to the big disruption on the road.

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We were heading for Newfound Gap. John drove into a pull-off area so that I could get a photo of the wintry scene. Icicles were hanging from the road sign.

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The last picture was taken from our moving car, showing more of the ice and snow.

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We had not expected a winter’s drive on the 8^th of April, but we enjoyed the beauty all around us. As we came to lower ground, we saw little white wild flowers by the road and clumps of lavender blooms at the edge of the woods. Soon we were again surrounded by blooming red bud trees, tulips, and late daffodils. Spring is coming, as the weather takes two steps forward and one step back.

Free Lunch with my Best Friend

You could have a free lunch with your best friend, too. Here is what happened to me.

One of my best friends and I were texting each other, just chatting really. We talked about enjoying being alone in our houses for short periods, why I examined the meat from the nearest BBQ restaurant, cleaning house (she does, I don’t), cooking meals (I like it, she doesn’t), and eating out with our husbands on Sunday afternoon. John was away for the day, and I had had a very light breakfast. I asked where she would like to go for lunch at that moment. She deferred to me. I chose a restaurant I had read about but not been to. It was The Chef’s Table in Waynesville (http://thechefstableofwaynesville.com). I sent her the link and looked at the menu. I chose the yellowfin tuna for myself and lamb for John, who doesn’t get it nearly as often as he would like. My friend was also reading the menu.

About that time I discovered the place is closed on Sundays and open at 5 pm other days. So you see, technically we met for lunch. It was free because we didn’t eat it. I want to do it again, taking turns choosing a restaurant. Oh, there is one other point. She lives 800 miles away.