Thanksgiving

Ellen and I had two Thanksgivings this year. We went to Katie and Savanna's on turkey day. Had the full traditional meal with all the fixins! Lovely meal and good singing of Thanksgiving hymns afterward. That day included K, S, and Brendon, Jim and Mary, Tye and B, and Ellen and myself. 

                              Thanksgiving dinner at K&S's

Jim and  Mary came home with us and on Friday we went to the Putney Craft Tour. Lots of interesting artist studios. J&M bought a door knocker and a decorative tile for their new house. We bought some cheese. 

                       Cheeses at Parish Hill Creamery

                                   Felted toys - really cute! 

Friday eve we played two games of Scrabble with J&M. I think Ellen won one and Mary the other. 

Saturday we worked on some projects in the a.m., and then went to John & Cynthia's for a second  thanksgiving. This one was vegetarian. John prepared a yummy casserole with sides of Brussel sprouts and kale. Very nice! We toured John's Hermitage he's built from salvaged materials. Very sweet little cabin which will be very sweet when it is finished. We talked until 9pm or so. A nice day! 

John coming out of the new Hermitage

                                                                  Side view

                                         Yummy casserole

                                           Ready to eat 

                                             John and Cynthia

Pool time

I've mentioned in earlier blogs the new swimming pool at the Colonial Inn and promised photos. I try to go at least a couple of times a week. Last time I remembered to take the iPod and got some photos.

The new pool. It has a uniform depth and wider lanes than the old pool. Dedicated lap swimmers like it, but I do not particularly like it, and prefer to swim in the old pool. 

The new hot tub. The old one was outside under a cupola, and was more pleasant. The old one was made of wood. You could see the sky and enjoy the contrast between cold air and hot water. This is sort of sterile. But the water is hot.

The fitness room. I haven't been using this equipment but I keep thinking I should.

The old pool. The big advantage of having the new pool is that this one is less used now. I have often had it to myself. I prefer the ambiance. Plus, you can step down into it, which you cannot do in the new pool, and it is graduated in depth, so you can do warm-up walking in the shallow end before swimming. I like that. 

Cranberries and fajitas

Saturday, we went to the Cranberry Fair at the First Congregational church in Amherst, MA. It is essentially a very large rummage sale, but not just clothes, but everything. Katie, Savanna and Brendon were all involved in it as volunteer helpers. Also, a friend, Alice, who used to be a member at First church, and is now a member at the Guilford church, was in charge of the "higher end white elephant room," and wanted help packing things up at the end of the day to bring back to Guilford for its Christmas Bazaar, which includes a huge white elephant table and is held on Dec. 4th. So we hung out for a few hours, had lunch there, helped pack up and brought back select items for Guilford.

At the entrance to the Cranberry Fair, you were met by this booth where Dusty and Dorothy were serving free cranberry punch. 

Then at 4 pm, we met Julie and Jerry to see the movie Spotlight, which is quite a gripping movie about the Boston Globe's revelation of widespread, systemic child abuse by priests, and its coverup, in the Diocese of Boston, with the knowledge of Cardinal Law. It held us riveted for a couple of hours. While we were doing that, Mimi and Tamar we watching Peanuts. Then afterward we all went to Mi Tierra, a Mexican restaurant, where we had a good meal. 

                      Supper with the Feinlands at Mi Tierra. 

                                   Mi Tierra interior

We got home close to 11 pm, and then I still had to make sure all the music was ready for choir Sunday morning. So it was pretty late by the time I got to bed. But then I didn't sleep that well.

Today we had a really good choir at Dummerston. We started with I want to thank you, Lord, by Moses Hogan as an Introit, and our anthem was a shape note hymn, Gratitude, which is really rousing.

After church, Ellen scooted down to Guilford to rehearse recorders for a Sunday in Advent, while I hung out with John and Cynthia at the church coffee hour, and then we met Ellen at Panda for a good dinner together. I was pretty tired by then, not having slept well, so I came home and took a nap while Ellen did some grocery shopping, and then we had a good supper and I went off to a Carmina Burana rehearsal. 

Meanwhile, Betsey, Rob & Katie left today on a two-week journey to several National Parks and other scenic areas in WY, OR, CA, NV, UT, and AZ. It should be a wonderful trip and it is amazing that Betsey feels able to do it. We look forward to seeing pictures and hearing all about it. 

A catholic experience

Yesterday Ellen and I sang with Hallowell at a memorial Mass for children who had died during the past year, held at St. Michael's RC Church - always a poignant service which we have participated in, in past years. The new, young priest who led the service was very personable and earnest, but he seemed to be to be more traditional than his predecessors. He gave a great deal of attention to ritual acts  -  e.g., he spent an extraordinary amount of time using the censor around the altar. He also used bells a lot during the Eucharist. (My somewhat irreverent seminary mates would refer to all this as "bells and smells.")  Nonetheless it was a lovely service and our singing was very much appreciated. I didn't take pictures during the service, of course, but took one afterward, which has our beloved Tony Barrand in the foreground - he was able to sing with us on this occasion.

                                 The chancel at St. Michael's RC Church

Today (Thursday) it has been raining all day. I was up very early around 6am, photographing old sermons for the digital archive, but then came back to bed and slept until noon!  Meanwhile, Ellen had gotten up and made herself cozy, knitting a scarf by the fireplace. Robin Davis came by unexpectedly at about 1pm and  found both of us in our PJ's! We had a good visit with her. She left after three and Ellen had to prepare a little supper for another Hallowell gathering - we sang for someone at 5pm with a small group and then had our little supper with them before the full, monthly Hallowell rehearsal at 6:15pm, which was attended by about 26 people. Our rehearsals are always wonderful experiences, and often quite moving, and this one was no exception. One of our members shared with us his experiences around the recent death of his dad, and the tears flowed. It's wonderful and perhaps a bit uncommon to be part of a group where that kind of sharing takes place so often and so naturally. 

Flour, Wood and Soup

Today, Ellen went with Eliza and Robin to the King Arthur Flour store in Norwich, VT, about an hour's drive. They had a great time. All interested in cooking and baking. The KA store is incredibly well/stocked with all kinds of things relating to baking - special mixes, equipment, etc., plus a very nice cafe.

I stayed home, brought in yet another cart-load of wood, fixed my lunch (Eggie-rice- which was a Tolles family fav., and I love it -  brown rice, finely chopped veggies, and two eggs, beaten up and fried like a pancake), and then worked on printing out word sheets for River Singers. (Mary Cay likes getting us "off our music.") Then I went to the soup supper the church is now putting on before rehearsal-convenient for us and a money-maker for them. I had cauliflower/cheese soup. It was good. 

                       "...out cuttin' more wood."

                           Soup at Westminster-West church

Day of music

Today has been music-filled and continues to be. Our service at Guilford Church this morning was filled with spirited singing. The choir sang two anthems, and there were more than the usual hymns because Lise incorporated several additional hymns into her sermon, as a way of responding to the violence which had taken place in recent days . .. "if you can't pray, sing."  (Thomas Merton). The Annual Meeting of the church was held after the service, and the good news there was that the budget for 2016 of $100,000 income from pledges had already been met and more, which may be a first!  Then we went to the chant workshop for the afternoon session, and this time a very spirited and witty rabbi, Rabbi Moshe, led us in Hebrew chants. Now I'm at the Putney School, waiting for a rehearsal of the Carmina Burana. Ellen dropped me here and has done on to the movies to see Grandma. It is her birthday today, and she's giving herself a little birthday treat.

Yesterday, Ellen had a birthday party with several other women who share her birth date, plus a few who have November birthdays close to the 15th. It is a very nice group, and she had a good time.

Ellen at her women's birthday lunch

Robin Davis, also a Nov 15th birthday woman

Patrice, Robin and Mary Alice at the birthday lunch

While Ellen was at her party, John came over to the house and we had a chance to talk, keeping warm by the woodstove. It has turned chilly, and it was too cold for him to work on the Hermitage without getting very cold hands, so he had a free afternoon.

I am gradually transforming an archive of sermons on paper into an archive I can store on the computer. What a space-saver!  Here's one from about 7-8 years ago you might find interesting (be sure to click on it to get the full page). It should be readable:

 

"Honor Your Father and Mother" sermon

 

Page 2

Chanting

Yesterday, Ellen and I went to a chanting workshop at the local Episcopal church. It was attended by a remarkably large number of people who are interested in chanting! The morning session was led by Amer Latif, a local college prof who is a Sufi Muslim, so our chanting was in that tradition. There was also a presentation by Leslie Fischelman on how chanting affects the brain. We weren't able to attend yesterday's afternoon session, but we will go this afternoon after church.

                   Waiting for the chanting workshop to begin

A rainy day

Today was a rare rainy day - a good day to work indoors. I was inspired by my friend Luther Durgin, who has cleaned out all his old sermon files, to begin to do likewise. I took hundreds of pages to the recycle bin, but not before taking photos of some. Many more to go. It has been very interesting to revisit what I was preaching about back in the 1960's and '70's!

I also got in a swim today. The new pool and hot tub are now open. The new hot tub is quite a contrast to the old one which, alas, was destroyed by the building project. The old one was outside, which I liked, made of wood, dimly lit, and quite relaxing. The new one is inside, white fiberglass and brightly lit. Not relaxing in ambiance at all; very sterile environment. It feels like a hospital therapy pool. Oh well, the water is wet and warm anyway. 

Out to lunch

Today we went out to lunch with Luther and Diane Durgin at the Whetstone Station Brew Pub in Brattleboro. I've known Luther for almost 60 years. He's a bit older. He both preceded me and followed me as pastor of the Dummeston church back in 1956-57. I was summer pastor in 1956, he then took over in September when I went back to seminary for my third year, and then I took over after his year at the DCC when i returned to become the regular pastor in June of 1957. Diane is also a pastor, and was the interim minister at Centre Church in Brattleboro back when Shirley and I were still at the Guilford Church. They are now retired and live in Winchester, NH. We have a lot in common and enjoy seeing them from time to time. They, like us, are dealing with questions of where to live in these later retirement years. It was our first time at this restaurant under its newest incarnation and we liked it.

                 The view from our table at the Whetstone Station Pub. 

The view out the window is of the Connecticut River, the bridge to New Hampshire, and Wantastiquet Mountain. 

                              Luther and Diane Durgin

Continued good weather

This has been an amazingly mild and sunny November so far. And looking ahead, it will continue to be fairly mild, but with some showers Thursday.

Ellen put on the coffee hour at Guilford Church on Sunday, with me helping to schlep and in charge of making coffee. It was very successful in the sense that almost everything got eaten up. 

Sunday evening we went to the "Best of Show " screening of Very Semi-Serious, a delightful movie about New Yorker cartoonists. Cartoonists are sort of an eccentric lot, but interesting for sure. Roz Chast is as funny in person as her cartoons. It was fascinating to see the people behind our favorite cartoons.

Monday was the final session of our Osher classes. Tom Toleno wrapped up his presentation on Malawi with a video of animals in the bush. The final session on water was also mostly videos - very interesting. One told the story of a proposed federal dam on the West River back in the 1930's which would have put several nearby villages under water - West Dummerston, Williamsville, Newfane, part of Townshend, etc. Citizens rose up and fought it tooth and nail. And they won. The government gave up the idea of one big dam in Dummerston and opted for two smaller ones in Townshend and Jamaica as a flood-control measure. Those dams put some houses under water, but no villages. One of the photos showed a group of men holding rifles standing on the steps of the West Dummerston Baptist Church, ready to defend their homes against the Corps of Engineers with armed force if necessary! Maybe this provides some background on why Bernie is a bit soft on gun-control! 

Two films

We just saw two very good movies (in the Film Festival), very different from each other but related in a way. The first was Plastic Paradise. The title is ironic. It's really about plastic hell. It's about the trillions of tons of plastic of all kinds that has ended up in the oceans of the world and is destroying them and the life in them. And ultimately us too, because our life depends very much upon the health of the ocean. The central focus of the film was The great pacific garbage patch - a vast collection of plastic waste created by ocean currents, not unlike what happens when you flush the toilet. It can be as large as the continental U.S., and is mostly underwater. It drifts with the currents, and  some of it ends up on islands that interrupt the currents, like Midway Island.

The film graphically portrayed the garbage itself, and even more disturbing, the marine life and birds that get caught in it, or ingest it. Every time we e.g., choose to take a one-time use, plastic bag to take something home from the store, we're encouraging the continued manufacture of those bags, and thus continuing the flow of plastic into the ocean, with resulting death and who knows what long-term effects on life of all kinds. We film-watchers had to watch while a dead albatross' stomach was cut open, there to see an incredible array of plastic, including a bag or two. Please use re-usable cloth bags! There was a panel after the film. Two women from Newburyport, MA, spoke about their successful efforts to get plastic bags banned in their city. A representative of VPIRG (Vermont Public Interest Research Group) spoke about similar efforts in VT, esp. in the legislature. It looks like a state-wide ban of plastic bags is deemed too radical. But we may get a five-cent tax on them that will discourage their use. The MA folks said that the more towns that ban them, the more likely the state legislature would support a ban. The VPIRG guy also mentioned a proposed ban on microbeads. I didn't even know about them. They are plastic microspheres used in cosmetics and even toothpaste! They go through treatment plant filters and into water everywhere. E.g., Lake Erie is heavily polluted with them. IL has banned them, as has CA, but the bans don't go into effect until 2018! Meanwhile . . .

                              The panel after the film on plastic pollution 

The other film was titled All the Time in the World. It was about a family (mom, dad and three kids),  who decided to leave their busy, suburban lives for nine months and live in a remote cabin in the Yukon Territory. The film was made by the mom. No film crew. No electricity. No clocks. No devices. Cabin miles and miles from human habitation. Deep cold. They managed to do it! Everybody pitched in. They all worked hard, including the youngest child (5 years old?), played together a lot, read a lot, slept long hours in the depth of winter, spent a lot of time outdoors ( e.g. In getting water everyday and wood for fuel), and were very sad to leave their cabin. It was a lovely film in many ways. Their life was virtually plastic-free. Sure as heck no one-use bags! They were very in touch with the natural world around them. It would be interesting to see a sequel about their life after they returned. Did that experience fundamentally change the way they lived? 

One could not see these two films and not turn a very critical eye toward ones own life. 

A balmy evening in Brattleboro

What an incredibly warm day this has been for Nov. 6th! I brought in more wood this afternoon and then this evening we went to a Hallowell sing at a Day of the Dead commemoration at Experienced Goods, which is Brattleboro Hospice's thrift shop and main money-maker. A shrine had been set up where you could leave a note or light a candle for a loved one, and at 6pm about 18 of us gathered to sing. We had a good audience.

The Day of the Dead shrine and part of Hallowell. 

Then we walked up to the Library to hear Tony Barrand and Keith Murphey sing old Vermont songs from the Atwood family collection from Dover, VT. That event was packed! It is always a delight to listen to Tony and Keith. The program they did tonight was made into a CD called On the Banks of the Coldbrook. Google that and you'll learn all about what we heard tonight. 

           Tony and Keith

This was just one of about six amazing things happening in Brattleboro tonight! The town was buzzing, and the unusually warm evening made it all the more magical. We are so lucky to live here! 

Visit with Mimi

Yesterday we went to Northampton to spend some time with Mimi. It being Election Day, she had the day off. First we went to the house and played with Theo:

         Theo is cute!

Then we went for lunch at Paul & Elizabeth's. Very nice. 

          Paul & Elizabeth's

       Our sweet granddaughter ! 

Lunch was followed by a little Harrell's ice cream. Then we went to the Northampton Farmer's Market. There were at least two familiar Vermont farmers there. Mimi won a coupon that entitled her to a $1 pumpkin which she later made a pie with. She filmed the whole process. Go to YouTube and search  "The Great Pumpkin Pie Disaster." It's a riot.

    Fall color at the Farmer's Market

Then we had to get Mimi back home so we could get back to a rehearsal of River Singers. It was an unusually warm day for November 3rd. We had a good time. 

River Singers rehearsing in the Westminster-West church, Mary Cay Brass, leading from the piano. 

My amazing beautiful daughter

Betsey sent this photo today - taken on their patio in Boulder, CO. Wow!

 You're looking good, Betsey ! You are an inspiration! 

A little under the weather

This past weekend was a mixed bag. I've been on an antibiotic since last Wednesday and it seemed to catch up with me on Saturday. I was preparing the service in Guilford, and Ellen was wondering if she might end up having to fill in for me, which is what she did the last time I was scheduled to preach at Guilford (and did a wonderful job, I might add). But I rallied and felt able to do the service (maybe that extra hour that we were given helped), and everyone said it was a wonderful service. But I was pretty wiped out afterward, so we came home and I went to bed. Ellen went to another movie - Radical Grace - which was about the "nuns on the bus" and she loved it. I felt better Sunday eve after a rest and went with her to see Requiem for the American Dream which featured Naom Chomsky reflecting at length on what is happening in our country economically. It could have been a Bernie Sanders ad. But it was sobering.

I got a reasonable nights sleep and we went to OLLI again today, this time on music in Malawi in the A.M. and Pure Water for the World in the P.M. Both very interesting. The morning featured Tom Toleno's wife Andrea, who is an elementary school music teacher in Keene, NH, and both learned music from children and adults in Malawi, and also taught sight-reading to adults there. She had some charming videos of children singing in school. 

During the noon break we walked this beautiful, leaf-strewn road:

A old road, closed to traffic, near the OLLI building.

This road goes by a pretty swampy area, and I took a picture of this lovely mosaic of leaves under water:

After OLLI we talked briefly with Katie and Savanna, who come to the afternoon session, and then hightailed it up to Bellows Falls, about 12 miles up the road, where we joined Kathy Leo and Tom Goldschmid at a Hospice volunteer training session. We gave a brief presentation about Hallowell, the Hospice singing group we have been a part of for 13 years, and what the experience of singing at the bedside means for us. We sang some songs as well. The group was very appreciative. 

Afterward, Ellen mailed some cards at the BF post office and I took some shots of downtown Bellows Falls at dusk. 

    Main Street in Bellows Falls at dusk

     Bellows Falls Post Office

  

Tonight I'm snug in bed while Ellen takes in 2 more movies. She can't get enough. Next year, she says, she'll see them all if she can! 

Another thing that happened last week is that Ellen spent time with Tamar on Friday, and they worked on making felted pumpkins, which Tamar really liked doing. Here's what one looks like:

Amazing what you can do with a little wool!