Plays and Music and Life in Ashfield and Julia V

Wow it's 12 days since I posted about Tangelwood and projects. Well, on Friday the 13th I installed the last siding on the mudroom and am now waiting for all teh limber to cure before final nailing, etc. Also on Friday the 13th, a professor and a classmate of Jean's from Felician College came up - without any mishaps despite the date. We went to see an amateur performance of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, a musical mystery-comedy based on Dicken's last an uncompleted, novel. It was thoroughly enjoyable. Once again I was struck by how much talent is waiting out there to provide us with superb entertainment.  Saturday we took our guests to the Williamstown Festival to see the Importance of Being Earnest. It was a very good performance and lots of fun. Williamstown itself is a candidate for most beautiful town in the US.

They left Sunday and I went for brief ride. Monday I started the next project, reframing the large basement doors and then went to Tanglewood to work at a concert by the Tanglewood Music Center ( TMC) Orchestra. These are students from all over the world from mid-teens to mid-twenties who study music 10 -16 hours a day with a great faculty.

They performed Brahm's Tragic overture, Schubert's 8th Symphony, and Richard Strauss' Thus Spake Zarathustra ( Theme to 2001 for the culturally challenged). The Brahm's was as good as I've ever heard, and the rest were up there as well. Amazing for an orchestra that has only been playing together for about three weeks.

Tuesday it was 8AM to 2AM working on the basement doors. We had some exciting lightning storms but only a trickle of rain at about 1AM.

Wednesday we went to Tanglewood again, this time to serve a picnic lunch to 9 of the TMC musicians. There were about 15 couples of volunteers doing this so it provided lunch to nearly all the TMC scholars. Like any kids at summer camp, they were hungry, and like any kids should be, they were very busy. Their small talk centered on music, especially on what they were practicing. It was nice to spend time with talented and energetic young people. It made me nostalgic for teaching. Here are some pictures from this event:

These students were lively, intelligent, courteous, and talented. So  I am not sure why they reminded me of my students, but they did.

We then went to Arrowhead, the farmhouse where Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick, partly inspired by the view of Mt. Greylock which looks a bit like a white sperm whale in the winter.

I took Jean home and then drove back to Tanglewood to hear a performance of some great piano works by Brahm's.

Thursday 8/19 began with two fillings and progressed to finally rehanging the basement doors, the pair of them cover 7 feet in height and 8 feet in width so I used lots of 3" bolt to secure the hinges.

Julia arrived Friday evening. Saturday Jean took Julia to see our local framer's market and the Bridge of Flowers, a trolley bridge converted to a public garden.

This was followed by the three of us going for a bike ride, where Julia took some nice pictures. This one is from Whately looking east over the hidden Connecticut River.

Then it was, you guessed it, Tanglewood, for a concert of orchestral music from Wagner. Julia took this great evening shot looking southwest from the Tanglewood grounds.

Sunday morning we went to a nearby state park where Jean went kayaking and Julia and I hiked to a fire tower for a view encompassing hills or mountains in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Not a bad reward for a 40 minute one way walk.

Here's a photo of Julia and me, one where she looks great and I don't look too bad.