Silver Linings...

Yesterday we enjoyed Juan Diego Flores performing the 9 High C's from the Donizetti's opera Daughter of the Regiment. After a wonderfully satisfying meal, in the cozy warm kitchen of the old farmhouse (beef stew and crusty bread), we retired to the music room. Drinks in hand, we gathered around the piano and sang some of the old standards. Beverly was wonderful on piano and Bette sang beautifully doing a few saucy tunes and reciting a wonderful monologue involving an "up and coming cyclist". I even joined in for a few numbers; it's been years since I'd used my singing voice, but it felt good to stretch my vocal legs, as it were. We sang and laughed into the evening. It was delightful!

Oh, I think I may have skipped ahead, forgive me. I stopped in to see Bette at the Tantramar Theatre on Victoria Street on Thursday and, after visiting with her and her friend Becky for a time, it was decided that I would join Bette and her housemate Beverly for a home cooked meal the following day. I was happy to accept. I met Bette at the theatre at 4pm and loaded all of my belongings into her trunk and back seat and we drove down Victoria Street to their lovely historic home on the west side of Amherst. Bette runs the local theatre company and is very active with the youth of Amherst, and Beverly is retired from her post as the Chief Librarian of the Cumberland Regional Library here in Amherst and is also active in the treatre as well as teaching voice. In calling this post "Silver Lining", I mean to point out that meeting these ladies, as well as many other wonderful people here in Amherst, gives some sense to being stalled here for a time. Bette and Beverly insisted I stay with them for the duration of my layover. The though of me sleeping in the woods while I waited for my new equipment to arrive, was simply unheard of. The first night I slept in the carriage house, attached to the main house, and then next night, because of the chill outside, Bette moved me into one of the "warm beds" here in the house. I'm having the best time getting to know these wonderful and accomplished ladies, and I think they're enjoying my company as well. What an interesting twist!


I just listened to my interview on VPR with Mitch Wertlieb. It's a really good interview. Enjoy!