Musings

Sapphie and Cabot

Got up in the morning,

The snow had all vanished away.

And the look in their eyes

Seemed to say to the skies,

"Now, how to amuse them today?"

(With dreadful apologies to A.A. Milne!)

The Robins are Back!

March 23rd was the day they returned to Down Meadow, and I thought they were very late! But they knew something I didn't know...winter would return on the morrow with a vengeance! And they were right! Snow and wind and 20* F...think I'll just crawl back to my beddie and hide for a while under the duvet...bon hiver!!

Saint Patrick's Day Feastings

My best friend's great-grandfather sailed from Dublin and landed on the shores of 19th century Rhode Island, and made Providence his new home...for this reason, my children can claim a vestige of Irish blood, mingled harmoniously with their French, Spanish, Puerto Rican, English and Scottish ties! And so, to celebrate their illustrious relations, we had a delicious boiled dinner tonight for supper...a small beef brisket slow cooked for a few hours, along with whole cloves and 18, no fewer and no more than 18, peppercorns; joined later by spuds, turnip, carrots, onion, and of course, the essential cabbage! And so, my friends, with tongue in cheek, I make a toast to celebrate the connections...Eire Go Brach!!

Snowdrops

THE SONG OF THE SNOWDROP FAIRY

Deep sleeps the Winter,
Cold, wet, and grey;
Surely all the world is dead;
Spring is far away.
Wait! the world shall waken;
It is not dead, for lo,
The Fair Maids of (March)
Stand in the snow!

A Day Without Coffee...

Winston Kouri is the most expressive creature on the face of God's green earth! Check him out! I haven't had a good cup of coffee for a good 48 hours, and this is exactly how I feel!! Larry roasted some of those delicious Hawaiian green coffee beans, a gift from Soe and Colin from their 'moon', and I believe that I shall grind some up and make me a good strong pot of it before I attempt to do another thing! Here's to a revitalizing cup or two of Kauai's best!

Observing the Sabbath!

The Bible is quite clear: ...and they shall hallow My Sabbaths. Terrible warnings are found therein concerning lifting one's finger on the Sabbath! And so, here we are, contemplating, being very careful not to do anything that might be construed as 'work'. We call it Sabbath Rest! ...and on the seventh day He rested, and it was good, it was very good!

Connections

When I was much younger, I used to teach skiing at Bromley Mountain in Southern Vermont. The ski school was run by an energetic Austrian chap called Herman Goellner, who made quite a name for himself as being the only chap in the world, at that time, who could do a Mobius flip on skis. It seems quite tame now, doesn't it, as we watch the Olympic freestyle events, and the amazing somersaults, twists and flips that they seem to do so easily...but at the time, this was quite an accomplishment. He came from Zell am See, near Salzburg, and I often wondered why he would leave the beauty of the Alps to come to our little hills. He brought with him, in succeeding years, a whole entourage of friends from the same village, to work at the Bromley Mountain Ski School. All were excellent skiers, and became great friends, as we lived and worked next to each other for many winter seasons. In the late spring, they would all return to Austria to their families, friends and their summer jobs.
The memory of our friendship was rekindled this winter, when our family gathered at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont, to spend a few days there, celebrating the wedding of Soe and Colin. The Lodge is run by Johannes von Trapp, affectionately named "Hannie" by his siblings. Before they bought the farm in Vermont in 1942, the von Trapp children lived for a while with their maternal grandmother in Austria in a village called...can you guess? Yes, it was Zell am See!