Castlebay rambles

On to Wales!

2011-08-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

After Mayday in Padstow we headed up to Wales to spend a couple of days with Anne Lister, a singer, storyteller, and writer who we met several years ago when she was touring in New England. She and her husband, actor Steve Purbrick, live in Pontypool. Anne connected us with the Llantrisant Folk Club the last time we were in the UK, back in 2005, and we were finally able to schedule a concert there.

We also spent some time hunting standing stones and other ancient monuments. We had seen the Harold Stones before,

but not St. Anne's Well.

A couple of the sites had informational placards illustrated by area school children. Fairies figure pretty heavily in the lore surroundng St. Anne's Well.

This remnant of a stone circle was on top of a hill overlooking the Severn.

The views to get there were spectacular!

On another afternoon we watched birds flying over the River Wye,

hiked past King Arthur's Caves

...found some Welsh bluebells,

...and had dinner at a 14th century pub.

The cable strung across the river is for pulling the ferry across. It's the same technology that has been used at this crossing for 600 years or more.

Thatching has been used for a long time, too!

On to Bath

On our way to London to catch our flight to Kosovo we stopped in the city of Bath to visit the Roman baths there. These were the largest baths in the Roman empire. Since the water is supplied by a natural hot spring, it kept the cost of operation low.

The baths were originally roofed over with a masonry arched roof. When it fell into disrepair and collapsed in the fifth or sixth century, it buried the baths so deep that the ruins weren't discovered until the 19th century, when artifacts were discovered while digging for sewers.

This picture is taken from the oldest intact Roman colonnade in the world - these stones have been in place for 2000 years.

We also went into the Cathedral. This building was heavily damaged in WWII, so all the windows are from the last sixty years.

The ceiling is amazing!

Julia asked if there were any greenman images in the church and was told that there were not. However here is a photo of one of the two that she found carved on the ends of pews.

Mayday in Padstow

2011-08-16T10:08:00.000-07:00

Unite and unite, oh let us all unite

For summer is a'coming today

And whither we are going, we all will unite

In the merry month of May.

Here we are heading into the square in Padstow for the famous Mayday celebration. Mayday was on May 2 this year because you can't have an ancient celebration like this on Sunday!!

Here's a closer view of the Maypole.

The entire town was bedecked with greenery and the participants with flowers. This is a celebration which involves many, many citizens of the town. There are parades all day with hundreds of accordians and drums.

Oh, where are the young men that now here should dance

For summer is a'coming today

Well some there are in England and some are in France

In the merry month of May

Oh, where are the maidens that now here should sing

For summer is a'coming today

They're all out in the meadows a flower gathering

In the merry month of May

The young men of Padstow they might if the would

For summer is a'coming today

They might have built a ship and gilded it with gold

In the merry month of May

The pares are led by a teaser: one for the Red 'Obby 'Oss and one for the Blue 'Obby 'Oss. Here is the Blue Teaser:

...and here is the Red 'Oss. The 'Osses dance through the streets all day to the Padstow Mayday song. Every now and then the 'Oss dies and the song changes:

Oh where is Saint George, oh where is he oh

He's down in his longboat upon the salt sea oh

Up flies the kite, down falls the lark-o

And  Ursula Birdwood, she had an old ewe

And she died in her park-o

Padstow ex-pats come home every year to be part of the event. This is Chris Brinn, who lives in Maine and has only ever missed two Maydays in Padstow!

If you don't have proper attire for the parades there are a number of fine shops in town.

Adventures in Europe #2 Cornwall

2011-07-20T07:03:00.000-07:00

We were in Cornwall the first few days in May. The bluebells were amazing – a fragrant carpet of blue covering the forest floor.

On Sunday some private gardens were opened for charity. We toured a couple of them. The climate in Cornwall is very mild and they can grow a variety of tropical plants there.

It doesn't seem fair, somehow, since they are way north of Maine.

Falmouth Maritime Museum

The Falmouth Maritime Museum is right in the harbour and cramped for floor space, so many of the boats are suspended in a great hall. It's an intriguing way to display the smaller boats.

There is also a tower on one end that houses the elevator and has a lighthouse living space at the top ...

... and a window into the harbour at the bottom

Also in the museum is a canoe which was brought from Canada in 1778.

There was also a display of historic fishing gear that wasn't all that much different from what was used to fish in Maine.

Whilst we were enjoying a beer at one local pub the Falmouth Marine Band marched onto the pub next door.

(Note that they are playing metal trash cans)

Next installment: Mayday in Padstow

Adventures in Europe #1 Cornwall

2011-07-19T17:34:00.001-07:00

We landed on April 29 - just as the Royal Wedding began. Since it was a bank holiday we couldn't get any cash and the only place we found open for breakfast didn't take credit cards.

We had brought about £10 with us so after we paid for parking had less than £8.50 for breakfast. We put all our money on the counter and asked what they could do. We got a nice meal with an extra egg and were on our way!

We had planned on visiting our friends, Anne and Alan Ramsden, who live near Truro in Cornwall. Alan has sung for years with the Cornish shanty group, Rum & Shrub. We met them at the first International Festival of the Sea in 1996 and have stayed in touch ever since. They are great friends and kept us from starving until the banks opened on Tuesday (Monday was a bank holiday, too!)

Besides the incredible breakfasts we walked along the shore, visited the Maritime Museum and the Yacht Club where Alan is the current commodore.

Harvest!

2010-09-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

The Damariscotta Pumpkin Festival & Regatta is in two weeks. We visited the pumpkin patch at Pinkham's Plantation to see how the fruit is doing. That one I'm inspecting is probably 600-700 pounds (43-50 stone or 0.3- 0.4 short tons or 275-318 kilograms). It may become a boat for the regatta. The weigh-off is next Sunday, with $10,000 in prizes (or £6300 or 7400 euros or 68,000 Swedish Kroner) Pumpkin growing is serious business here in New England, but then it always has been.

This verse is from "New England's Annoyances" a song written about 1635

'Stead of pottage and porridge and puddings and pies
Pumpkins and parsnips are the usual supplies.
We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon.
If it were not for pumpkins we would soon be undone!

Derry down....

The size does vary quite a bit. there are TWO pumpkins in this photo.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I picked some of our seedless Concord grapes this afternoon. Some years we haven't gotten any before the birds, chipmunks, and deer got them all.
These grapes make an incredible grape fool - just don't give any to your dog!

Here's a fool recipe (not a damn fool recipe)

Ingredients

Directions

-		1 pint ripe seedless concord grapes, stems removed
-		1/2 cup sugar
-		2 tablespoons water
-		1 cup whipping cream
-		1 tablespoon sugar, or to taste
-		1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Serving Description: 1 cup (US) or 1.04 cup(CDN) or 1.67 gill (UK)

Servings: 4

Container: sauce pan, blender

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

In a small saucepan, mix sugar, water and grapes. Mash some of the grapes to release juice and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until grapes are soft, 5 to 10 minutes. Set aside to cool. When cooled, mash with a fork or, for a smoother texture, puree in a blender or food processor. (You could, instead, put the grapes through a food mill to remove the skins. If you do that you could use regular Concord grapes)
When ready to serve, or up to an hour ahead, whip the cream with the sugar and vanilla until it holds soft peaks.
Lightly fold in the grape mixture, leaving visible streaks of grape and cream. Divide into serving dishes and serve cold.
TIP: Cream whips best when cream, bowl and whisk or beaters are well chilled.

YUM!

Humor is not dead!

2010-09-21T18:44:00.000-07:00

Lee Blumburg sent this link. I couldn't resist adding it to the sign collection. There are 19 other unfortunate stones in the collection.

http://www.jotterofarotter.com/2010/09/20-hilariously-unfortunate-gravestones.html

Department of funny signs

2010-09-15T17:27:00.000-07:00

As opposed to...when?

Raptor sighting

This morning, as we shared breakfast and stories with local author, Van Reid, I looked out the window of S. Fernald's Country Store in Damariscotta across Main Street and saw a mature bald eagle flying over the town and down the river. In how many towns is this even a possibility?

We are working with Van to put together a Downeast Harvest Review as a kickoff concert to the Damariscotta Pumpkinfest & Regatta. We only have one song that mentions pumpkins but we're looking for more. The Pumpkinfest starts with the official weigh-off on October 3 and continues through our concert on October 8, a parade, the pumpkin boat regatta - last year there was a giant pumpkin-shooting air cannon that could launch a 10-inch pumpkin with a muzzle velocity of 400mph! There will be an ongoing exhibit of giant pumpkin art along Main Street - lots of fun!

Family Ties

2010-09-07T07:13:00.000-07:00

Well, in the midst of 19 gigs last month our eldest, Harmony, got married on August 18. Here she is with her husband, Martin Kummer on the dock in Round Pond.
Harmony has left her Hollywood career after ten years working as an assistant director on hit TV shows (Alias, Brothers & Sisters, In Plain Sight, etc). I flew to Las Vegas last Monday to meet her and help drive her car back from California. She'll be living here in Maine for a few months, at least.

Monday, August 30, 522 miles Las Vegas, NV to Grand Junction, CO

I flew to Las Vegas and met Harmony there. She had driven from Los Angeles on Sunday night. We connected in the airport about 2:00. We need to get lunch and she had a gift card for a fancy sushi place so we scoffed down $130 in raw fish at Ceasar's Palace then hit the road about 4:00pm.
We drove a couple of hours north through the Mojave Desert. The road seems to disappear into the mountain...

...then a quick right turn and we're in a slot canyon. This went on for about 15 miles.
This is still Nevada, I think, still part of the Mojave range.
Here's a friendly sign in Utah.
Sunset somewhere in Utah. After dark we drove another five hours through mountains. The moon set about 50 times for us.

Tuesday, August 31 780 miles, Grand Junction, CO to Topeka, KS

More mountains. There's some plant life, though.
Where are we really?
More spectacular mountains - how long can this go on? (answer: we drove about 750 miles through mountains)
Here we are on the final approach to Denver. There were several warning signs for truckers. We missed getting a photo of the Eisenhower Tunnel, the highest point on I-70 at 11,600 ft. That's only 50 miles or so west of Denver.

Entering Kansas. It really IS black and white. We have picked up significant numbers of bugs on the windshield. Time to stop and clean it. We couldn't find any actual towns along the highway for about 400 miles east from Denver. We theorized that the towns were near the railroad, although you would think we could have seen them, as flat as it is.

We watched this storm all afternoon and into the evening. It's the storm that pushed hurricane Earle offshore. There's no way of telling how far off it was from where we were - maybe 20 miles, maybe 100 - distances are hard for us to judge out in the midlands.
This was a huge wind farm. I estimated there are over 200 windmills in this installation. We stopped for Cracker Barrel meal about an hour west of Topeka. When we came out the sun had set and we saw the most incredible display of heat lightning ever. We spent the night in a semi-underground room at the Super 8 in Topeka. If you stay there, get a room on the SECOND floor!

Wednesday, Sept 1 720 miles Topeka, KS to Columbus, OH

Wednesday started out rainy. After a quick breakfast we headed out, looking forward to a less-than-twelve-hour drive!

St. Louis - Gateway to the West.

The weather started to clear around noon.

The farms in Indiana look a lot like New England farms did back when we had them. The landscape isn't quite as hilly, but the trees are familiar.

Still moving east. We got to Columbus to the home of friends Galen and Sandy Pinkham. I had the office address instead of the home address but we managed a cell phone rendezvous and got there unscathed.

Thursday September 2 579 miles Columbus, OH to Sleepy Hollow, NY

Pennsylvania Motor Vehicles Deptartment has a sense of humor.

We thought a picture of our modest eastern mountains was in order. This is northern Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania rolls out the welcome mat for Harmony.
Welcome to New York - we're starting to feel close to home.

Harmony took this shot of the Tappan Zee bridge. She had never seen it. Julia and I use it as our preferred Hudson crossing.

Here is something we didn't do very often. Harmony's diesel Jetta averaged 45 mpg (even though we averaged 75mph)
We finally landed in Sleepy Hollow about 6:00pm. Harmony and I have Van Tassels in our family tree from about 1640 in New Amsterdam. We spent the night with our friends the Coffeys.

Friday September 3 355 miles Sleepy Hollow, NY to Round Pond, ME

The rest of our trip was pretty much uneventful. We did hit traffic at the Kittery bridge - after 3000 miles with no slowdowns! I wouldn't recommend such a demanding schedule (unless you're a longhaul trucker!) but we were hemmed in by various scheduling constraints. Driving cross country is something I had always wanted to do and I'm glad I got a chance to do it with my daughter.

Sign of the Times

2010-08-11T18:31:00.000-07:00

Hello, all!

It's been a bit hectic around here the last few weeks. Most recently we had a brief tour of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, home for a few days and then back downeast for a couple of days at the Schoodic Arts for All Festival. Home a few more days and then downeast again for concerts in Houlton, Lubec and Jonesport.

In the meantime - just what are we to make of this? Julia spotted this sign on Monday.

Honorable Ice Cream

2010-06-02T08:03:00.000-07:00

Is it just me, or do you find this sign humorous?

On Cape Cod we saw this one:

Late Spring Flower Report
Our ugly cactus is in bloom. It flowers two or three times a year.

Also azalea, iris, lady slippers and even lemon lillies; and that's a rose in bloom behind the iris!

And Finally...

Did your mother ever tell you never to eat anything bigger than your head? This whoopie pie (a local delicacy) is supposed to be dessert for one person. We can only manage 1/4 each. Traditionally made with chocolate cookie/cake, some enterprising cooks started making other flavors, like pumpkin.
The following is from whatscookingamerica.net

History of Whoopie Pies
New England Whoopie Pies - Amish Whoopie Pies

Whoopie pies are considered a New England phenomenon and a Pennsylvania Amish tradition. They're one of Maine's best known and most loved comfort foods. Mainers will even claim that they were weaned on whoopie pies. In Maine, these treats are more like a cake than a pie or a cookie, as they are very generously sized (about hamburger size). they're so huge that you'll want to share one with a friend. A big glass of milk is almost mandatory when eating a whoopie pie.

Want to make some? Here is a link to several receipt variations. I make no claim as to the authenticity or taste of any of them.

Till next time - stay well and get outside!

NEFFA

2010-04-25T17:47:00.000-07:00

We just got back from two days at the New England Folk Festival. It was a bit discouraging on the one hand because virtually all the impromptu jamming was non-vocal. The jam sessions are where you can meet kindred (or at least compatible) spirits. We should have seen it coming since this is primarily a folk dance festival and most of the musicians there play for dances. As I thought more about it, I realized that many - if not most - of the vocalists who go to this kind of event have become instrumentalist so they can join in - Castlebay included.

It makes sense. This is communal music and the words get in the way. The only festivals we have attended where this happens vocally are nautical festivals where there are a lot of sea shanties sung. The shantys have simple choruses and veterans know most of the verses (which are pretty much mix-and-match, anyway).

There was a pretty good schedule of song-based workshops. John Roberts, a perennial favorite at the festival, had two or three ballad workshops. All the vocal workshops were in high school classrooms, so the seating at each was limited. The Barry Finn memorial was well attended. Barry was a shanty singer from the Portsmouth, NH, area who died suddenly last autumn. Several of Barry's friends sang some of his favorite songs, although nobody could come close to replicating Barry's intense and emotional delivery!

On a positive note there were a substantial number of young people there - teens and twenty-somethings. That was great to see and holds the promise of a continuing tradition into the future.

All Done!

2010-04-15T19:20:00.001-07:00

April 15
I did my taxes last week so I'm not sweat THAT today, at least.

After setting overnight it's time to smooth the finish over the patches and try to blend it all in. I sanded it lightly with 400 and then 600 grit. Next step is to seal the stain with amber shellac... drat! There's none at the shop so it's drive in to town to get a half-pint. I put a couple of thin coats, maybe three all together, sanding lightly with 600 grit between each. After it hardened up for a few hours I rubbed it down through 400, 600, 1500 grit wet or dry paper followed by 2400, 3200, 3600 and 4200 grit sanding pads. It came out very smooth to the touch, but not shiny like the rest of the harp.I like to spirit off after the last smoothing. I usually use methanol but didn't have any in the shop. I got a quart of vodka for Christmas from my nephew three or four years ago so I decided, rather than drive back into town, I would try that. It worked great - even better than menthanol. Thanks, Sashi.

Time to put it all back together. Now I can feel where the bolt goes in at the base of the pillar but I can't seem to figure out how to get the nut started. I had to take the base off to see what's going on. The base on this harp is mostly decorative and just bolts on. Some of my earlier harps were more complex in the base and go together like a puzzle. This design works fine, the only virtue of the old design is that it's dreadfully clever.

Here is the nut I'm looking for. This must be how I put it together in the first place.

There are a couple of hanger bolts in the top. This photo is looking in the bottom sound hole. It's too far to reach from this end and the last sound hole in the back is too small for me to get my hand into.

Here is a tricky maneuver - starting the nut on the hanger bolt in the top of the harp. The plunge grabber is handy when you don't have ultra-skinny arms or small children to do it for you.Here are the tools every harp builder needs. The socket with an extension and sometimes a universal joint is crucial. The plunge grabber is for setting washers on the bolts and starting the nuts. This is trickier that it seems because the grabber has four prongs but the nuts have six sides.

This is the pin that got bent when the harp fell over. That must have been one helluva thump!

Here she is - all strung up and ready to go home. There were a few creaks and groans as I brought the strings to tension, but that's normal.

We'll take it to Mary tomorrow on our way to the concert in Houlton.

Harp Repair, Continued

2010-04-14T18:34:00.000-07:00

April 13 Clamps off, time for clean up. I made the patches a little bit thicker than the depth of the cavity so I can plane, sand, scrape it down to the same thickness.

So first take out as much as I dare with the plane. It's small, but effective.

I had some really aggressive sandpaper, too that flattened things out pretty quickly. Then on to the card scraper, which you can see resting on the top of the pillar. This tool is one of my favorites for finishing work. It cuts rather than grinds and when it is sharp leaves a surface smooth as glass with no scratches.

Luckily I still had some finish left from when I made the harp four (?) years ago. You can see that the new wood is quite a bit lighter than the old. We'll need more coats.

Later in the day, three coats with light sanding between each.

It looks pretty good! I'll let it harden up tonight and until noon or so tomorrow before I rub it out. If it is too soft even then I'll have to reassemble the harp and rub it down later. I have to get this thing put back together, strung up and back to Mary Saturday.

A New Project

2010-04-09T16:19:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago I built a harp for a friend who had injured her shoulder. I designed it so that she doesn't have to rest it on her shoulder and the strings are easier to to reach.
Mary loves her harp and it was traumatic when she accidentally knocked it over and broke the pillar.

With about 800 pounds of tension pulling down on the pillar it didn't stand a chance when it hit the floor - hard enough to bend the steel tuning pin!

April 9 First I had to disassemble the neck/pillar from the body. There are a couple of bolts Waaaay up top on the inside. When I had kids with small hands around they would do stuff like this for me. Luckily my arm is long enough to reach (with a socket extension) through the bottom of the harp. Next I replaced all the splinters I could find and tacked them with thin superglue. A couple of brads were driven into one side, nipped off, and pressed into the other side. This indexes the break and guards against slippage during glue-up. Next a visit to the Carpenter's Boatshop where they had more soft jawed clamps, a good vise, and fresh WEST epoxy.

Apr 12-13 A couple of days have passed while we were gone to the Ulster-Scots in Maine symposium. I decided that I wanted to reinforce the break, but want the repair to be as inconspicuous as possible. So I made a couple of cherry patches (we called these "Dutchmen" in the shipyard), then used the router to make a template for the cavity - one on each side. It sound easy, but I had to make an intermediate template to get the sizes to match.
The grain of the patches crosses the grain of the pillar at an angle, so there will be a good strengthening effect.

So far, so good. You can see the dark glue line in the bottom of the recess. I don't like thick glue lines like this. It is a consequence of the fracture. There were splinters that kept the joint from closing perfectly, so the reinforcements are, indeed, necessary.

I added a little bit of carbon fiber cloth to REALLY make it strong. The glue pot in the back is for quality assurance. I won't move the harp or remove the clamps until the glue in the pot cures.

Add some more WEST epoxy and clamp. (The vinegar in the background is for cleanup. It will easily wipe off epoxy while it is still uncured) Wax paper keeps the clamps from gluing down to the patches.
I should be able to take off the clamps, clean up, stain and finish on Wednesday. I have to get this harp back together and deliver it to Mary on our way to a harp workshop and concert for the Northern Harpsong organization in Houlton on Saturday.

The Daffodils Are Out!

Here is a shot of the back garden. The front is also spectacular. Julia worked in her garden today and found some carrots from last year.

Three ticks found her. Maybe we need some chickens.

Where Did March Go?

2010-03-30T19:05:00.000-07:00

Music Report

We have a new CD, Bards & Blarney. It isn't available on CDbaby yet, but we have some here at Harper's Wood. Here's a link to the play list and some samples. You can also order the CD from that site.
Besides songs and tunes this CD has some accompanied poems and a story. Check it out!

Road Report
One of the rites of spring the Patch the Potholes. Here is one of our town heroes at work. As taxpayers, this is seen as an effort to try and hang on to our springs as long as possible. It also helps keep the front end alignment a little longer!

Amphibian Report
We had some leaves and brush to burn this past weekend. It's an attempt to clean up the yard and also to get rid of some ticks. It promises to be a bad year for ticks - well, maybe good for the ticks but bad for the rest of us. There were numerous cases of Lyme disease reported in January and February this year, very unusual.
While I was move debris I found this little friend. I think he likes to eat ticks. I hope he brings his whole family.

On the sonic side we now have spring peepers and some of those big daytime croakers.

Flower Report
The season is advancing about a month ahead of schedule, at least the trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens), also called Mayflower, indicate that. I read a British report about the timing of first flowering over there. They have the most complete records in the world. The estimate is that the spring flowers open about five days sooner for each degree increase in average annual temperature.

Tour Report

We're back (again) after a quick tour to Connecticut and Maryland.

In Ridgefield the library is hosting a month's long James Joyce event. Our Songs of the Irish Poets program (which we're renaming Bards & Blarney like the CD) fit right in. The literary bent continued for more concerts in Connecticut, Virginia, and Maryland. The warmup for the tour was at the Southworth Planetarium, in Portland. We did the Irish Poets program with the addition of some slide which were projected on the dome. Nobody fell asleep despite the reclining chairs (as far as we could tell anyway)
It was cosmic!

We're being rained upon mightily tonight. The miniature daffodils are in bloom; the big ones are demanding either some sunny days or an umbrella.

I got back to work on the house today - the old bit. There never seemed to be a good way to finish off the stairwell - a consequence of using full dimension, rough cut lumber. All the spiffy tools Julia got last fall have come into play for making a framed and paneled skirting. Since the framing is so variable it's easier to adjust the thickness of the trim so that the front lines up. The plan is to have the stairway and hall done by Friday in time to host Martyn Wyndham-Read after his concert in Damariscotta.

Our last weekend in Florida

2010-02-23T07:29:00.000-08:00

Here is a photo from our performance Saturday at the Orlando Museum of Art. We were helping out Franco with publicizing the International Harp Museum. Meko was playing a gig elsewhere.

Back to Ocala

We've been crisscrossing northern Florida for three weeks. The Appleton Museum in Ocala is an impressive edifice!

The museum houses quite a collection of Oriental and African art and artifacts. The contemporary gallery had a thought provoking exhibit of modern re-interpretations of old masters. There is a lovely theater inside that seats 250. We had a wonderful time presenting our "Songs of the Irish Poets" program on Sunday. Our new CD, Bards & Blarney, arrived in time for the concert. One of these days we won't be drop shipping to ourselves in the middle of a tour!

There are also some decorated horses left from the 2002 "Horse Fever" festival. These are life size steeds!

Meeting a friend on the road

After our concert we boomed 'er to Brunswick, Georgia, to have dinner with Yi-Lin Lee. We played for his wedding six years ago and he has remained in touch as he has moved from Hawaii to Washington state. He is currently undergoing training in Brunswick and invited us to join him for Mexican food. The address we had for the restaurant was out of date but after 30 minutes on the cell phone we finally were able to rendezvous and convoy to the right place.

On to Charleston

Monday we explored Charleston, South Carolina. This is a place we hadn't seen before. It was a rainy day, so we went through the public market, a structure several blocks long where vendors have booths for their wares.

There was glass jewelry, woodenware, silver jewelry, local spice mixes, amber jewelry, shawls, arachnid jewelry, and as many as a dozen Gullah basket makers. Many of the baskets were of innovative design.

The sun came out late in the day so we drove out to Folly Beach. It is similar to many other southern beaches: sand and shells, although there were a few stones.

An unplanned appearance at Tommy Condon's

Near the market was a great Irish pub. They have live music five nights a week (but not on Monday) we arranged to play a set of "Irish" music in the evening.

A lovely picture - but what does it mean?

Who wants to speculate about this evocative picture? There has got to be a song or story here. Let me know your ideas.

A Visit to the IHM

2010-02-17T20:21:00.000-08:00

We drove down to Orlando today to visit the International Harp Museum. We had an extraordinarily good time! The museum is quartered in a small villa and open by appointment only. When we called, Meko asked if Julia could bring her harp.
Here's Meko playing a familiar looking harp! In the background are some of the harps in the museum collection.
Here's something you won't see every day - Julia playing a pedal harp. She and Meko jammed on Pacobel, Greensleeves and some other tunes. They got rocking pretty good! We spent way more time than we had intended but had such a great time with Meko and franco, who has been restoring some of these instruments.In this photo the second harp from the left is mid-18th century, the third from the left is 19th century. The fouth harp is an American 19th century. There are also some early 20th century and even one 21st century harp in the collection.There are also some folk harps in the collection. In the foreground is a wire strung Triplett, behind is a Clark and a Troubadour II.

And now a trip to the movies!

Where's the warm weather?

2010-02-15T14:56:00.000-08:00

...so we drove through whiteout conditions near Sturbridge to our first engagement near Hartford, CT. Then to Bethesda to visit Tom and Scottie Allen. Looked at the weather forcast - 16" for Richmond -- doesn't look good for a concert. Holed up in Bethesda with Tom & Scottie for three days. Thank you, thank you!!

Got to our second Richmond gig on Monday with no trouble, and we got to Winston-Salem on Tuesday. There was snow on the ground halfway to Hilton Head!

We finally got to Florida. We had a couple of great concerts in Summerfield and Beverly Hills and we've seen some out of the way corners, like Cedar Key. It has been rainy and cold. The car jumped the timing chain and is laid up in St Augustine waiting for parts.

Today, Presidents' Day, is the first warm day we have since we got here on February 3. Things are looking up!

Fauna Report

We have seen wild pigs, (live) armadillos, and a variety of beach birds. The flora report will follow.

It's Been Awhile

2010-01-14T05:45:00.000-08:00

The studio, alas, is still not finished. All the rebuilding of the upstairs, overlaid onto the holiday season, set us back on the schedule. It didn't take a lot of time to cut and trim this little tree. The angel is less than 2" tall. I was looking for some silver string to use as a garland when I found a sub-miniature christmas light necklace - with flashing bulbs! The whole opreation, from harvesting the tree to trimming it out, happened in about 45 minutes on Christmas morning. We could never have gotten away with this when the kids were home!

Harvest Home
Then there was the apple butter story. We got a few bushels of apples, intending to make cider, but the schedule never worked out. During one of the earlier cold snaps, when we had the wood stove going, Julia made apple butter until she ran out of jars. The slow cooking is the secret.

However we did get enough of the great room done to have a ceilidh in the north half last Saturday. All told there were about 50 who came to our annual 12th Night Bonfire & Music Party. It ran from darkish until midnight or thereabouts.

Holly Morrison has written a great review on her blog.

I Get Stoned
Back in late November I went to the Restore in Bath for a bucket of ceiling paint and came back with a Majestic fireplace. This is a hazard of going into that store with a positive balance in the bank account. We used our own granite for the hearth base (Harper's Wood is built on the remains of an 18th century quarry).

I was looking on line at various fireplace surrounds to get some ideas when I saw a fireplace done out with polished stone. We were originally planning to use our own rough granite, but seeing how the light reflected on the polished stone, and realizing that a flat surface would be easier to put things on, i.e. coffe cups, potted plants, objects d'art, I cogitated on where and how to get some polished stone.

Have you ever wondered what the countertop people do with their sink cutouts and trimmings? Mostly they throw them away. I tracked down a company that had a dumpster full of stone that hadn't been dumped in their back 40 yet so we went on a cruise to Veazie and got as much as we dared. $10 per piece or $100 for a pickup load. If you have good springs this is an outstanding deal!

We got some black/white/gray granite and some yellow stone that looks like it belongs in a Manhattan men's room. This is piled up in the yard; what I used for the fireplace was black granite and African river bottom conglomerate. The African stone was about 10' long and 16" wide, waiting to be taken outside and dumped. We broke it to fit in the truck. The big piece was long enough for the hearth top and we used the rest for the top center of the surround.

I had originally planned on covering the rough edges of the surround with the mantle trim, but the longer I look at that edge, the better I like it. I looks sort of like a mountain range. I'm thinking of ways to retain that edge when I do the mantle.

Coming Attractions
We're gearing up for the annual Renfeast at the local high school. This is a combination concert and meal done by the choirs. We have been doing this for several years now. Early on there were only a couple of dozen kids involved. Last year there were over 80! Over the years they have accumulated a whole rack of resplendent costumes. The boys have figured out that if they sing with a choir they not only get to wear tights and capes, but get to hang out with girls in bodices.

The end of the month we hit the road for our winter tour. I'll do some posts from the road.

DETOUR!

2009-11-21T17:35:00.000-08:00

First Snow
It had to happen sometime.

Construction Report
Well, I got the studio sheetrocked and a new subfloor down, added some insulation and was ready to move ahead when we looked at the temporary ceiling that was in the rest of the upstairs and decided to replace that. So all the projects, material, books, furniture, odd instruments is piled in the studio and guest room. The guest room bed has one of the most eclectic collections ever. There is a lute, biwa, cello and sitar resting peacefully, awaiting assignment to a more permanent location. In the meantime we had some music in the living room with our frien Claire. In this photo are are two cellos, a faux cello, a violin, several flutes, two harps, a didge and a bunch of recorders. And people ask why we are adding on!

We decided that it made a lot of sense to have the sheetrock delivered to the second floor. That meant ripping out a window, but it was clouded anyway, so out it came, along with some framing, and the sheetrock slid in slick as can be. One of the rules of working with a stack of sheetrock is that it is always in the wrong place. The right place changes as the project matures. So the stack has been moved 4 times (so far) It keeps getting smaller as we apply the stuff to ceilings and walls.

These attic stairs were an engineering miracle. Everything held up everything else but it was all in midair. It was a shame to tear them out, but our needs have changed since I built them twenty years ago.

This is only part of the debris. There was a huge pile outside as well.

Putting sheetrock on the overhead has never been easy - until now. I was considering renting a sheetrock lift and was doing some investigation on line when I found a video by a guy who goes by the moniker of NotNormAbrams. Inspired, I purchased four casters, recycled some leftover bits from the Harpsigourd and, voila! a sheetrock lift. It looks a bit like I imagine a dark ages rack might look. I only had five sheets to put up, but it was worth the three hours and $16 that I spent putting it together. I purchased 12x4 sheets and the rooms are about 10 feet wide so the sheets had to be cut to length, loaded on the lift and turned 90°, but all went well.

Here is Caleb lending a hand. He is back after a year raft guiding and diving in Australia, Thailand, Norway, and India.

With any luck we'll be painted out before Thanksgiving and I can get back to the studio project.

School Days

We had a songwriting residency at the Harmony School in central Maine last week. Julia had laryngitis, caught the week before in Bangor schools. I have the Harmony cold now. One of the risks of working with kids; they are regular germ factories. Sickness aside, this was the best songwriting residency we have ever had. Here is the song that the 6/7 grade class wrote*

Civil War Song - to the tune of Johnny Comes Marching Home
I am a Kentucky Mountain boy, my age is just thirteen
I enlisted with the rebels, a drummer boy to be.
I left behind my ma and pa to work the mine and farm.
Now men are marching to my beat and I'm sounding the alarm.

It was September 17, in 1862
At the town of Sharpsburg our brave boys met the blue
The cannons roared the bullets flew as we charged through the mud,
Scenes of horror, screams of pain, the sickening smell of blood

When the gunsmoke finally cleared the carnage came in view
Broken bodies of friend and foe, the crows and vultures flew.
I closed my eyes and limped away, tears of sorrow flowed.
My muffled drum beat all alone as I marched down the road.

I am a Kentucky mountain man, my age is forty-nine
Still the echoes of the war haunt my troubled mind.
When I visit my parents grave as the eagle soars above.
The sun sets on the ballefield and rises with the dove.

*Note: we guide the class in the process. The ideas and words are theirs. This was a small school and the sixth and seventh grade totaled less than twenty students.

Today we did a couple of sessions for the Midcoast Senior College called the Roots of Maine Folk Music. We got right back to the beginning with "New England Annoyances"(1640) and cruised on through to the "Fall of Cutler"(2007) , touching on Seba Smith, the Pigwacket Ballads, lumbermen's songs, and the usual complement of nautical fare. 'Twas a good time.

On the Road Again

2009-10-21T14:25:00.000-07:00

We hit the road last week for some concerts in Maryland. Friday night in Silver Spring was great - a big, enthusiastic audience. Saturday we had a bit of weather when we played in Grantsville. There was fog at 3:00 in the afternoon when we drove over the mountain from Frostburg, which is the big town in the area. Very few folks came over from Frostburg because of the fog and the threat of snow but we had a good concert and raised some money for the Friends of New Germany Lake.

As you can see, the threat of snow was not an idle one!

We had a house concert in Baltimore. This is the 8th or 9th time we have been hosted by our friend, Wendy.

The Long Road Home

We had planned on picking up the new CD on our way home. We left Baltimore 9:30am and boomed 'er up to Salem, NH. We got there about 5:15 and got the CDs. After stopping for dinner with our friend Clair, in Dover, we rolled up I-95 and got home before 11:00pm. During the drive home the old faithful Subaru rolled over 320,000 miles.

The new CD is available through our web site. It will be a few days before you can get it through CDbaby

Back to Work

The sheetrock is up in the studio and spackling is underway. With any luck we'll be painting sometime next week. The next step will be to do some sonic treatment to the space. I'm looking forward to working in an acoustically designed space. I found an internet forum hosted by some heavyweight Australian studio designers. There's a bit of a language barrier - and I'm still in Imperial measurement rather than metric - but there is a wealth of information.

2009-08-12T20:18:00.000-07:00

We're still here - read on!

It's been a while since the last post. After the service meltdown a lot of friends opted out - who can blame them?

Signs of the Times

Here is a headline that caught my eye...

Make of it what you will.

Speaking of signs... this is what we have to contend with here in the midcoast- Gordon Bok worship!

Flower Report

The daylillies have peaked after three or four weeks of blooming. Julia has planted somewhere between 60 and 80 varieties of all colors (except blue) sizes, and habits. Every day is another flower parade.

House Report

There was FINALLY a break in the weather and I reshingled the roof on the old house. Its about 17 feet to the eaves and a 12/12 pitch, so it was pretty exciting. This kind of work isn't as much fun as it was a few years ago.

New Recording!
The new addition has been on hold for a few weeks while we finished up another thanksgiving CD. Going Home - Thanksgiving Music for Celtic Harp is already available for download at Amazon. We'll have physical CDs in about a week, if you want to wait and get them from us. These are all new recordings of some old favorite melodies. Some of the selections:Old Folks at Home, O'Rourke's Feast, Over the River and Through the Woods , Appalachian Holiday, and the titl e track. (Click on any title for a sample)

Damariscotta Pumpkin Festival
This weekend we were part of the Damariscotta Pumpkin Festival. We built a Harpsigourd using a few spare parts I had kicking around the house: a drum head, some harp strings and piano tuning pins, a few bits of wood and some sheetrock screws. We mounted it on a 300 pound pumpkin.

Julia played it on the street all day Saturday. We tried to take a video but we were defeated by our phone and camera. It only has 18 strings, so she couldn't do a lot of the tunes she usually plays. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to get something to post.

Tomorrow is the giant pumpkin regatta when they take the 700-900 pound pumpkins, convert them to boats and putt around in the river.

At some point they are planning to drop a 500 pound pumpkin onto a police car. I emailed Arlo about this: I thought he should know.

Whodunit - mysterious force creates multiple deliveries

2009-06-18T16:14:00.000-07:00

First it was the octomom now it's the delivery service for the blog. I have has it set up with an RSS broadcast with a company that is either in Arkansas or India (it's hard to tell theses days)
The last blog notice was delivered about three dozen times over the course of three days until I disabled the URL. Not being totally savvy about how all this works I didn't do it sooner. It turns out that the script was sending out a notice whenever there was ANY change, including sytstem generated changes (like elapsed time, maybe). Anyway, I felt like Mickey Mouse in the Sorcerer's Apprentice - I couldn't shut it down.

So, no more automatic notices for awhile. I may dust off the old email list and try that.

House Report

The outside is done and work has started on the inside. Here are half of the stairs installed. We also have the electricity activated on the north wall, which is helpful. Running extension cords across the lawn can be hazardous in lawn-mowing season!

Harps R Us
The traditionally-inspired harp I built for Julia was not staying in tune so I swapped out the taper pins for piano pins. It not traditional, I know, but I already built the harp as a mirror image of the original so she can play it right-handed, so it's not like I am ruining the authenticity of the beast.

I have wood picked out for a new harp but haven't found time or space to start. Maybe in the autumn, when the building project (hopefully) winds down. I also have been studyin' on a design for a travel harp. It would be more two dimensional than usual.

Flowers of the Week
There is a field of extraordinary lupines near where we live. Now there are blue ones and white ones and even pink and yellow ones but this field has variations like we've seen nowhere else - blue with yellow spots, white with pink spots, I even saw one that was mauve*.

Julia found fresh moose tracks coming out of the little pond that is in the meadow. When we were there the frogs were tuning up for the nightly concert. They were pretty loud in the late afternoon, they must have been deafening when the sun went down.

*mauve (not a "guy word") = kind of a light yellowish/purple

Post & Beam Country

2009-06-10T17:19:00.000-07:00

The east wall as it was May 30. Those pump jack posts are 24' tall. Those high jobs get to be less fun every year! I have about two square feet on the north wall to shingle. The game was called a couple of days ago for interference (hornets) and is now in a rain delay. If I can get a 30 minute break in the weather I'll have the outside complete.

In the meantime at the other end of the Upper Round Pond Road our friend Russ is putting up a frame. I'm in there somewhere, giving a hand.
The downstairs is for his canoe restoration business. Upstairs is for flyrods, chair caning, and hop drying. I'm not sure where the brewery will go, but he makes a nice IPA and a really good brown ale. Unfortunately I had to leave before he tapped the keg.

Flower Report

Inside the house the world's ugliest cactus bloomed the same time as the while amaryllis.

Here's another look at the cactus blossom.

Outside we have a few pink lady's slippers around the yard. Nothing like it was a couple of years ago when we had almost fifty! I think they go in cycles. There are still plenty of plants so maybe we'll get more blooms another year.

Back to the 18th Century

We played a reception on Saturday at a circa 1835 brick farmhouse. It was to celebrate the excavation of a 1735 tavern, so here we are in our 18th century duds.

Just for fun we did a video on our camera (the same one we use for photos) The tune is circa 1607.

Do you remember those tests we had in school before we could read? The ones where there we pictures of four objects - say a hammer, a screwdriver, a pair of pliers, and a nail - and you had to circle the one that doesn't belong? How do kids fare in these days when you can use a phone to take a picture, send a message or chart a course? We saw somebody using their cellphone as a flashlight last winter!

By the way it's official. Cell Phone Elbow has been recognized as a common malady.

The Road Less Traveled

2009-05-24T17:11:00.000-07:00

We went up to the Alewife Festival today. They have done a lot of work on the fish ladder over the last year and some additional property owners have given permission for the path to run through their back yards. It is now possible to walk beside 70-80% of the ladder.

Julia got some great pictures of the fish. The light was just right. It is always amazing to watch these fish swim up the current.

As we were leaving we had to go through this junction. This is a tee junction: the detour signs point to the only two ways to go. Notice the "One Way" sign in the background. What does it all mean?

Avian Rescue

2009-05-20T19:08:00.000-07:00

We have a wild cherry tree next to the new addition which is currently in full bloom. It attracts all sorts of insects and birds. Today a female ruby-throated hummingbird took a shortcut through the room: in the door and was then trapped by the windows. She buzzed the windows and the ridgepole for a couple of hours. I tried to entice her to the door with some lilac blooms, but she wouldn't come down. Finally she was tired out enough that I was able to catch her on the paladium windowsill. (It wasn't as high as the ridgepole, but I still needed a ladder)

I took her outside and in a couple of minutes she zoomed off, none the worse for the wear.

I did hear her vocalizing, so it isn't true that these birds hum because they can't sing. She had a wee bit chirp and when I captured her a long note.

More Progress!

2009-05-13T16:25:00.000-07:00

First, the flowers

This is an incredible year for flowers. We had a riot of dafodills, now the tulips are coming on. I saw ladyslipper plants today. They shouls be in bloom in a couple of weeks. Last year we only had a couple of dozen blooming around the yard - the year before there were almost fifty!

The violets are everywhere. Our lawn has quite a few but there are some other places nearby where there are just carpets of flowers.

The ferns are jumping up, or maybe they're dancing. My sister tells me that the fiddleheads are ready.

(Note: fiddleheads are the spring shoots of the ostrich fern, which are considered a delicacy here in Maine. They are generally harvested when the blackflies are at their worst, thereby maintaining balance in nature.)

Construction Report

The front of the new addition is done, at least on the outside. Here is Julia finishing up under the windows.

Hand-crafted, that's what we like.

It was rainy for a few days, which slowed things down a bit. On the other hand we had a nice rainbow.

Yesterday the scaffolding moved around to the other side and today the soffits are done. I'll post some pictures of the other side next time.

Music Report

Julia has been working up some unusual arrangements of music for the Thanksgiving holiday. Our compilation Harvest Home was so well received we're doing a second recording. This one is new material.

Tentatively named Going Home, will feature Julia on the harp, front and center. Some of the pieces she's been working on include the theme from Dvorak's symphony number 9, Over the River, and Turkey in the Straw. We're nothing if not ecclectic.

I'll post some downloads on the Castlebay Newsletter when they are available.

House Report

2009-05-07T20:54:00.000-07:00

We have had some nice weather and the blackflies don't seem to like me this year so we've gotten quite a bit done the last week or so. Here are some progress shots.

May 2May 4

The view from inside

Garden Report

The trailing arbutus are very early this year. Julia got this closeup on May Day. Peas and radishes are up in the garden and I think we'll have rhubarb this week.

Strange History

2009-04-09T13:35:00.000-07:00

We have played several times for the October Pumpkin Party in Grahamsville, NY, which is in Sullivan County in the Catskills.

The town of Neversink, near there, had to be moved when the original town was covered by the rising waters of the Neversink Reservoir. I find that ironic.

I just got a message from our friend, Paul Lounsbury, about a Fiddle Fest in Neversink (the above water part) on April 26. It sounds like a good time! If you are living or traveling in the Catskills check it out.

Home at Last (Again!)

2009-04-06T17:51:00.000-07:00

We were only home for two days when we struck out for a couple of concerts in The County. Aroostook County is the largest in Maine and is separate from the rest of the state by 60 or more miles of forest wilderness. From where we live it is farther for us to get to Fort Kent than to Mystic, CT!

We stayed at the Northern Door Inn, which is located at the bitter end of US 1. As you can see in the photo, there is still a bit of snow up there.

We had some time on Saturday so we drove out to Allagash (which is beyond US 1). Allagash is interesting in that the heritage of the town is mostly Irish and Scottish, whereas the other towns in the St John Valley are mostly Acadian French who speak a form of late Middle French.

The upper reaches of the St John River are just starting to have ice out.

Sign Humor
Does anybody else think this sign is funny?

An Architectural Puzzle

In Fort Kent is a remarkable church steeple. It is made of cast aluminum and is like open lace. We asked around and found that the original design called for cast iron, but it was too heavy for the church foundation. In the 1940's the aluminum panels were made to the design of the original. We were told that the architect was from Florida, where many of the churches are built on sandy soil. Has anybody seen any steeples like this in Florida?

Home at Last

2009-04-01T17:19:00.000-07:00

After our week at Flagler Beach we went back up to St Augustine for some more sights and also a concert with the Jacksonville Symphony featuring Paul Galbraith and his 8-string classic guitar.

A new feature in the town is an exact copy of Michelangelo's David, cut from the same quarry as the original. It is in a small garden outside the Ripley Museum. He should really be on a higher pedestal, but the good folk in Florida prefer that he preserve his modesty behind a hedge. All you can see from the street is his head and shoulders.

A Fruitful Enterprise

How could we pass up the chance to pick some oranges? This orchard is north of Deland - not too far from the Cabbage Patch.

We picked two small bags of juicy temple oranges. We ate or gave away half of them on the way north. We'll remember the sunny day when we have our juice.

We did have a concert in Jacksonville and also a live radio show where we met Liberty Pike, an exciting bluegrass band from Nashville. They backed us up on one of our songs, Changes. It was way cool to play with such great musicians.

We spent a few days in White Springs with our friends Walter and Merri. Walter took us out to the only class 3 rapids in Florida, which are on the Suwannee River. The water was down due to the drought. They can be pretty exciting when the river is full.

There were lots of flowers in bloom. The wisteria was full out in White Springs when we were there and these white lillies were along the roads.

While we were in town we helped Walter & Merri get ready for the Wild Azalea Festival. Here is Merri with the purebred wild underbiters in their hippie sweaters.

This was a great little festival with live music, a falconry demonstration and LOTS of barbeque.

We finished up our tour with concerts in Richmond, VA, Pearl River, NY, and Plymouth, MA. As usual we met lots of wonderful people. It's good to be home, but it sure was nice to visit some warm weather!

As we were leaving Richmond we saw the ultimate sign for coffee lovers - $1.99/Gallon for espresso! Eat your heart out, Starbucks!

Adventures in Paradise

2009-03-13T12:59:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pix from our week in and about Flagler Beach.

This is the view from our bedroom this morning at 7:30.

We got to the area towards the end of Motorcycle Week. The biggest Harley dealership in the world is in Daytona, so it is a real mecca for bikers (all of whom are about two decades older than you imagine they ought to be).

At the Big Cabbage Campground they have pioneered the sport of Slaw Wrestling, similar to Mud Wrestling, but with dressing (on the cabbage, not the wrestlers).

We visited Marineland, which used to have a lot of trained dolphin shows but focuses now on education. Julia was able to get this candid shot of one of the residents.

There are several programs where you get to feed or wade with the dolphins.

In Bulow State Park has one of the biggest live oak trees in Florida. It's about 60' high and 300' across.

There is also an abandoned sugar mill (abandoned during the Seminole War in 1836) and several hiling trails.

Washington Oaks is another state park on A1A. Things are starting to bloom, as this harvester shows. We had been here a few years ago for an Earth Day Festival.

Tomorrow we are back to work with a concert in Jacksonville.

Progress Report - March 1

2009-03-01T20:06:00.000-08:00

Great Room
With help from my brother, Bill, and also Eric, Julia, Claire and Paul, we got the last shingle on and the scaffolding off the roof on February 17 at about 6:30pm.

We also got some of the windows installed.The next morning I picked up all the tools, boarded up the doors and we hit the road.

On the Road
Our first two performances were in New England, so we had got a northern send-off as we drove through a snowstorm in Connecticut on our way to Virginia. We had great shows in Richmond and Roanoke.

We try to take some time to see the sights when we are traveling. The Natural Bridge is amazing. We couldn't go under it because it was dropping icicles the day we were there. It took about three seconds for the ice to fall - about 190 feet if I remember my physics.

The Mountain View Restaurant in Buchanan, VA (I-81, exit 168) has good sandwiches at a reasonable price. The view is grand, too.

Going through North Carolina we booked into the Knights Inn. Here is the sign we found on the lobby door. The next morning we took the key back to the Days Inn lobby. It turns out that the Knights Inn lobby is open during the day so we had to return our key there. Does anybody else see the humor in this?

Florida Report
We've had our first concerts in Florida - SRO in Lecanto on Friday. We played at the NE Florida Scottish Games on Saturday. There was time in the schedule for Fred to enter the fiddle competition where he took the award for the Best Air.

Our first few days in Florida were balmy- in the 70's. Just now there is a cold front running through - 31° tonight and windy! We aren't complaining - everybody else on the east coast is getting snow, and lot's of it.

Progress report

2009-02-05T04:26:00.000-08:00

The House Report
In spite of the cold the house project pushes on. It has been -5° to 5° every morning for the last month. This morning it is -10°. As the song says "I maun gae oot, tho' weel I ken ootside it's minus twenty-yin" (from Gloomy Winter's No Awa' by Fred Gosbee and Holly Morrison, with apologies to Tannehill).

We have had help from a few relatives and friends as well as a couple of weeks from Zachary Davis, who is not only a fine craftsman but also a fiddle, banjo, and mandolin player.

The roof panels are on, the walls are covered. My goal is to be ready to do roofing this weekend when the weather promises to be warmer - like 25°.

The Music Report

The Burns CD is done! There wasn't going to be time to manufacture the packaging before Burns birthday, so we had 100 CDs made and did the packaging ourselves. Hand crafted!

This first run of 100 is numbered and signed. I will be shipping some off to CDbaby this week. It usually takes a couple of weeks for them to become available and up to three months for the download services to kick in. In the meantime they can be ordered from us. Best to email after mid-February.

We've been busy

2009-01-14T17:25:00.000-08:00

December 8

We FINALLY got a break in the weather which allowed the concrete crew to come and pour the slab. We had the concrete dyed a brick color so we won't have to tile.

Oh the joys of winter construction! I had to do some surgery to the end of the house where the frame was going to join. In between e had a storm with 16" of snow, so I had to clean off the slab and also the roof AND have the whole yard plowed!

December 29
John Connolly and his crew came with the frame a 8:00am. It had taken them less than two weeks to cut all the joints.

If you look closely you can see our names on the frame. John is still very much a part of the team. This is his 250th frame.

The first thing they did was to land all the parts in organized piles. That took some space! Then the crew went to work assembling the first bent.

Actually it was the last bent. The second and first were built on top of this one.

Then the bents are flown into position. It sounds easy, but it's a tricky operation to get everything in place without falling apart before the trenails are set.

There was a little bit of trimming to fit the existing building but not too much time was lost.

Here is how things stood about noon. The days are still short. It will be dark by 4:00, but these fellows don't seem worried.

An hour or so later they were landing the last bent. Note the sun going down.
Those high tech pins are supposed to be hurricane-proof.

They let me drive a few treenails, just to make me feel like part of the process.

Here come the purlins. They flew them in three at a time. All twelve purlins and the ridgepole were installed in about 15 minutes. (Including the lucky tree)

Here is Andy nailing the tree to the last piece of the frame. A little fiddle music to celebrate the occasion.

December 30

It wasn't all a dream! It's still here!

I'll post some more pictures as work progresses.

In the meantime...

We have finished the Robert Burns recording!
We journeyed down to New England Digital on Tuesday to master the CD with Toby Mountain (who has mastered projects for Arlo Guthrie, David Bowie, and many other well-known musicians) We will issue a limited run, 250th anniversary edition of the project. The first run of 100 will be numbered and signed.

Larry Pro Musica

2008-12-05T20:21:00.000-08:00

We took a trip down to Manchester, Mass, last week to record Larry Young for our new CD. He is adding some fiddle tracks that are really exciting. We were lucky to catch him before he heads out to North Carolina for aChristmas tour with the Beggar Boys.

I have featured one of the tracks with Larry's work from the new CD as a pre-release download on our newsletter.

I take our old Roland VS-880 for these remote sessions. It is so old that I can't archive from it, or restore any archived tracks. It has to be connected to a CD burner with a SCSI cable (remember those?). Since I have to load all the remote tracks onto the studio rig through the analog side I recorded Larry at 48k sample rate to boost the quality of the recording.

Housing Report

Back in Round Pond the new addition is coming along. Of course I waited until it got really cold to make the project more challenging. Here are a couple of pictures. The first is mid-November. The footing is done, much of the sand has been moved two or three times.

The second picture is December 6. The floor insulation is down, the form is done, rebar installed, and I'm running the first loop of heating tubes. The snow is festive, but a nuisance. It was about 35° and wet. Of course, the next day it dropped to 10° and all that snow turned to ice. I worked at reinforcing the form and chipped ice. Rainy weather is predicted, so the concrete has been rescheduled for Friday. I elected to wait on the second loop for a warmer day.

Jud Caswell

Jud was the featured performer at a local open mic last Friday night. He is such an amazing performer and songwriter he deserves to be better known. Most all the top songwriters in the country know Jud but the public is lagging behind. If you get a chance to hear him perform DO IT! Here is a link to a video of Jud at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival doing one of his songs. It will take you back to the summer. There are a bunch of other videos of Jud up there and check his web site for his schedule.

Holiday Concerts

On Saturday we did a show for the Knox Mansion in Thomaston. The duds are a pretty good match for the room. We have a couple of more concerts before Christmas, but I think we'll be in our native garb (L.L. Bean shirt, jeans, long underware, sweater, etc.)

We used the baroque guitar on a short version of Drive the Cold Winter Away - would that we could!

Gift ideas - both ususual and un-

2008-11-24T20:30:00.000-08:00

Part 1: A book for the kids

If you have a young person on your gift list perhaps they would enjoy Arthur the Moose. This children's book was written by internationally-know artist, Cabot Lyford (who happens to be Julia's dad) It is about a moose with seasonal affective disorder who tries to fly south for the winter - without a plane!

Click here to see an on-line preview of the book.

arthurthemoose.com

Part 2: Castlebay CD holiday sale

We are also running a holiday special from now until Christmas. You can buy ten Castlebay CDs for $100 - any mix of our 14 available titles. We'll even pay the shipping. Our CDs make great gifts - give them to people you like who are into Celtic and folk music.

If you have somebody on your list who hates our music give them one for revenge - they probably did something bad to you.

Click here to go to our order page.
castlebaycds.com/holiday_sale.html

Part 3 : Socially Responsible Gifts
Animals from
Heifer International Foundation
I thought I would this links for responsible gift givers. A couple of years ago we were faced with the usual dilemma of finding a gift for an older successful fellow who has everything he needs or wants. We used to give him cigars, patté and booze - all of which he has quit consuming. What we did was get half of a water buffalo from the Heifer Foundation in his name. It was given (along with the other half) to a family somewhere in the Philippians. Heifer usually gives pregnant critters so that people on a subsistence economy can get a leg up.

Here's what Walter Cronkite says about Heifer:

"If there is one thing I could give to the struggling people of the world it would be self-reliance.

Everyone deserves the dignity of providing for themselves and their families. That's why I support Heifer International."

— Walter Cronkite,
journalist and Heifer supporter

Part 4: A Book About Hope

Another remarkable organization is the Earth Charter Initative This is a collaborative document written as a charter for a just and sustainable worldwide economy. The members are largely NGOs, although many countries have signed on. (The US has an official policy of "sustained" rather than sustainable development)

The Earth Charter in Action is a book which celebrates individuals and groups who have implemented the earth charter in their communities. Edited by Peter Blaze Cochran, this is a handsome book and an inspiring read.

Probably the least expensive gift you could possibly give would be a link for a free download of The Earth Charter In Action

Weather notes - or how we got blindsided by the cold

2008-11-22T20:08:00.000-08:00

There's never a dull moment with the weather in New England. Last Saturday night we were en route from our gig in Hampton Beach to our friend Larry's house in Manchester, MA. We passed a bank time/temperature clock and it was 70° at midnight! How fickle the vagaries of the weather - we were lulled into complacency then, night before last it was 11°! There are some plants that haven't been planted and some carrots that haven't been harvested. There's also a slightly damp load of sand that was delivered here last week to finish leveling the floor of the addition. It's now a very frozen lump. As soon as we find the longhandles we'll get the yard cleaned up before the s*** falls.

Recording session and a seisiùn

We were visiting Larry Young over the weekend to capture his fiddling with our portable digital recorder. Larry is a great player and also a lot of fun. We went early so we could sit in at his regular seisiùn in Salem on Friday evening. It was great fun to play some tunes and sing a few songs at O'Neils.
Larry has agreed to do some tracks for the Robert Burns project we are working on. We have about half of the recording started and four pieces are pretty well finished. I still think we can have it in time for Burns's birthday, but it will require some very focused work. If I get a chance I'll post some samples here on the blog.

We're in Cyber-space!

Some of our alert fans let us know that our recording, Harvest Home, is featured on the opening page of iTunes. Thanks to Leigh and Harmony for pointing this out.

We did Harvest Home last year for a Los Angeles concern. It is a compilation of tunes from the Tapestry series with some additional tracks played on period instruments: suitable music for devouring turkeys.

West to Pittsburgh

2008-11-07T13:44:00.000-08:00

You asked for a close up of a Faerie Pumpkin. It just so happens that we have a photo! This is one of the artificial pumpkins. I don't know how they cut them, maybe they use a laser device.

While we're doing pumpkin closeups, here is one of the Celtic knotwork pumpkins.

New Germany Lake

We didn't stay in this cabin but at another nearby. New Germany Lake is almost all the way to the western end of Maryland. We did a concert for the Friends of New Germany Lake. The views were wonderful, although the locals were complaining about a wind farm on the horizon. I recently heard an energy guru speak about adjusting our aesthetic sensibilities. If we are using energy we should be willing to have the source in our view. It's an interesting concept.

Pittsburgh

We scooted up to Pittsburgh after our concert at the Citizen's Library in Washington (PA) to play a house concert for Annie Trimble. It was on the south side of the city, so we didn't have to navigate through Pittsburgh - which makes Boston look like a walk in the park. I spent a lot of time here back when I was an engineer 20 years ago. The view of the city from Mount Washington is spectacular. Many people still think the city is covered with smoke and ash from the steel mills, but the last furnace closed in the 1960's.

One of my favorite restaurants, Piccolo Piccolo, is gone but the Grand Concourse is still in operation, although at the time we were there they weren't serving. We often get stranded between lunch and dinner when we are traveling. The Grand Concourse is the train station built at the height of Pittsburgh's prosperity and they spared no expense. The ceiling is by Tiffany, the floors are marble, etc.

An Amazing Effort - but why?This is not a real magnolia tree. It is a sculpture in a little park in the city. One has to admire the tenacity of the artist in making all those blossoms.

Belated Halloween Report

2008-11-06T20:03:00.001-08:00

The foliage this year was particularly brilliant. Julia took this photo just before we left on out autumn tour.

I had imagined that I would send out some blogs as we were on the road, but somehow never found the quiet time to write anything, so I'll be posting our adventures over the next few days.

The Damariscotta Pumpkin Festival

Five years ago a couple of local guys who had grown a large pumpkin (about 700 lbs) decided to try making it into a boat. After cutting a hole in the flat side and adding a deck, transom, and small outboard motor, they got it into the river and putted around the town landing in Damariscotta. The next year there were three pumpkin boats, then a dozen or so. Last year the chamber of commerce got involved and now we have a four day festival on Columbus Day weekend.

The streets are lined with smaller pumpkins (300-400 lbs) which are decorated by local artists. This spider must have startled anybody with arachnophobia!

The 700-800 lb pumpkins are made into boats. There is now a motor and a paddle division. The REALLY big pumpkins (1000 lbs and up) are in the parade but are too big for making into boats.

We were working that day so I didn't get any photos but here is a video. The outriggers are a new idea. You can clearly see the weight (798) on the white pumpkin.

The Sleepy Hollow Pumpkin Blaze

Our first stop on our trip was with friends in Sleepy Hollow, NY. There they have a month-long display with about 5000 lighted pumpkins. About half the pumpkins are real and half are artificial. The real ones are replaced as they decay.

The artificial pumpkins are often elaborately carved and are arranged in display groupings. We saw life size T-rex, pirates, ghosts, faeries, flowers, celtic knots - it was really amazing.

What is this about???

We live without a television and consequently have missed a lot of popular culture (and also political campaign broadcasts) over the last twenty years. Can anybody tell me what this is about?? Julia took this picture from the window of the car as we were riding down I-84 in New York.Either the giant Bud bottles or the life size orca would be understandable but together?

Adding space

2008-10-15T03:58:00.000-07:00

I sometimes joke 'now that the kids are gone we need more space'.
Our business has crowded us out of the house! We have our offices, studio, harp workshop, CD and book warehouse, and costume storage for our own duds and also the Grand Design costumes.

I mentioned in the last post that I had been shoveling a lot of sand. Here are some photos of the work in progress.

Our land used to be a granite quarry in the 19th century, so the soil is quite shallow. Hence we have no real basement. The blocked in square is to be a mechanical space where we will install water tanks as our solar heat battery. We wanted to build a house here years ago and got as far as making the foundation. After a hiatus of fifteen years or so we decided that we weren't going to use the whole 42 feet. I have been reinforcing the corners to take a post & beam frame and making a wall at the 32 foot mark.

The panels are to keep the ditch from caving in. I don't want to shovel this sand more than necessary.

Oh boy! Another ton of concrete! At least this truck has a crane. The last delivery we had to unload by hand. Horsing those 80 pound (36 kg) bags into the mixer isn't as much fun as it used to be.

This is the view of our back yard. We'll have some big windows in the new room. Our plan is for one big room with a loft in one end. We our going to install solar heat collectors on the roof and a rumford fireplace, both of which will be used to power a radiant floor. Our goal is to have this room operate "off the grid".

I'll update progress as it happens.

Foliage Report

The Great State of Maine published a foliage report. This is our informal contribution. We performed for a wedding last Sunday in Stockton Springs. On the way home we drove up Mt. Battie, in Camden. Here is an eagle-eye view of outer Penobscot Bay and Camden.

As we were coming down Rt 90 we saw this scene and had to take a photo. It's grand just now. October can be the prettiest month of the year in Maine.

Harvest Home!

2008-10-06T19:23:00.000-07:00

Our grapes are coming in by the peck! We can only eat so many seedless Concord grapes while they are fresh and we don't eat a lot of jelly and haven't tried making wine with them. One thing we have tried is Grape Fool. Julia runs the grapes through the blender with some honey, then fold it into whipped cream. You can eat it room temperature or frozen. It keeps frozen, as well. Another thing we have done with excess grapes is to extract the juice and just keep it in the refrigerator. A spoonful in a glass and sweetened to taste make grape juice.

Another Wildlife Report

We have been doing a bit of ground work in preparation for an addition to our house. I have shoveled a LOT of sand, which we had trucked in to fill our foundation. There are many of these little newts, and I also saw a big spotted salamander. Cute, isn't he?

There are nine species of newts and salamanders - eight of them are in North America. These creatures have the ability to regenerate missing limbs and are being studied by medical graduate students, I am sure.

How do you mend a broken harp?

We narrowly averted disaster on Saturday. We were engaged to play for a wedding and reception in Bar Harbor. When I was loading the car the harp slipped and I bumped the top of it. I didn't think anything about it at the time, but when we got to the wedding the harp was quite flat, which is unusual. As Julia was tuning up I realized that the pillar was broken.

I hoofed it to the other side of town and bought a couple of C-clamps (G-cramps if you're British) and Julia played with this extra temporary hardware on the front of the harp. We had to slack the strings in the lowest octave to get the clamps in there.

Don't try this at home!

I glued the break and added a brass plate to the far side of the joint. It looks OK on the back and the bolts on the front aren't too noticeable.

So far it's holding OK but I guess it's time to build her another one. I built this one for her in 1998 and it has been in and out of the car at least 2500 times, so I suppose it was bound to happen eventually.

More Dress Up

2008-09-16T15:58:00.000-07:00

We seem to be on the historical music beat. Last week we did a concert at the General Henry Knox Mansion in the Oval Room. Henry Knox was the man who transported cannons captured in Ticonderoga 300 miles across the wilderness to lay siege to Boston (and created Route 20 in the process)

This building is a replica of the original. Built in 1929, it contains many furnishings and objects from the original mansion.

The Oval Room is, in fact, an oval room. The doors are even curved to match the curve of the walls. The acoustics are wonderful and the ambiance led us to wear our late 18th century duds. The tailcoat is hot and the cuffs on this shirt tend to get in the way, so playing the guitar or violin can be a challenge. I don't have the waistcoat yet. I wonder if there is an air conditioned outfit for Florida?

An Afternoon Stroll
The early autumn weather has been brilliant. We went for a walk down to the shore with Julia's cousin, Tracy. We live in an area where there are many protected areas with public asset. This preserve is called Laverna. The trail goes about a mile through the forest to a section of the coast which is totally undeveloped.

As you can see, it wasn't always this way - nobody EVER built a stone wall through the woods. This area - indeed, much of Maine south of Bangor - was devoted to sheep farming until the end of WWII, when wool uniforms for the military were replaced by synthetics.

The trail winds through the forest, crosses a wee burn (stream) or two. The worst of the wet places and the burns have bridges so you can get to the shore mostly dry. This time of year there are very few bugs. There are still many plants and flowers to see.

Sometimes you can find faerie houses. There was a large community of faerie on Monhegan Island until about five years ago when they were all evicted and their homes destroyed. Many have migrated to the mainland but still live near the ocean. Some of the humans on the Island objected to the fairie aesthetic of building from found materials. It's odd, considering the famous Hermit of Manana lived nearby in a house built from driftwood.

Eventually the path comes out to a rocky shore. This is on the west side of Muscongus Bay. We are blessed to live in a place like this - sometimes we take it for granted and don't avail ourselves of all the places we can go around the peninsula to enjoy nature.

Small Harp Sighting
We spotted this harp at Helen's Restaurant in Elsworth. The place is decorated with lots of flotsam and jetsam. This little fellow is about 18 inches high. (The chair behind is miniature, also). It's too small for us humans and a bit too big for our local faerie.

Emergency Dessert

2008-09-02T13:53:00.000-07:00

Julia and I were invited out for dessert a couple of days ago. The idea was that we would bring something to share. Julia had planned on making one of her fresh fruit pies. This involves making a bit of fruit sauce and pouring over uncooked fruit which is on cream cheese in the bottom of a cooked pie shell. She has made this with any kind of berries.

But the #&@!! oven wouldn't light so she couldn't bake a pie shell.

Julia had already made the blueberry sauce that goes into the pie. AHA! We could go to the local convenience store and get some cake shells for shortcake. No go. They don't carry them, so she got some plain doughnuts instead. The result: the Bristol Doughnut Shortcake.

Mike Stevens suggested we add ice cream, but would that be too decadent?

How'd that there hole git in that doughnut?

Did you ever wonder where donuts came from (in a historical sense)? The Portland Press Herald ran a great piece about the origin of the donut - more specifically, the origin of the hole that makes a doughnut a doughnut.

Hansen Gregory - a Rockport, Maine, ship captain - regaled the invention in an interview with The Washington Post on March 26, 1916:

"Now in them days we used to cut the doughnuts into diamond shapes, and also into long strips, bent in half, and then twisted. I don't think we called them doughnuts then -- they was just 'fried cakes' and 'twisters.'

"Well, sir, they used to fry all right around the edges, but when you had the edges done the insides was all raw dough. And the twisters used to sop up all the grease just where they bent, and they were tough on the digestion."

"Well, I says to myself, 'Why wouldn't a space inside solve the difficulty?' I thought at first I'd take one of the strips and roll it around, then I got an inspiration, a great inspiration.

"I took the cover off the ship's tin pepper box, and -- I cut into the middle of that doughnut the first hole ever seen by mortal eyes!"

Read the entire article from the Press Herald:
Maine's historical firsts include a leap of doughy inspiration

It was quite a challenge finding the doughnut info. Most of the donut history websites have nothing to do with donuts except for the name of the site. Am I missing something?

Weather -- or Not?

We have been having a run of beautiful weather here in Round Pond - the usual result of storms in the Gulf of Mexico pumping dry Canadian air down into New England. Our hearts go out to the folks in Florida who got 26 inches of rain last week and to all the evacuees from New Orleans this week.

Next week will be the last display of the Blue Angels in Maine. The Brunswick Naval Air Station is being closed and the squadron shifted to Jacksonville. I think it's a mistake myself. With the military presence gone from northern New England (bases in Limestone, ME and Portsmouth, NH, closed a few years ago and the base in Bangor a few years before that) there is nothing to keep Canada from invading Maine and annexing us to the Maritime Provinces. They pretend to be polite and self-effacing but can you trust them?

Summer is ending

2008-08-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

The oaks in our yard are dropping acorns, the day lilies have finished blooming and our little vegetable garden is done for the year. While it's a little sad to see the summer go, September is always beautiful here in Maine and I love the light this time of year. I find that I have become more aware of the difference in the light through the seasons in the last few years. Maybe it's because I can't focus so well anymore - normal conditions for people my age. This time of year the light has a golden hue that isn't there in the spring.

We have five or six more outside engagements and then we're inside for the next six months. It is easier to stay in tune when we are inside. There are 56 strings total on the harp, guitar, and fiddles.

Tomorrow we're doing an historical concert in Pemaquid. In addition to the regular kit we'll have the baroque guitar and harp. Both of them are bears to tune under the best of conditions. The harp has bronze strings which are very touchy.

The guitar has 10 friction pegs and tied-on frets, so you have to tune the frets, too.

Here's a close up of the rosette. Everybody asks about this when they see it. As far I can tell it has no acoustic effect to speak of. Whatever effect it might have is very subtle. The inner rosette is made from parchment and has five levels.

Tuning has always been an issue for Castlebay. Theoriginal quartette (circa 1987) had an autoharp, two 12-string guitars, 3 classic guitars, one six string guitar, a bass, a cello, a violin, a 5-string viola (really!) a four octave harp, and sometimes a bowed psaltry! That would be 148 (without the psaltry) - not to mention the wind section or the piano.

We have done a few concerts over the years with our friends Nik Apollonio and Kristen Tescher. We are thinking about scheduling one this autumn. Nik plays 12-string guitar, 10-string cittern and 5-string fiddle. Kristen plays a double strung harp (72 strings), 12-string guitar and fiddle. That would put us at 171 strings unless Nik brings along the 10-string mandoline, too.

I keep the 12-string in dropped D tuning almost all the time and usually have a capo on it somewhere. It plays in better tune with the 11th string at .060".

It also helps to grove the capo for the wound strings. You can get the rubber sleeves for Shubb capos for about 90¢ from American Musical Supply. They do wear out, so it pays to have a spare in the guitar case.

Gustorial Delights on Grand Manan

2008-08-26T18:15:00.000-07:00

We went to Canada last week for a couple of Elder Hostel programs on Campobello Island and an R&R on Grand Manan. The organizers for the Elder Hostel put us up in the Prince Cottage, which is next door to the Roosevelte Cottage. Both houses are part of the International Park. It is very chic and the food is great. Campobello is in Canada but is only accessible from Lubec, Maine. Campobello has an interesting history. It was a hereditary proprietary of the Owen family from 1767 until 1857, run almost like a feudal fiefdom!

In July and August a private ferry runs between Campobello and Deer Island, NB. Rather than drive all the way around to Calais and cross the border there we took the little ferry to Deer Island, and a second ferry to Letite, on the mainland. The double-ended ferry lands on the beach. There is a little tug attached to a big hinge on the side which pushes the barge. It holds about a dozen cars. It's quite a maneuver to back the barge out and reverse the direction of the tug while spinning the ferry 270°.

The ferry off the other end of Deer Island is a little bigger and the ferries to Grand Manan are serious boats! The Grand Manan V can take 65 cars and 350 passengers. While were driving through the blueberry fields in Washington County I had remarked to Julia that all the blueberry desserts we had eaten were too fancy and that somebody should serve blueberries and cream, straight up. Well, this is what we found in the canteen on the big ferry. Yum!

When we landed on Grand Manan there was a church blueberry dessert social - where there were dozens of blueberry sweeties of various kinds. Kind of ironic.

The weather was beautiful while we were there. It had been rainy and foggy all summer until last week. After a concert at the Convert Hall we looked forward to a couple of days of relaxing. The herring haven't come in yet, so there weren't any whales. Whale Cove is where the Right Whales come to have their calves. They follow the herring in. One of these trips we'll see them. There are only about 350 of them left. Everybody blames entanglement in fishing gear for whale deaths but actually more of them are killed being hit by ships. They are kind of slow and like to float - which is why there were the first whale hunted to near extinction - starting in the 17th century.

Even though there weren't any whales geology is very interesting. There are basalt columns that are reminiscent of the Giants Causeway in Antrim. We did some beach walking and collected a handful of stone for Julia's Stones of the Western World collection. She has stones from Maine, Canada, several beaches in Scotland and Ireland. The amazing thing is that some of the stones from Muscongus Island, two miles from here, are identical to stones she picked up near Findhorn.

The days were great - the nights were a challenge. The B&B we were booked into was an old place with small rooms, which doesn't bother us, but the bed wasn't level. The room was too small to turn the bed so we spent the night climbing to the upper edge while the blankets slid off the opposite side. Our friend Russ, when we told him our tale of woe, told us we should have blocked up the low side of the bed by putting the legs in my shoes. A good trick that I'll have to remember should we be in that situation again.

On our way out I ran into John P. on the ferry, who played Captain Rowan when The Grand Design was performed on Grand Manan last summer. He invited us for lunch and a private whisky tasting. After admiring the view, shooting the breeze, and eating some sandwiches, John brought out a menu of single malts for us to choose from! We tried several, some smoky tasting ones, some milder ones, and one 25 year, cask-strength whisky. Although there is only one road and it isn't easy to get lost, we didn't think it would be prudent to try them all in one afternoon.

Before we left we picked up some dulse. Grand Manan dulse is the best there is. Real seaweed connoisseurs claim that the very best grow on the west side of the island. The dulse we picked up was on the southeast side. We purchased a couple of pounds from the island store, too. We like to give it to the actors when we do the Grand Design so they can appreciate what it would be like to have nothing else to eat for three months. The dulse in the picture was drying on the shore at Whale Cove.

We had a private function (euphemism for wedding) in Gouldsboro on Saturday. On the way there we stopped to pick some free range blueberries by the side of the road. Maybe we'll make a fresh blueberry pie like they serve at Helen's Restaurant. Its just a pie shell filled with whipped cream and fresh fruit - simple, elegant, tasty.

Why is it I'm always writing about food?

We did it!

2008-08-03T06:15:00.000-07:00

Our production of The Grand Design show have ke ran for two performances last month. Getting ready, dealing with the inevitable emergencies, building set, rehearsing, and cleaning up after thept us pretty busy. Here is the set - constructed of borrowed sails. The projector was rigged about 20 feet off the floor which worked really well for the images.

Photos from the Show

Leaving Ireland

The Wedding

The Dangers of the Sea

We had a storm scene where the sail fell down, there was a lightning effect, stormy music and a mighty crash. It was one of the best productions of the show to date. We had great support from Harmony, who directed, and from our tech crew, Claire (projections), Richard (sound), and Matt (lights).

The Grand Design was part of a bigger event, Wabanaki Days

Here are some random pictures of some of the 25 events that happened over the space of seven days. There were people involved from the Penobscot and Passamaquaddy tribes in addition to authors, film-makers and historians.

Julia, Rev Bobby Ives, Passamaquoddy elder Diana Frances, Fred at Sunrise service on Sunday morning

John Bear Mitchell telling the story of Racoon at Beachcombers' Rest Nature Center

Butch Phillips explaining traditional birch bark canoe construction

The Little Eagles Passamaquoddy Youth Drum

The Garden continues...

We did take the time to walk in the garden every morning. The parade of daylillies is just now winding down. This fellow found a nice spot for the day. I don't know where he went when the blossom faded.

Independence Day in Round Pond, Maine

2008-07-06T06:04:00.000-07:00

This year was the 23rd Independence Day Parade in Round Pond. This is an anarchist event: there is no committee passing judgement on the themes or political correctness of the floats. Anybody can join the parade. Most years there are several with current event themes, usually a couple in bad taste (like last year's Brokeback Harbor float "...a hard sternman is good to find") and of course an annual appearance by the Tacky Tourist Lawnchair Drill Team.

This year's parade was pretty long, about 6000 people came to watch. There weren't any floats in outstanding bad taste this year, unless you consider the usual Bush/Cheney bashing floats in bad taste.

This Lobster is kind of like a Chinese dragon.

There is always some commentary on the folks in Washington.

The Tacky Tourists were off their form for the lawn chair drill but they were dressed to kill!

I'm not sure what this one is all about. The sign at the top reads "Discounts given for length of skirt, cleavage, etc."

Crystal, from the Bristol Diner, dispensing donut holes to the crowd. She throws like a girl but when she uses the tongs it's like jai alai!

Here is a view of part of the crowd. People were parked a mile and a half along our road. We saw license plates from Arizona, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Florida and many others from the lower 47.

After the parade there was the annual chicken barbeque with live music. This year it was a blues band, Beauty and the Beast, with our friend Pat Ginnaty on lead guitar.

The weather was perfect. We spent the afternoon listening to the band and conversing with friends we met at the parade. All in all a most satisfying 4th of July.

2008-06-25T06:54:00.000-07:00

People ask why we live here. Compare this lead news story to local leads in, say, Los Angeles or Detroit.

Squirrel wreaks havoc in Bath

news@TimesRecord.Com

06/24/2008

BATH — Bath City Hall was evacuated this morning as city firefighters and police officers were stretched thin in a chaotic brownout that affected 300 residents.

Bath Fire Chief Stephen Hinds, soon after allowing city workers to re-enter the building around 9 a.m., said the evacuation was a precautionary measure after an air conditioner "smelled hot."

Among the other stops for the city's public safety officials were 23 Dummer St., where a transformer was humming, 71 Denny Road, where an alarm went off, and 2 Davenport Circle, where an occupied elevator stopped between floors. All the situations were triggered when power supplies to key pieces of machinery were reduced by the brownout.

"The air conditioning unit was on, and it was calling for power," said Hinds of the situation at City Hall. "It was starving for power and wasn't getting it, so it started to heat up."

The unit was unplugged and power to the front section of City Hall was turned off temporarily, said Hinds.

Central Maine Power spokeswoman Gail Rice said that a squirrel in a North Bath substation caused the problem, and estimated that the city's power supply should be back to normal by midday.

Follow Up

Is it possible that the squirrel in question was a trained terrorist operative? Imagine thousands of these squirrels attacking the US power grid. These insidious rodents could infiltrate the country without notice and at a signal attack transformers throughout the country, bringing us to our knees, without the risk of interception of more traditional attacks, now that all shoes are being checked at our airports. And it would be cheap. These fellows work for peanuts!

Concert Video from St. Augustine
We were recorded when we performed at Flagler College last February. Here is a storytelling segment.

Thanks to John Birney, who promoted the concert, and to Josh and the crew at FCTV, who filmed it.

2008-06-24T21:03:00.000-07:00

NEWS FLASH -- CONCERT IN BREMEN JUNE 28
We will be doing a concert at the Union Church, Route 32 in Bremen Maine 7:30 next Saturday, June 28. This one was added after last month's newsletter went out.

Cutler Harbor
We took a couple of days off from The Grand Design to visit Cutler, Maine, with our friends, Delia Mae and Margie. Delia's house, called Ruth's Retreat, is the white one past the end of the wharf in this photo of Cutler Harbor. Cutler is way Downeast, almost to the Canadian border. This working harbor (I counted 37 lobster boats) has about three dozen houses and two churches. The grocery/diner closed about five years ago. If you like to get away, this is the place!

As we were walking about the village we came across an off-the-grid establishment. I counted no less than seven solar collection arrays and three windmills.

On Saturday we visited the site of Native American petroglyphs: some are three millenia or more in age. They were difficult to see because it was foggy and the light was diffuse. It did make me reflect on how little this part of the world has changed.

Jasper Beach

We also stopped at Jasper Beach, so called because most of the stones are jasper. There is only one other beach like it in the world, located somewhere in Japan. When I was a kid we used to come here are get stones for a lapidary and tumbler that we played around with for a few years. Bear in mind that in those days a trip from Harmony, Maine, to Jasper Beach must have taken about five hours.

The roads are much improved from the mid 1960's, although they are in need of repair. Many towns have cut back on road repair. The state is strapped for funds and the federal government has squandered billions of tax dollars and decreased the value of those we have left. I suppose the pendulum will eventually swing the other way. I hope it's soon.

Strawberries are ripe!

The wild strawberries are ripe and a roadside stands are featuring native grown cultivated berries now. Julia picked enough of these little guys for us each to have a small bowl with whipped cream. Decadent!

The roses are starting to bloom, the peonies are in full swing, daylilies will be along soon.

A busy week!

2008-06-19T06:39:00.000-07:00

"THE PIRATES ARE COMING!"

Things have been hopping here on the Pemaquid peninsula. On Saturday we had to raise the alarm when Damariscotta was attacked by pirates. No blood was shed, although there were a number of duels throughout the day and a few purloined cupcakes.

We raised a crew of female sailors bold to help us with all this, as well as to be the chorus for a sea song sing along on Main Street. There were lots of folks taking pictures but nobody has sent any to us yet.

Sunday we shifted gears and played for gallery reception at the Harbor Square Gallery in Rockland. The switch from raucous sea songs to elegant instrumental music is sometimes startling to people who haven't seen us in a variety of settings. On the one hand it should keep us from getting pigeonholed; on the other people sometimes don't get what they expect.

The Flower Report

We were told about this field of lupine. The picture really can't do justice to the reality. It has been cool and wet here since last Sunday, so the flowers are lasting longer than they would in hot weather.

The Grand Design progress report

We have scoped out the space where we will be mounting Julia's play, The Grand Design, next month. I think the term "blank slate" fits this pretty well. Our plan is to borrow some sails to create some back stage and wing space and add some platforms for vertical interest. Yesterday I started building the stand for the ship's wheel. Next task is to sort out the lighting situation. The installed lights aren't appropriate for a theatrical production. I don't even think the building has three phase power, so we're looking at portable solutions.

Little Brown Church Concert

Last night was the opening concert of the tenth season of concerts at the Little Brown Church in Round Pond. We set up the series, perform two or three of the concerts and host most of the rest.

Last night was Schooner Fare, who have been performing for 35 years. They always ask us to sit in on a song or two. At this concert we even decided what key to play in before we got on stage (not always the case!) Chuck and Steve are great guys who have been ambassadors of Maine culture all over the US and Canada. The Canadians generally get the jokes; some parts of the U.S. don't have a clue.

OK, let me know if you see the humor in this quote from an obituary published a few years ago.

"Euell Gibbons died today of natural causes."

Untill next time!

Alewives and weddings

2008-06-08T18:15:00.000-07:00

What do we do here in Maine when there's no news (see previous post). In the winter we go down to the lighthouse during a good blow and watch the waves. In May and early June we go to the fish ladder and watch the alewives. Alewives, also called menhaden or (in New Brunswick) gaspereau.

These fish spend their adult life at sea in great schools. In the spring they run up the rivers to freshwater spawning grounds. The alewives that call the Damariscotta River home have a daunting 42 foot vertical climb. The fish ladder in Damariscotta Mills was first built in 1807. It is amazing to see the fish swim from pool to pool as they battle the swift current. And when they reach the mill pond they are greeted by three very large, well-fed bass.

The fishery was closed for eight years to allow the stock to recover from decades of overfishing. Alewives were once used as food for people, but they are oily and bony and in recent years have been used primarily as lobster bait. There is a provision in the town ordinances of Newcastle and Nobleboro alloting a bushel of alewives to each widow in the town. During the eight-year moritorium the "widow's bushels" were still taken. These fish were designated by the widows to fishermen that they knew.

'Tis the Season for Weddings

This is one of our favourite signs. We play a lot of weddings in the summer and a sign like this helps us stay in balance. The cool thing is - you really CAN get wedding gowns, guns, and cold beer at Husseys. You can also get garden tools, groceries, gasoline, wood stoves, plumbing supplies, and on and on. It's amazing how much stuff they have packed into a fairly modest store.

They also have some strange and wonderful things from time to time. I once saw a placard with little packs of donut seeds. The tag said "Modern Agricultural Miracle - Donut Seeds - 50¢".
In each package were six Cheerios® . I don't know how many Cheerios® are in a box, but the profit margin seems substantial.

We tried a similar scheme years ago when we lived at the beach. "Memories of Maine Simmering Potpourri - made from select fermented marine herbs". What we did was take a handful of rockweed off the beach and dry it out in the oven. A pinch of this stuff in boiling water and your house smells just like clam flats at low tide.

We have given up these schemes in recent years and have been doing only music-related work. I do build an instrument occasionally, the latest being Julia's new harp. I have three baroque guitars ready to assemble when I get a few weeks at home when it's dry enough to do my lutherie; I also have plans for an acoustic bass guitar. I really like the sound of a fretless bass with the harp, so it's high on my wish list.

Painted Turtle Migration: Lend a Hand!

2008-06-05T13:46:00.000-07:00

Twice a year the painted turtles cross the road. They seem to move in the late spring and again in the autumn. You can see them sunning themselves on logs or rocks near the water in the summer, but you never see them crossing the road then.

Turtles are slow. Cars are fast. We always stop to carry the turtles across whenever possible. It doesn't cost us anything and the turtles don't seem to mind. It's the purest kind of good deed: the turtles aren't going to do us any favors in return.

(Caution: don't try this with snapping turtles!)

On This Day In Maine...
Nothing Happened!

The big news in Maine today is no news. This is an actual screen shot from this afternoon.

What's the Big Deal About Rhubarb?

2008-06-01T17:51:00.000-07:00

Anybody who listens to A Praire Home Companion has heard the rhubarb skits. It suddenly occurred to me that there are probably some people who don't know what rhubarb is all about.

Rhubarb probably originated in China. Earliest records date back to 2700 BC where rhubarb was cultivated for medicinal purposes. Marco Polo, knew all about the Chinese rhubarb rhizome and talked about it at length in the accounts of his travels.

Varieties of rhubarb have a long history as medicinal plants in traditional Chinese medicine, but the use of rhubarb as food is a relatively recent innovation, first recorded in 17th century England, after affordable sugar became available to common people.

Early records of rhubarb in America identify an unnamed Maine gardener as having obtained seed or root stock from Europe in the period between 1790-1800. He introduced it to growers in Massachusetts where its popularity spread and by 1822 it was sold in produce markets.

In the days before long-distance produce shipping the people who lived in the northern parts of the country went from October until May without having any fresh vegetables. True - carrots, cabbages, squash and some varieties of apples would keep until early spring but they lacked the freshness of something new-grown. The three earliest edibles here in Maine are rhubarb, dandelion, and fiddleheads. You have to know where to find (unclaimed) fiddleheads and you only have a few days to harvest dandelion before it is too bitter to eat. Reliable old rhubarb grows where you plant it without much trouble - in fact it can be hard to eradicate if you try to get rid of it. Every old farmstead in Maine had rhubarb growing somewhere. On the south side of a stone barn foundation, where it gets plenty of sun and natural fertilizer, it comes early and grows big.

The pretty red kind you find in supermarkets these days is mild stuff compared to some of the rhubarb we had as kids. I remember one patch where it was grass-green with 4-5 foot stems. I don't think there is enough sugar in all of Cuba to sweeten a pot of those old plants. Of course, as kids we would eat the raw stalks.

There was also a belief that rhubarb would "clean out your system", which was deemed a desirable thing to do in the spring; indeed, rhubarb can do that if you eat too much.

The last few years Julia has been adding a little bit of fresh or candied ginger to the rhubarb pie. Try it, it's nice! We also were served rhubarb juice at a health food restaurant in New Brunswick. Lightly stew the rhubarb and strain it through a jelly bag. Keep the juice in the back of your refrigerator. Use it like lemonade extract.

A Strange Visitor

This fellow is an Eastern Gray Treefrog (Hyla versicolor). While we have often come home after a gig late at night to find all the downstairs windows and doors covered with hundreds of spring peepers (Pseudacris crucifer), this is the first time one of these has visited. He spent the entire afternoon on the living room door. Late in the afternoon I moved him to an oak tree, a much better place for a tree frog. He almost disappeared on the mottled trunk.

Who needs a fly on the wall when you have a frog on the door?

Teaching history through music

2008-05-29T19:06:00.000-07:00

Julia and I have been working in schools the last couple of weeks. Last week we did assembly programs for the five elementary schools in Bangor. This week we are doing nine classroom sessions at the Great Salt Bay School in Damariscotta.

The way the education system has evolved we seldom work with any students past third grade anymore. There just isn't time in their schedules. Maybe no child is left behind, but certainly childhood has been left behind, along with music, art, and other critical thinking skills. In a strange sort of way it has helped us. There isn't any budget for regular arts in schools but there is support from parents groups for special programs like ours.

We like to believe that we are contributing to the learning experience. It isn't a substitute for a regular music program - we were only the second music event for the students in Bangor this year - but I suppose it's better than nothing.

This program was focused on music at sea and we did our popular shanty demonstration. We have a block and tackle that we use to have the kids haul each other. That way they get to feel in their bodies how the cadence of the music helps coordinate the work. We round out the program with a couple of ballads some dance tunes and talk about how the sailors lived.

It's one of those rare occasions where Julia can leave her harp at home. She is excellent at relating to the kids and leading the event in a way that everybody gets a chance to participate but things don't spiral out of control.

We did five classes today and have four more tomorrow, then it's time to start a recording project.

Blackflies, flowers and food

2008-05-26T19:55:00.000-07:00

My previous post seems to have disappeared into the blog-o-sphere! Well, no matter. Whatever profound thoughts I had at midnight a few weeks ago will either recur as bad dreams or good songs.

I have spent the last couple of days making a new set of stairs for our house. The temporary stairs, made from rough hemlock boards, have been in for twenty years now. The replacement is mahogany, recycled from a Deck house. When I got them they were carpeted - why carpet mahogany stairs? Better to carpet rough hemlock.

Working on a big project means "outside" for me. I don't have a barn or garage, so I managed to get a sunburn on the back of my neck. I didn't think it was possible, as much hair as I have. Maybe it's thinner than I think. Working outside also means I have been feeding the blackflies. They were only swarming last week but now they are hungry!

The spring flowers are just about done. We have a few tulips left; the lily-of-the-valley and bleeding hearts are in bloom now. We have quite a few lady slippers at around the edges of the dooryard which are just starting, as well. On the gustatory front we have lots of rhubarb. From the look of the brakes (ferns) we are too late to gather any fiddleheads. These are the curled up shoots of the ostrich fren, a local delicacy.

I sometimes wish we had room for a bigger garden and some fruit trees. Our piece of ground is mostly granite, so it isn't practical. I do believe that decentralizing our food supply and energy supply would do more to enhance "Homeland Security" than almost anything else we could do. It would certainly put a bit of armor on two Achilles heels.

When I was a growing up we had a big garden. We canned about 600 quarts of green beans, corn, beets, carrots, and a few other vegitables, plus jam, jelly, pickles and applesauce. We stored 100 bushels of potatoes, 50-60 bushels of apples, and as many cabbages, pumpkins and squash as we could eat before they spoiled in mid-winter. (What did spoil went to the pig so we ate it second-hand, as it were.) There were five of us kids and, looking back, I can't imagine how our parents could possibly have fed us without the garden!

When I heard Greg Brown's song, Have a Taste of Summer - Grandma's Put It All in Jars, my first thought was of our jar cupboard back home. My mother keeps a more modest larder than she did when there were four teen-age boys at home but she always has something to offer whenever anybody shows up on the doorstep; a Maine/Canadian hospitality tradition.