Gallery reception

[altivo]

It did get down into the 20s last night. Lots of stuff froze. Tomorrow we'll see just what effect it had on the trees. I expect the catalpas will have dropped all their leaves at once, which is their normal behavior. Oaks are starting to turn golden rusty colors. Sugar maples are already flaming.

Today was the gallery reception. Gary played dulcimer for most of the two hours. I hung around demonstrating drop spindle spinning and chatting with visitors. Then we came home and he did barn chores while I ran to the supermarket since I didn't get there yesterday. Dinner was baked ham (on sale last week) with Boston baked beans, Brussels sprouts, and potato salad. Dessert (in a bit) is Louisa May Alcott's apple slump. That's sort of like apple pie, only instead of pastry it has cake on top of the apples.

I'll probably go back to the gallery once or twice with friends, but otherwise I've fulfilled my share of responsibility and only need to go back on November 1 to pick up my displayed items and ribbons.

Next "deadline"? A trip to visit Loriana and Aerofox in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, we should be getting loads of hay that need to be properly stacked, starting, I hope, this week.

Comments

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

kint plays that instrument too. That's two people I know (sort of) who play a rare instrument. :D

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Rare? I suppose that's a relative term. It's not at all rare in America.

The same instrument has at least a dozen names and is used in folk and even classical music from most of Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

The informal sessions that Gary attended on Wednesdays until there was a conflict with his graduate classes had as many as four players. I think I've known a dozen or so performers personally over the years.

The instrument might be considered rare in the sense that someone will always ask "What is that?" But given that these days people ask what a spinning wheel is and where wool comes from, I'm not sure that really measures much. Certainly there are lots and lots of recordings available that feature it.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

The same instrument has at least a dozen names and is used in folk and even classical music from most of Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

That might be why I had never heard of them until recently. England used to have quite a sizable Eastern European Jewish population. I think the whole Clifford's Tower massacre thing might have put them off returning for a few centuries. I can't say I'd like to hang around in a nation which offers the choice: "Convert, or burn to death."

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Check the orchestral and ballet music of Zoltan Kodaly for examples of the cimbalom used with the symphony orchestra. It can be magnificent. The gypsies are the ones who carried it from Asia all the way into Europe. ;D

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

It's barely gotten down to 30 here, and the leaves, though changing, are still dull. Hoping that they start becoming vibrant soon.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Not many vibrant changes here yet either. Only the sugar maples, and they don't seem to need frost to do much of anything. I think it's the length of daylight that sets them off.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Apple slump? It sounds unpleasant, cute and somehow aluring all at the saame time :D

You know I should hang around people like you in terms of cooking I need to eat better.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Apple slump is delicious, and especially so with whipped cream or ice cream on top. Louisa May's recipe as given to me was too sweet for my taste, and I've cut the sugar in half so you can still taste the actual apples. I suspect that the original had less sugar and someone increased it more recently. American recipes for sweets have all become so loaded with sugar that you can hardly tell what the other ingredients are.