Cancellation Dance

School's OUT for SUMMAH!

I taught my last lesson of the term today and promptly proceeded to engage in the sacred ritual known as "The-removal-of-the-lesson-schedule-from-bulletin-board". All signs of the semester have been purged from public view, at least outside my studio door...wow, I just breathed in the world's deepest breath typing that sentence.

It has been a long and trying term. We had record enrollment this year which impacted every corner of the Music School. Let me just say, I have the most amazing students, but too much of a good thing can be good for nothin' (to quote my grandma). Attrition and a smaller than expected class for the coming fall means I'll actually have a manageable teaching load for the first time in a while. I often say it's not the number of hours I'm expected to teach, it's the number of personalities I have to keep track of that's the real brain drain. My work is so much more than just teaching someone how to hold their bow and play in tune. It's about discovering a student's learning style, tailoring an individual curriculum for them, finding out what motivates them deeply and tracking their progress. It's also about teaching them to teach themselves, easing them on and off stage, nurturing and sometimes massaging their fragile egos and more often than not, it's about simply taking care of them. Phew - no wonder I'm tired. I'm really looking forward to the summer and I really need a major break from teaching but the truth is, I really do love my work. Next year I'll celebrate 20 years at the college and 28 total years in higher ed. I'm really beginning to ponder the next chapter.

"Cancellation dance" in case you're wondering, refers to that private dance I do in my studio after a sudden lesson cancellation makes a little window of free time in my day. Summer is the biggest cancellation dance of them all - let the dancing begin!

Here's a look at the garden this week

The Johnny Jump Up volunteers are everywhere this year

Wish you could smell this

Solomon's seal

Wild violets in the lawn

I'm so glad to see our ecosystem is thriving!
I'm still not ready to pick this guy up and snuggle him though...

Thank goodness for a decent zoom lens!

The Return of the Green

Happy Green Day everyone!

These are photos from our annual Green Day celebration at Mary and Phil's wooded manse deep in the Harford hills. I'll have video of the pole raising, Ken's speech, Lucia's dance and the dance around the may pole soon. In the meantime, here's what you missed...

Our favorite mythical beast, Greenie (aka Phil Sy)

Sparkle J (note his green paw in honor of the day)

Sparkle J cavorting with Greenie

Ken and Mary

The guys readying the streamers

Streamer organization is a rather delicate process!

It was one of the prettiest May poles ever!

Carrie, Phil and Mary

Dave dressed for the occasion

Tom and Jim

Greenie making trouble

John and Marci on the lookout lurking mythical beasts

Don't you wish you were there?

Italy Spitaly

I've traveled to Italy, Spitaly, France and Spain
Over the hills and back again...or at least over to Rome (Pennsylvania that is).

Happy May Day and a word of warning! This is a looooooooong post with many photos. Go get yourself a cup of coffee and have a seat, you might be here for a while. (All of the photos in this post are mine except for those pre-auction pics of the inside of the house. I lifted those from the auction ad.)

We spent a summery May Day at a country auction poking through the remains of an old homestead in Rome, PA. The house and its contents were all on the auction block and for at least the last 100 years (and probably more) this sweet home housed several generations including the most recent inhabitant Reva. She, her late husband, their kids and his parents had at one time all lived in the house together.

The auction listing advertised the house and property as a
"country estate".

It has a former chicken coop and an old pig barn.

As the auctioneers tell it Reva was a real "corker". She zipped through town on a moped wearing a hot pink Artic Cat snowmobile helmet, was as cheap as the day was long and would let you know in no uncertain terms whether she liked you (or not). The auction house selling her property yesterday had been to this homestead back in 1974 when Reva's husband passed away. At that time they sold off the farm and the equipment and all but the two acres which housed the tarpaper-shingle-covered Greek Revival house. Evidently Reva hadn't lived in the house full time for some time, but she returned there regularly for a weekend or two and to stay there in the summers. It was clear she never parted with anything.

When they returned to clean out the house after Reva's death this past January the auctioneers said it looked exactly as it did 36 years ago. They even came upon the 1974 receipt from the previous auction. It was like time had stood still, only it didn't stop in 1974, it stopped sometime between 1935 and 1950! Reva's husband's clothes and all of his belongings were still in the house and his hat was still hanging up by the door. Such sweet souls.

The house has NO indoor toilets but it does have running water from a hand dug well near by. Now, I have to muse on this thought for a minute. It's one thing to have no indoor plumbing in 1935, but we're talking 1974 here and this woman was no spring chicken! That's what I call hardy.

The ladder is leaning against the outhouse.

Fortunately the auction company rented a porta-potty,

otherwise we would've been using this

Yep, it's a two-seater!

And there's plenty to read - although I don't know exactly

how you position yourself to take advantage of it

Note the potty next to the chair.

They sold many of these yesterday!

Inside the house they found a 1930's Maytag wringer washer, two International Harvester refrigerators and two antique coal/wood cook stoves. All had been in recent use! One stove even had two full buckets of coal next to it and was all ready to be fired up. They found an old lawn tractor which Reva evidently kept in her kitchen and if their story is correct, she marched the old thing down the kitchen steps and outside, mowed the two-acre lawn and then marched it right back inside.

With that kind of care I bet it still runs great!

There were room-sized linoleum rugs in every room and beautiful old screen printed paper on all of the walls. Every window had matching curtains and there were large prints and antique photographs in elaborate frames all over the walls. This house had obviously been well loved and tended to at one time.

As you'll see I was a little obsessed with the linoleum rugs! You never (and I mean never) see intact rugs of this size. Get ready - I have shots of almost every room!

Downstairs parlor

Downstairs bedroom

Upstairs bedroom no. 1

Upstairs bedroom no. 2

Upstairs bedroom no. 3

Back porch and kitchen no. 1 (yes, there were TWO kitchens)

Kitchen no. 2

They were able to rescue two small linoleum rugs and
guess who came home with both of them?
Me! I'm still looking for the perfect spot for the other one.


Here's the wallpaper series...

Kitchen no. 1

Pantry shelves

Kitchen no. 2


Downstairs bedroom
They just don't make stuff like this anymore...


A the start of the auction the auctioneer announced proudly
"Everything in this sale is OLD!"
I think I heard someone up front mumble "So is the help!"

I was quite taken with this guy.
He seemed to know everyone and was just having a grand old time!

At the end of the day our car was loaded

and I was very happy to have met Miss Reva.