Return to the Blogosphere

I've had a bad case of NO-vember and have been very remiss on my blogging. It's a chilly, rainy, sleety, dark Friday, and yet, I still have to take the dog out for several walks. He doesn't mind the rain, even though he's recently groomed and has a lot less hair to protect him. He looks like an ad for shotgun shells.
I have not been entirely idle. I'm working on a brief biography of my father (for the grandchildren, etc.) and, using his service records, have been in touch with people from units he served with in Japan and Korea during the Korean War. I've also been scanning photos for this purpose. Going much farther back on the family history front, I heard from a distant cousin in the Hopps line (John Hopps was one of my maternal grandmother's ancestors, a Loyalist originally from New York State who wound up in New Brunswick, Canada) and have been tidying up my reports to share with him.
Last year I did a special Advent project for Sisterknits. I recorded a story for each night of Advent onto my computer and then transferred them onto CDs for her. (I use a program called TotalRecorder and a headset microphone that plugs into a USB port; TotalRecorder can also record Internet transmissions.) This year I am looking a bit farther afield for stories, as I used up many of the "old favorites" last year. I rediscovered the Short Story Index at the library and have been interlibrary borrowing a lot. Of course, I have to read the stories to see whether they are any good, or good for reading aloud.
Another project has been to start reading all the Edgar Award winners for Best Novel, starting with 1954 (the first year Mystery Writers of America gave this particular award). I'm about up to 1960 now and am starting to like them better. It seemed as though the first few were chosen because they weren't, in most senses, traditional mysteries. Even the Raymond Chandler The Long Goodbye, the second winner, was quite long and philosophical for a hard-boiled detective novel. This project, too, has found me requesting books from other libraries quite frequently.
Tonight I'll be going to Ancestral Hometown by the Sea for a performance of a one-act mystery in which Onkel Hankie Pants is playing somebody named Kramer who wears a suit and a hat. (I'm making sure not to have any spoilers by not looking at the script!) It's a sort of Readers' Theatre thing -- no sets, etc. But we get free pie and coffee afterwards! He's also in rehearsals for THE FANTASTICKS which will come off in the New Year. From El Gallo to Hucklebee in only 34 years! Tomorrow I'll be helping at the Halls of Holly Fair at Big Taupe Church. It's church fair season again and I'll be looking for gifts -- and relish! Onkel Hankie Pants has discovered the joys of homemade relish (he puts it in his tuna salad, for one) and now that the Farmers' Market has closed for the season the church fairs are our best source. I am wishing I would find some of the ones with wonderful names that my grandmother used to make : Pottsfield, Piccalilli and Chow-Chow!

Rusty and I Go to the Farmers' Market

Yes, after nearly two months of fobbing you all off with occasional webquizzes and such, I’m really blogging today. I hope to be more intentional about this now that the Dog Days are over (I mean the hot hot days of July and early August, nothing to do with Rusty.)

Today was one of the days that the Brunswick Farmers’ Market is in business on the Mall. For those of you who have never been here, the Mall is what Brunswick calls the green stretch in the middle of downtown that in other New England towns is often the Green or the Common. (We have a Town Commons as well, it’s more woodsy and a place for hiking and such.) Two hot dog stands have been set up there since time immemorial, and there are park benches and a gazebo. On Tuesdays and Fridays from May till Thanksgiving there is also a local Farmers’ Market.

I’ve been meaning to take Rusty down there ever since we got him, but was a little nervous about his manners. They were not perfect today, but I was able to keep him from eating all the produce (he is very fond of fruit and vegetables and will eat radishes, rose hips, bananas, etc. with alacrity and no apparent ill effects.) As usual he made many new friends, both canine and human, and was much admired. He scored a green bean and two apples, and a tiny squash when we got home. It was also a long enough walk (1 ½ to 2 hours all told, much of which was wandering about the market stalls) that he was quiet for about 5 hours after we got home.

Here is a picture of some of the gorgeous local stuff I bought.




I bought more potatoes than that, of course. I asked about the onion tops on the beautiful red onions, and was told that some people cut them up and put them in salads ( much like scallions, just a bit bigger). So I may try that.

I can’t show you the sweet corn because I ate it for supper, along with a sliced tomato sprinkled with sugar (the way my Grampie used to eat them). I want to make a ratatouille with the eggplant, tomatoes, onions and squashes, and I may have to wait till Friday when there’s another market because the exigencies of keeping Rusty under control made me forget to get garlic, green pepper and basil, all of which were on offer. Note the size of the blueberries if you can see them – they are wild Maine blueberries, not the giant-size cultivated ones. I had a few on some Gifford’s French Vanilla ice cream with a little maple syrup. Probably I will make some blueberry muffins as well.

Some time ago I mentioned that Onkel Hankie Pants is appearing as Sitting Bull in Annie Get Your Gun in Lewiston. The show is midway through its run now. The last weeks of rehearsal, as reported by Onkel H,, put me in mind of a Cole Porter song, “Another Op’nin’, Another Show” from Kiss Me Kate. And so did the preview, which I saw last Thursday:
“Four weeks, you rehearse and rehearse,
Two weeks, and it couldn’t be worse,
One week, will it ever be right?
Then out of the hat comes that big first night!”
I’ll be seeing it again on Friday evening with my brother, sister-in-law and their son. Good times!

What's Black and White and Red All Over?

Answer: Anthony's Italian Kitchen and Cabaret in Portland, ME, where Onkel Hankie Pants and I pre-celebrated our 35th anniversary last night with a red-sauce dinner and a side of NUNSENSE -- AMEN. By day an Italian restaurant/sandwich shop, on weekend nights the tiny space (50 diners) is transformed into a dinner theater of sorts -- really the shows are more revues than plays. Michael Donovan, who directed the last 3 plays Onkel H acted in, is the director of the shows (which change monthly) and also acted in NUNSENSE as Sister Mary Amnesia. Three more of the 5 cast members had been castmates of Onkel H and the fifth was connected also to Portland Players and Lyric Music Theater. In fact, it appeared from conversations around us that many of last night's show-goers were theatre people in one way or another. The show did not disappoint, with over-the-top jokes, well-sung songs, and amazing choreography and dancing given the small space they had to work with.

However, I must say that I probably would have enjoyed the show even more were I a Catholic. For a liberal mainline Protestant whose last Catholic ancestor probably died sometime in the 1500's, it just doesn't seem quite right to make fun of nuns! (Not to mention that when I grew up, nuns in habits were still a common sight, and we were a little afraid of them.) Still, it was a fun way to celebrate. Photography opportunities were limited by my disinclination to injure the performers by taking flash photographs, but here are photos of my glass of wine




and the excellent small combo that provided the music (two of whom were also theater buddies of Onkel Hankie Pants -- I think he now knows more people in Maine than I do!) Tomorrow, at last, The Story of Our Engagement and Wedding!