Daffodils

Some people know how to turn lemons into lemonade. Several towns away from me a lady learned that she had cancer. She decided that it would help her survive the treatment if she had something big to look forward to, and so she ordered 3000 daffodils.

When they arrived, friends stepped in to plant them...on the hillside, near the woods, along the road, around the house, around the barn.

Then another 3000 bulbs arrived. The lady contacted the company with whom she had placed her original order, but they didn't want the daffodils and said she could keep them at no extra cost.

Her friends returned to plant her second batch of daffodils. In the spring, up sprang 6000 daffodils.

Neighbors saw the daffodils and word spread.

Between my return from North Carolina and Mary's departure for Florida, we had a couple of days. Our goal was to use some of that time to find the daffodils. After our usual swim we skipped playing Rummykub. With lunches in hand we took off for the hills north of Rutland.

Across the way from most of the daffodils was a mass of marsh marigolds in that same springtime yellow.

Mary and I drove past the daffodils to follow the stream further as it tumbled beside the dirt road.

We found an abundance of wild trillium blooming in a deep purple. Mary was fascinated by a tall rock formation that she had first thought was a tree.

Then she spotted a fat bird with a long beak. It stayed put long enough for a good photograph.

I can't get over the size of the leaves on trillium...like elephant ears  catching a breeze.

We were getting hungry, but though this rock was interesting, it wasn't going to be the thing we wanted to watch while eating lunch...and so we meandered back to the daffodils...



And that's how we came across this plump bird...

I was pretty sure it was a Woodcock, but since they aren't often seen I looked him up when I got home. I learned that they mostly eat earthworms, hence the value of that long beak.

I have neighbors who hunt Woodcock and consider them to be a nice meal.

Mary and I settled down to enjoy our lunches surrounded by daffodils.

Dulcimer Class in North Carolina

Our goal was to spend a week at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina. I was to take a dulcimer course and Margery was going to be dyeing fabric. Gary was along for the ride. Margery's RV was packed days in advance so we could leave at 5:30 Saturday morning. Margery drove. That first day we traveled over 650 miles through six states: Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia. We arrived at our first campgrounds, nearly empty, around 9 PM, had a snack for dinner and went to bed. Here is Gary, the next morning, doing his hip replacement exercises...

By 7 AM we were on the road again. Margery was still driving. We hit a truck stop for a buffet breakfast. This is what was hanging above our table.

Margery wanted a picture of her truck and RV parked with all the big rigs. That's below...

On this day we traveled a little over 430 miles through three states: Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

This was our only rainy day. We did make one wrong turn but, as Margery says, we weren't lost because we knew what we had done and corrected it. While we were stopped at a traffic light, I snapped this picture of a fish mural... I don't know Hunter Banks, but Orvis is actually a Vermont company!

We reached Brasstown, NC and our folk school at 5:15 PM, in time to register, set up the RV at their campgrounds, attend orientation, have dinner, and then off to meet our teachers for a couple of hours that evening.

For this week there were just over 100 adults taking 15 different courses. Here is my instructor, Betty Smith, 86 and going strong, an absolute treasure of a person.

I was looking forward to Monday and a full day of class, but that night food poisoning struck. I'll leave out the details! Margery did laundry for me and Gary found me ginger ale. It was all I could handle. Though I managed to make it to class by Tuesday, he got to eat the lunches I was signed up for on those first two days!

Spring flowers along the path to  Davidson Hall where both Margery and I had our classes.

Tuesday evening food poisoning caught up with Margery. She missed Wednesday classes. Gary got two more lunches! On Friday he went off to ride a railroad, but by then both Margery and I were able to enjoy a final meal with classmates.

On Wednesday my class visited George...

We were greeted by perfect gardens and a fascinating fellow. He makes violins, among other musical instruments.

George told us that he sells thousands of penny whistles to China. A penny whistle plays in only one key. If you want to play in another key, you have to buy another penny whistle. (It must have been a business man who created this instrument.)

Barbara is on the left...

George had wondered why the Chinese were buying so many penny whistles when they could make them themselves for less money. His business contact explained that there are billions of Chinese who have enough money to purchase anything they want, including American penny whistles. George commented that the Chinese also have billions of poor, but they now have a stronger middle class than we do.

Alica and Michael listen to George play...

Above, George is playing a small wooden instrument with 4 holes on the top and one on the bottom that produces a whole octave.

He also played two different hurdy gurdies and showed us how they can change keys more easily than our dulcimers. I'd still rather be playing the dulcimer.

Below Janice and Betty are looking through some of the music books. I bought The Wonderful World of DAA. This past Monday I tried playing the "Flower Carol" with the local Folk Club, but I only had my tabulature and they had guitars. Now I've found that song in my book and it includes the guitar chords! That should make next Monday evening a little more interesting.

I don't remember the names of these two instruments, but George played the same low note on both. To explain how that was possible, George showed us the light colored board he is holding. It has what looked like a snake path carved into it to illustrate the inside of the shorter instrument. Apparently the smaller instrument actually has as long a tube for air flow as the impressively tall instrument. What you can't see does make a difference...


Barbara and Karla were also interested in George's stories. Barbara even found a dulcimer identical to the one she had bought for herself on E-Bay. It was definitely a fascinating field trip

Further below is George's cat, shaved to look like a lion...

Wednesday was also May first. Back at the folk school a Maypole had been set up.

The official Maypole dance wasn't going to happen until that Saturday and we would be gone by then.

Fortunately, a practice was planned for this afternoon between the end of class and dinner.

I loved watching the youngest tyke...off to the right. She followed instructions without missing a beat. The dancers created different patterns...below is the spider web...

 For part of the performance Gary watched from the Herb Garden. For someone who wasn't taking a class, he found plenty to do on the campus. There was a morning walk and Morningsong each day. Betty Smith led the Morningsong on Tuesday. There was a concert Monday evening. On Tuesday evening Gary watched the folk school DVD titled Sing Behind the Plow. He was fascinated by the history behind the John C. Campbell Folk School and even though he had visited the History Center, Gary felt that the DVD brought the information to life.

Gary also joined the group who counted bluebird babies and eggs in all the bluebird houses around campus. They also made sure no wasps were using the nesting boxes. They rubbed soap on the ceilings of the bluebird houses so that wasps couldn't attach their nests to the wood.

Thursday afternoon most of my classmates went off to visit other classes while Betty stayed behind. She ran through the music she was going to play at her concert that evening and I was lucky enough to hear it both then and later.

Here she is playing her autoharp. She almost had to give up playing the guitar because of a bad shoulder, but her son, if I remember the story correctly, had a better idea. He took her to a music store where they found a smaller guitar that doesn't require raising her shoulder when she plays it.

Her evening concert was in the Keith House and it was the only evening program I managed to attend... (those of you in France will recognize my shirt!)

 Friday morning was show and tell time...our class was to perform on the stage...and we got an encore!

Betty told us that her classes had never had an encore. When she questioned this, she had been told that no one expected her students would know a third piece of music! She was a bit taken aback by that and said that of course they would. We decided to plant friends and family in the audience with instructions to call for an encore...and we were ready!

With only 6 of us in the class, we actually managed to play "Music Alone Shall Live" as a round. That took some concentration! Then we did "Red River Valley" with Betty playing the guitar so we'd be able to hear and follow her better. Our encore was a rousing rendition of "Old Bald Eagle"!

Below is the main room of Keith House...and our audience...

Then it was time for lunch and goodbyes...

Since Margery, Gary and I weren't leaving until early Saturday morning, I headed for the Craft Shop. I wanted to be sure to pick up the book Betty had written about Jane Hicks Gentry which is loaded with history and songs. I also wanted The Folk School Songbook. Betty had said that "I Love the Mountains" was a good song for practicing the 4 chords she had taught us. It's going to take a lot of practice for me to play those chords with any kind of ease!

I never did see anyone using this chess board at the folk school, but it brought back memories of my weekend in Geneva where I first saw outdoor chess being played.

While preparing the RV for its homeward trip, we discovered that some bird had built a nest on the rear bumper in a partially empty Coca Cola box!

We made one scenic stop on our way home. Gary climbed as high as he could go to take pictures.

I walked part way up the hillside. Margery took a quick rest and then spent time worrying about the RV and all the noises she paid attention to... 

For the trip home she shared some of the driving with Gary.

We avoided eating at truck stops. When we camped that Saturday evening, we were glad to prepare our own franks and beans...it was safer than any restaurant buffet.

That last campground was packed with other RVs. We had been spoiled by quiet, wooded spaces and were glad to move on...

I never did get a very good picture of the purple trees we kept seeing along the highway. Gary and I are still wondering what tree this is...

I couldn't get over a feature of the terrain. Small hills were crowded together along the roadway with deep and narrow valleys between them. Gary said that's because the glaciers never made it this far south to scrape the hill tops and fill in the valleys. An interesting concept...


I also felt grateful to the Vermont legislature for outlawing billboards many decades ago! At one place a man was walking across his lawn. At the edge of his property was a billboard advertisement larger than his house. They popped up all over the place...how to spoil a nice view...

Below is a random selection of additional pictures...