My Amethyst Crystal

My friend Sue gave me this handmade crystal bag for my crystal. But I didn't have a crystal, so Matt gave me one of his — an amethyst. They told me to soak the amethyst in water over night to clean it and then to have it sit in the sun for 24 hours. After that, I put it in the bag and wore it — expecting miraculous powers to emanate from it!

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Photo Booth Fun

Wingnut discovered that you can make movies with Photo Booth and made three. I stitched them together in Quicktime, added titles and music in iMovie and published it to YouTube. I just can't figure out how to fade the sound on the last frame in iMovie. The audio fade doesn't work. I may have to re-install iMovie. Yuck.

Below are 60-some still Photo Booth photos that Wingnut took on the Fourth of July. I added a song that he plays in the car several times a day!

And here are photos of me and of me and Sue,
who was here on the Fourth.

I inadvertently took a photo while setting up the software for Sue to use. Then we inadvertently took a photo of both of us while I was explaining it. We're glad we did now. We don't have any other photos of us together.


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Parsnips Concert

Wingnut and I went to a performance of the Parsnips in Danville on Sunday evening. My friend, Sue, is the flautist for this contraband. A contraband is a band that plays for contradances (a traditional New England folk dance). Unfortunately, there was no dancing Sunday night. I'm sure in July we'll catch a dance somewhere.

Before the concert, I wandered around the edges of the green. I learned that Danville is the home to the American Society of Dowsers. Dowsing is big in Vermont and it is fitting that the home of dowsing is here. Chris Bohjalian, one of our native writers (and an Oprah author for Midwives), even wrote a novel, Water Witches, about dowsing.

Then I found this historical marker at the end of the green:
(click on the photo to read the fascinating civil rights history)

The Parsnips are a sub-group of the Nips, a group of people that began meeting informally twenty-two years ago in Vermont. Nips means "not in public — sometimes." But they began to get requests for dances, so the Parsnips (or "part of the Nips") began. In his introduction, a member of the band said that if they ever tour, they will form the Tournips (get it? turnips?).

Here is a photo of Wingnut making the video (which you can see below) of the Parsnips:

The group Sunday night had four guitarists, a flute (Sue), a banjo, an accordian, a fiddle and a percusionist. Here is a video of one of the songs they performed:

Here is my favorite song of the evening: Nail the Catfish to the Tree (apparently you actually nail catfish to trees when cleaning them) and Turkey in the Straw (recorded outside before the storm):

And then? A thunderstorm broke. We all ran for the Danville United Methodist Church across the road.





Here is Wingnut helping to take chairs from the gazebo back to the church as the rain is pouring down and the thunder and lighting are all around:

Finally we were all safe and dry inside and the Parsnips continued their music:

Technorati Tags: Parsnips, Nips, Danville, Vermont, American Society of Dowsers, Thaddeus Stevens, Danville United Methodist Church

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West Newbury Congregational Church

Sue standing at the pulpit after the service.

Last winter I visited the West Newbury, Vermont Congregational Church because my best friend, Sue (and here) was preaching there. This is also her home church. It was so warm, friendly and beautiful. I have to go back more often this year. I thought I had posted these photos but obviously I hadn't. 

A view of the White Mountains from the road in front of the church.

I love the simplicity of New England Congregational churches.

Communion Table

West Newbury Town Clerk Office

Mount Moosilauke in the distance on the right.

West+Newbury+Congregational+Church Vermont UCC

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A Beautiful Moth and An Awful Spider

Be sure to click on both photos to enjoy them fully. These are two of my best so far.

Blinded Sphinx Moth (Paonias excaecatus)

Wingnut pointed out this moth on the house this afternoon. It also looked like a dead leaf. It was quite a beauty. The moth was identified by J.D. Roberts at bugguide.net. The next photo is very scary. Be warned!

Barn Spider (male Araneus)

I was horrified when I enlarged this photo. I was less than six inches away from this monster when I took this shot. It was identified by Jeff Hollenbeck at bugguide.net. Details:

Big: 2.5 inch (6.4 cm) diameter body; 5 inch (12.7 cm) wide with legs not spread out.
So ugly it makes me shudder.
Black bristly hair all over its body.
Legs have green/black bands.
Perspective: you are seeing the top of the spider only.
Very common here in Vermont, always found outdoors (thank the Lord).

Wingnut and I finished networking the iBook and MacBook. The iBook required huge numbers of updates. The cats have nearly chewed through the power cord but it is working well.

We took these and other photos and then went to Sue's house to help out and have some great spaghetti and salad. We are home now: I am blogging and editing photos, he is gaming. Early bed (before midnight!) tonight. Wingnut slept till after noon and I didn't get up until 7 AM. But it is Sunday and summer vacation. We finally had beautiful weather.

Animals seen today: three horses racing wild in a field (missed photo/video) and a turkey.
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Newbury, Vermont

I love Newbury. Not only does Sue live here, but the Atkinson Retreat Center of the United Church of Christ (above) is here. I have attended only one retreat the year that I attended the Vermont Academy of Spiritual Training in St. Johnsbury. The weekend I spent there was wonderful and the food was just outstanding. It was so hot when I was there but they provided a fan. There were hymns, prayers, discussions, and community. It all made me feel loved and part of a community I had always wanted to be a part of. The section between the house and the barn is like a dormitory with small cell-like rooms that make me think of a monastery.

I will be going to another retreat in April with the conference's Women's Fellowship. I can't wait! Perhaps this time I will see the ghost that they claim inhabits the house!

The Newbury store (above) is a great place for muffins, cookies, DVDs and gifts. It is one of the friendliest stores around.

Newbury has a more colonial-era type of atmosphere which is so familiar to me from Connecticut. It was established in the mid-1700s. Barton, where I live now, is younger, poorer and more remote. Hall's Lake is also in Newbury. Sue, Wingnut, and I went swimming and canoeing there last summer.


Rt 5, Newbury, VT:

JACOB BAYLEY
Founder of Newbury and Revolutionary General
-•••-

Veteran of the Indian wars, Bayley led a migration of settlers from Newbury, Mass. to the rich lands of the Coos here at the Great Ox-Bow. A staunch patriot, he bitterly opposed the "Haldimand Negotiations" carried on with Canada by Ethan & Ira Allen, during the Revolution.

VERMONT HISTORIC SITES COMMISSION

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Sue's Rabbits

I went to church in West Newbury again this week. But I was very late because of snow squalls. I-91 was reduced to two tracks. Not one lane: just two snowy tracks. It was Communion Sunday and for the first time in ages I felt part of a communion. Pastor Cindy Batten was so welcoming. I have enjoyed her Bible Study in the past and today I enjoyed her sermon and readings. A downer: no carrot cake! Coffee Hour is only on the last Sunday of the month.

After church Debbie, Bob, Sue, and I went to the Bradford Diner for lunch. Sue had to get her car at church, so I went on to her house taking photos along the way. At her place, I filled up Sue's iPod, she messed with Photo Booth, I took rabbit pictures and we had a nice time.

No serious snow problems on the way home. But now it is "blizzarding" outside again and all traffic is gone again. The rest of my vacation plans have just been scrapped because of this weather! Now that just isn't fair! And now we have thunder snow for goodness sakes! I hate thunder snow!

Honey Bunny (above) bites. Sue calls biting a "defensive posture."

Petey Petunia, above, is so black that without adjusting the brightness and contrast, all you would see would be a shiny black lump on the chair!

This is not all that rabbits do (although I joke with Sue that they are boring). Honey Bunny above again. One time we took them outside. But they were pretty skittish about the big birds that flew overhead. Sue and I know that hawks would not be too shy to grab a rabbit from next to us on the ground! Poor things! So much to be afraid of.

Petey Petunia's big feet. Lucky rabbit feet.

Here is Sue playing with Photo Booth on my MacBook:


And here is the finished product that she e-mailed to her neice (the solid blue tortoise is a bobble-head):

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