Mozart in Rehearsal

One thing that happens almost every Saturday morning when we're not gone for the day, is that Astrid goes out walking in the city center to see what's going on, usually around the open market.  If something catches her eye, she'll come back and tell me about it so I can see it, too.

What a woman!

So, back on Saturday, 19 September, she came across Mozart himself and his cohorts, inviting everyone to an open rehearsal at the Grote Kerk for his Requiem.

And what Astrid discovered was that anyone could join the choir or sit and listen/observe.
(Astrid's images above)

Guess what!

Ginnie had sung Mozart's Requiem back in Columbia, SC, days (1970-71),

while in the Columbia Choral Society.

So it didn't take any convincing to go check it out!

You remember the inside of our Grote Kerk, right?  

I love the openness.  The brightness.

The white against the green.

So we stayed for awhile to watch and listen.

And yes, Mozart was there, being the rascal he always is.

The gray hairs really caught my eye.  HA!

They all clearly knew what they were doing...bringing back the good ol' days for me.

Here's a listen and a look at the entire scene that day.
Heavenly!  And right at our doorstep!
[Addendum:  a day after uploading this video, I got a message from Vimeo saying
they had added it to their Classical Music channel (one of 286 videos).  WOW!]

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

You can imagine the complete shock of our lives, after all that inspiration, when we went afterwards to our favorite pannenkoeken restaurant out in the polder.  Astrid was the one who first noticed the counter....

The owner's wife, who we saw and chatted with every time we were there,

had died during heart bypass surgery the night before.

She was only 73.  And Nicholas had met her in July.

The strange thing is that we don't even know her name.

But we know her son, Marco, who is a photographer and one of their cooks.

You could safely say we're still reeling from the fragility of life felt that day.

But as we all know, life goes on.

Other than the stork losing its head (???), Mother Nature was humming.

The cows in the polder seemed extra friendly that day.

Or maybe our hearts were more tender than usual and they sensed it?

Even the weathervanes that day seemed to hold extra significance,

like the old-timey wood planer (bottom-left) that carpenter-preacher Dad often used.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I don't normally post on a Tuesday but there's a reason:

bright and early tomorrow we leave for our Amsterdam flight to Atlanta

on our annual get-away to see my kids and friends.

Don't know if I'll post here again before we return on the 28th,

but I'll definitely be on Facebook.

Ta-da for now....