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....

Open Harbor Day, 2015, in Gorinchem, NL

Okay, Folks.  Fasten your seat belts because it was a full 3+ hours of being out-n-about this past Saturday, just blocks away from where we live here in Gorinchem, NL. 

Let's start with the Dragon Boat Races because that was the part nearest our apartment,

only 3 blocks away.

These races have been in Gorinchem for ten years and are now considered "official."

How can you not love the dragons!

This is serious stuff.

But when I saw this team of ladies, ooo-la-la.
Imagine sprites (elves, fairies and pixies) and dragons in another world.
(click on collage to enlarge)

The races were held throughout the day until the final in late afternoon.
The team that lost last year, the Alphas, won this year! BRAVO.

You know me.  I couldn't resist catching the first race of the day.
Not all the races we saw were this neck-n-neck, trust me.

But they were all watched over by the water scouts, making sure everything was tip-top.

What I love about Open Harbor Day is the variety of sights and experiences.
This lady from the Raalte region was explaining how to clean her bonnet whenever it gets dirty.

We think this was her husband weaving baskets next to her.
(I loved his seat-stand contraption.)

We passed him several times and were lucky to see him finishing up the handles.


Don't you love how he chops his hand down on the reeds at intervals to make them tight.

It was in this area of the Linge harbor that we spotted my new friend, Marielle (remember?).

Gotta love us photographers in action, right?  HA!

This is also where the salmon boats congregate every year for their demonstrations...

...like mending their fishing nets,

and cooking up the red poon fish for us to eat (one of our biggest treats each year).

 (photo courtesy of Marielle de Valk)

This year we even heard the fishermen's choir.

Peering into their boats was like peeking into their homes away from home.

And they are very much "at home" in their wooden shoes!

 Speaking of the fishermen's choir, there were 20 choirs/bands around town that day.


Like this one, for instance, just two blocks from where we live.

It was a day for being "short of eyes," as I often say.

A little bit of this-n-that wherever we went.

And I was on my feet the entire time and had no knee problems!

 But my absolute joy of the day was finding this 51 x 63 in. tapestry for €5 at one of the stalls.

The images don't do it justice but the moss green color is closest to the bottom-right.

"This is a garbled version of Horace's Ars Poetica, a treatise on poetry. The passage should read:
Si uis me flere, dolendum est primum ipsi tibi; tum tua me infortunia laedent, Telephe uel Peleu; male si mandata loqueris, aut dormitabo aut ridebo.
It means:
If you wish me to cry, you must first feel grief yourself, then your misfortunes, O Telephus or Peleus, will injure me. If you speak ineptly assigned words, I shall either sleep or laugh."

This now hangs on our bedroom wall as a reminder of everything I love about where we live!