No place like home... (birthplace, anyway)

San Francisco (view from Alcatraz)

What a great reunion we had to celebrate the anniversary of my mom's 100th birthday! My sister and I cooked up a plan based on the premise that had Mom made it to 100, we would have planned a worthy celebration. And so, our families met up for a long weekend and celebrated in "Crandall-style" (a little quirky and lots of fun). Here are a few pieces of evidence:

Havin' a few in North Beach 

                      Looking a little "jet-lagged" at  The Tonga Room

Ta da :~)

Charlotte, Pat, Suzanne and Brandon

The happy (and relieved) music teachers

(photo: Xandie)

"All's well that ends well"; and actually, the beginning and middle went very well, too. The kids did a terrific job (as usual), most of the details were worked out ahead of time, and I felt that everything was under control and a good representation of what a successful string program should look and sound like. 

For the record:

Elementary Beginning Strings

French Folk Song . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Traditional

Old MacDonald Had a Farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . U.S. Folk Song

Mozart Melody and Variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Traditional

Elementary String Orchestra

English Morris Dance . . . . . . . . . . . Traditional/arr. Noah Klauss

La Rejouissance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . G.F. Handel/arr. Richard Meyer

Sneakin’Around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charlotte Van Ryswyk

Dragon Slayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Rob Grice

El Roble String Orchestra

Overture to William Tell . . . . . . .G. Rossini, arr. Sandra Dackow

Emperor Waltz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J. Strauss, arr. Merle J. Isaac

Dance of the Tumblers . . . . . .  . . . . . . N. Rimsky-Korsakoff,arr. Sandra Dackow

The winter spectacle (concerts, that is)

Today is the first of two district-wide elementary winter music concerts; strings tonight, band tomorrow. This year we have about 175 strings and well over 200 band students.  The enrolment numbers continue to grow and even with budget concerns we have somehow been able to not only survive, but thrive!

Concerts are always free and open to the public; Feb. 16 and 17 at 7 pm in the El Roble Intermediate School Gym, Claremont, CA.

Valentines pie party

Well, it was a beautiful day and we did make it to the bird fest this morning (at least 2 out of 3 of us anyway). After lunch we went to a pie party at a dear violinist neighbor's home. It seems her renter (a college student) has a friend who is a pie baker and he wanted to present a pie-tasting event. Boy, was it ever yummy and what a "sweet idea" to hold it on Valentine's Day. 

2 out of 3 (birdwatching for Cornell)

Mornings are certainly a more active time for bird-watching. I didn't see/hear many more species but I did see greater numbers! Our most prolific visitors from the Cornell lab "urban bird list" are: house finch, house sparrow, mourning dove, and American crow. There was also a western scrub jay sighting during the 10-minute observation window but they are not on the list. The local botanic garden is hosting a birdwatch on Valentine's Day. Maybe I'll get in on that bird count too.

Migrate to the Garden

Sunday, February 14

10 am - 3pm

• Count our bird citizens - participate in a nationwide bird count
• Bird I.D. - Hoot's Who?
• Games, Crafts & Activities

Get on the wire (909) 625-8767, ext 224

Admission fees apply:
$8 - adults
$6 - seniors/students
$4 - fledglings aged 3-12
Free - RSABG Members

It really does take a village

 We have a wonderful community of 'music in our schools' supporters. Both music vendors who handle instrument rentals locally, J. Brown Violin Shop and Styles Music, donated gift certificates for our winter concert raffles next week. Then when I went to pick up two soft cello cases from the village shoe repair he knocked $10 off the cost for me. These are just a few of the reasons why I love our Village!

Facebook frustration!

I guess the news of the week is the tweaking of Facebook and how many people are reaching the boiling point of frustration while trying to understand why it's "better".  Just when I thought I had things pretty much figured out they had to go and change it!

(Im going back to the Lite version)

One week 'til winter concerts

The countdown has begun and I've been lying awake 'til the wee hours of the a.m. running the too-many-details through my poor little over-saturated brain. You'd think after all the years and hundreds of kids I've taught that it would be a piece of cake but it seems that every year we do things a little differently and so those are the things I worry about.

Frontyard birding

(house finch)

Just finished my first of three bird surveys for the Cornell University urban bird count. The idea is to choose a random 10-minute period and observe if any urban birds from their list visit your location. Today I only spotted finch, sparrow  and crow. (Though I put down red-tailed hawk as the most interesting bird spotted that was not on the list.) The Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers a lot of great programs for schools and community members to participate in that assists in the lab's ongoing research of our fine feathered friends.

Rainy daze

(LA weather)

Having quite the series of rain storms today. Right now it's coming down in serious buckets. I'm glad we didn't have much planned and can simply enjoy watching it happen from inside our warm and cozy house.

Pony trekking (not this weekend)

Looking at a wet weekend but that's fine by me. Not so fine for Xandie if she misses out on riding this weekend. Since the stables have no covered arenas, winter is a tough time for equestrians in our area and unlike places such as Seattle, people don't seem to go for trail rides in the rain much here.

(ridin' the Montana trails)

Colors

So I'm playing with the color palette each month; February feels blue and brown to me.

On another blue note:

I love this art sound piece and wanted to remember where and when I found it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpwBbm22_y0

I've been thinking about a better use for our hot tub on return from sabbatical.
This just might be the perfect solution!

Botanicals

~ February ~

 

( from Twelve Months of Flowers ; Robert Furber )

Seem to remember having a copy of a print like this "somewhere in the garage". Picked it up sometime along the way, had no idea where the original came from; just knew that I liked it and maybe I could use it for something someday. Now I'll have to dig it out to find out what "some month" I have.

Groundhogs

from Wiki:

The groundhog (Marmota monax), also known as a woodchuck or whistle-pig, or in some areas as a land-beaver, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. Other marmots, such as the yellow-bellied and hoary marmots, live in rocky and mountainous areas, but the woodchuck is a lowland creature. It is widely distributed in North America and common in the northeastern and central United States. Groundhogs are found as far north as Alaska, with their habitat extending southeast to Alabama.

Seems that Punx. Phil saw his shadow this a.m. and we're in for 6 more weeks of winter. And I was looking for signs of spring...

Between seasons

Seems that we're right between the seasons; a sort of solstice of solstices. In many ancient cultures Feb.1 was a time of celebration that had to do with the ending of winter and promise of the coming spring. The Romans and Celts recognized this time of year as the start of spring; celebrating the days getting longer, the sheep lambing in the fields and the grass starting to grow. Apparently, legend held that if the weather was bad at this time, then spring would be here soon and if the day was fair, we'd be in for a long winter (the logic here?). I think the eternal optomists would like to think of being closer to spring than winter at this point; at least I certainly do.

California gold

I've had a bougainvillea in a large clay pot for over a year now that I've been wanting to plant in the ground. The past week of rains provided a good opportunity to quit procrastinating and "just do it". If all goes well it should take to its new home next to the east wall running along our property line and, come spring, provide "bowers of flowers" just as the song "CA Here I Come" promises.

Winter thoughts

To read a poem in January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June. 
~ Jean-Paul Sartre

Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart. 
~ Victor Hugo


One kind word can warm three winter months. 
~ Japanese proverb


If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. 
~ Anne Bradstreet


Perhaps I am a bear, or some hibernating animal underneath, for the instinct to be half asleep all winter is so strong in me. 
~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Grace

Grace called with a simple request. Could I help her with a cello piece she'd like to play at her church. For a few years we would meet together to go over fingerings, bowings, and most of all, counting for her chosen pieces. I introduced her to Dotzauer and Bach Suites. Grace was not youthful but open to my suggestions and I think I gave her renewed confidence in her playing. It became difficult for her to drive and so I would go to her lovely old house in the village. As the years went by she had a few medical problems and the lesson times became fewer and further apart. One day a for sale sign went out in front of the 100 year old house. I left a message and never heard back and so I was not sure what had happened. Lo and behold I received a Christmas letter this year explaining her move to a retirement community and the difficult process of selling her home and moving. She has kept her cello though, and so today I'm off to visit and maybe we'll plan some duets in the future.

Old car, new car; no car, zip car

  (next car?)

The prospect of an impending sabbatical gives one time to think about their "car situation". First we get rid of the old one before we leave, then we make-do with public transpo/bikes/walking/zip cars, or whatever, when we get to where we're going for a year (New Zealand looks probable). On return we buy a replacement late model vehicle that minimally holds two people and a string bass. (Or three people and a cello.) For larger hauls we'll use the Zip-van from the colleges or rent one for the occasion. The problem is that Mini has just released a maxi-mini (the Countryman)! Now, I have a year and a half to work on my husband to see the beauty of buying a crossover mini; a small (but not too small), fuel-efficient, safe (all wheel drive), cute car that offers our exact capacity requirements :~).

Monday, monday...

(wasn't that an old 60's tune?)

Always so much to think about at the beginning of the work week (and so many other things I'd rather be doing). The college orchestra resumes tonight (yippee to regular rehearsals again), it's a busy week for Xandie (after-school art class, playing incidental music for a drama production, and an out-of-town school friend staying overnight), the elementary strings district concert letter has to get out, there are not 1 but 2 minimum days this week at the jr. high (one reverse and one normal) to figure out rides for and, of course, cello lessons to schedule around all of this stuff.