Springtime and a Lowland Fling

Word reached us in mid-March that Tyler and Kathi had tied the knot in Denmark, and photos came showing their lovely wedding in a lighthouse, just the two of them, so romantic. 

In April my friend Beth and I took off north in her car. She dropped me off in Princeton so I could do some work with my research buddies George and Dory in Princeton, at Rutgers, and later in Newark and NYC. Then I took the Metro North up to Milford where Beth put me up in the cottage behind her old home (now belonging to new owners). We walked on the beach and explored Milford, and then the next day I showed her my favorite places: the Trolley Trail in Branford, Stony Creek, Chaffinch Island Park, and the Foote-Ward cemetery. She also got to meet my friends Gordy and Andrea, and Lois back in New Jersey.

Back at BayWoods I was running for a seat on the Board of Directors. In the first week of May I learned I had won, joining two incumbents. So this will add a load to my life at BayWoods, we shall see what transpires. In mid-May Bill and I took off on our long-awaited trip to Scotland and England. We flew to London where the first night we ate dinner at our favorite restaurant, Margaux, on the Old Brompton Road. The train ride to Edinburgh was quite lovely, especially along the coast. We finally arrived at North Berwick, home of our friend Dave Berry, who had invited us and myriad other friends for what he called A Lowland Fling. We had a great room overlooking the High Street. There was a welcome dinner, a city walking tour led by Dave, and a wonderful party Saturday evening at the local pub, where Dave played

the drums with his old mates he had gathered together. A half pint of Guinness Stout and I was up there dancing to Sweet Caroline and Gimme Some Lovin. Sunday was the boat trip to four islands, each with their different birds, one with a lighthouse built by Robert Louis Stevenson's family which might have been the inspiration for Treasure Island. We hated leaving, but Monday left for Edinburgh and spent the afternoon at the National Gallery, meeting some of our new friends for lunch. On Tuesday we went to Glasgow, highlights were the Transportation Museum and the Willow Tea Room, but unfortunately I came down with a cold. Back in Edinburgh we discovered Howie's, which served excellent Scottish food in an historic building with windows all around. Later that week we took the train to Beverley, where we attended a concert in the beautiful church St Marys performed by the Early Music group The

Ministers of Pastime. The next day Bill came down with the same cold so we had to cancel the next night's concert, The Tallis Scholars. But the hotel was comfortable and we got a lot of rest our last couple of days. 

Back at BayWoods I hardly slowed down, went to an event at Quiet Waters Park and then a few days later went on a "pedalling" boat cruise of Baltimore Harbor. The summer beckons, we're planning our annual trip north to Gilmanton, with my Chester group meeting the last week of July. Oh, and Beth and I signed up for a trip to Ireland in April/May 2024!

Where Does the Time Go

One of the results of a busy life is that one doesn't have time to blog. Notice it has been more than a year

Tyler and Kathi

since there has been an update. Many of the details of our lives repeat every year: Chester poetry group in late July (in 2022 only 3 of us met but we're hoping for a full group in 2023), and Gilmanton in August. Because of Covid, long-distance travel by air was not desirable, but we decided we would go to California for Christmas in December 2022. We flew to Santa Barbara, which has a charming airport, and hung out with our friends Roger and Fran. Second stop, Pasadena, visiting with Kirk and his family. Got to spend a little time with Tyler and Kathi. Third stop was Laguna Beach with my sister. Came back home, thankfully no Covid, ready to start the new year.

One small trip I did make in October 2022 was to Princeton to read with my fellow Cool Women Poets for a launch of our latest anthology. Came back after a 3-day trip, back in my own bed Sunday night October 16, was woken up at 3 a.m. by the fire alarm. Unfortunately it was a real fire. The good news is that our building is very well built (steel and concrete) so the fire, which was on the next floor up from us, did not spread from one apartment. The bad news is that the sprinkler system worked (I know, that sounds like good news), causing damage to at least 30 apartments. Ours did not have any water damage but water ran down within our walls, so we had to have 2 feet of drywall removed from 5 walls in our apartment so that insulation could be removed and the interior dried out. It has been 3 months since that was done and we are still waiting for the drywall to be replaced. No comment.

Beth, Sharon and Michael

In December 2022 we lost one of our closest friends here at BayWoods. His name was Michael Kurtz. He and our friend Beth had become very close in the last year. Michael was our neighbor across the hall. He had an illustrious career as an archivist, serving as the top non-political officer in the National Archives from 1996 to 2011. He also did incredible research on the efforts to find art stolen by the Nazis during World War II, and his work became the inspiration for the 2014 movie "The Monuments Men" directed by George Clooney. But these achievements do not begin to describe what a wonderful friend he was, a gentle soft-spoken man, but strong as iron in his convictions, and always ready to act upon them.

The two genealogical projects I was working on last year continue to take up my time. The Friends of the Van Ness House learned in December 2022 we had achieved 501(c)(3) status. And the Cedar Grove Cemetery project has received much good publicity, last week we were featured on WNYC: https://www.wnyc.org/story/researchers-aim-show-cemetery-final-resting-place-enslaved-people-who-helped-build-nj-town/

Our biggest plan comes about in May, a trip to Scotland to see our Scotsman friend Dave Berry. Hopefully you'll be reading about that in the next post. I almost forgot, I was in 3 different acts in the Variety Show here at BayWoods, see some of the highlights here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/t3AnbkS4kaWaRt2BA