We're Ready!
Looking out the window to gauge what season it is has not proved reliable. 70 degrees one day, snow the next. So I count on the Town Crier for a heads-up. She never disappoints.
You might not think that’s much in a Town of 50, but you’d be wrong. Here is the list!
Museum:
* raking
* Cleaning interior Hooscow / Jail
* Removing xmas lights from Hooswcow
* Cleaning/ repairing if necessary picnic table and benches
- Horseshoe Pit Area:
* Clean sheep wagon
* Paint interior of sheep wagon [paint to be provided but if you have extra white let me know!]
* Rake and weed grounds [if you have weed spray we could use it]
* Fix the horseshoe pit back boards
* Inspect and fix if necessary picnic tables and benches
- Mini Central Park:
* Rake
* Weed
* Inspect and fix if necessary the bench
- Clean road from Ovando to the The "Dump"
- Rake areas around downtown buildings
- Cemetery clean up
and more!!!!
Museum:
* raking
* Cleaning interior Hooscow / Jail
* Removing xmas lights from Hooswcow
* Cleaning/ repairing if necessary picnic table and benches
- Horseshoe Pit Area:
* Clean sheep wagon
* Paint interior of sheep wagon [paint to be provided but if you have extra white let me know!]
* Rake and weed grounds [if you have weed spray we could use it]
* Fix the horseshoe pit back boards
* Inspect and fix if necessary picnic tables and benches
- Mini Central Park:
* Rake
* Weed
* Inspect and fix if necessary the bench
- Clean road from Ovando to the The "Dump"
- Rake areas around downtown buildings
- Cemetery clean up
and more!!!!
Another official announcement of Spring is the return of Iris the Osprey and her companion Louis to her Hellgate Canyon nest. Her fans were eagerly awaiting her arrival at the beginning of April. Cornell Labs has had a webcam there for several years. I always ask--WHY, Iris, would you post yourself above the parking lot of Hellgate High School when there are so many better views in the general neighborhood. Then again, with those wide wings, she can reach the river in a jiffy with views we could only dream of.
Here you see them adding sticks to their nest. First Louis makes his delivery, and Iris puts a stick on top.
Here you see them adding sticks to their nest. First Louis makes his delivery, and Iris puts a stick on top.
Rumor has it that Louis is two-timing Iris! He visits another nest on the river so everyone is holding their collective breath to see if Iris can successfully hatch her eggs as a single Mom. A soap opera like any other, just going on higher up. If you would like to tune into the live webcam, here is the link:
Hellgate Ospreys Nest Cam| Cornell Lab | University of Montana - YouTube
Closer to home, this morning a female blackbird landed on top of my feeder with a beak full of small sticks. I think she was just showing off because she couldn't feed with that mouthful. More Spring activities! The evening grosbeaks arrived today too! Definitely a colorful addition to the landscape.
In the last letter, I shared the flawless performance of Nathan Chen at the World Figure Skating Championships in Stockholm this year. I can report that he did take home the Gold! Also, I was captivated by the moving and exquisite performance of Viktoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov. No surprise that they also took home the Gold for this beautiful ice dance.
Here is another figure skater, outstanding for a different reason and utterly inspiring. At the age of 90, Yvonne Dowlen puts on her skates every day and goes to the local rink. Following a stroke, she found it easier to skate than to walk. In her youth she had a successful career with the Ice Capades and other professional skating venues so, well, she just kept on skating. Skating is who she was.
Okay, I can't resist it. Whenever I watch beautiful dancers, on ice or parquet, I'm taken back to Fred and Ginger. To my mind, they never grow old. So here are Astaire and Rogers in their 1935 dance "Hard to Handle."
The good news is that Covid cases are dropping and things are starting to open up, though carefully! California has invented Drive-in Opera. The San Francisco Opera had their first performance before a live audience with "The Marriage of Figaro."
That's one answer to a pandemic problem. But here is another very inventive one by a man who combined his love of model trains and classical music by creating a train that plays classical music as it strikes 2,840 wine glasses. You'll see that this feat was awarded a place in the Guinness Book of Records for the longest melody played by a train. But really, how many melody-playing trains ARE there?
While we are on the rare subject of musical water glasses, here is just your everyday street musician playing on crystal glasses by hand. It really is beautiful and a little more expressive by hand than by train.
Now for a bit of humor. This is a favorite of mine, discovered on YouTube. It really made me laugh! Two flight attendants in "Flight Announcement." Definitely a classic. This one's for Susie Sweet.
On the subject of bears, Paula Hammett sent me this clip of traffic stopped in both directions (and with remarkable patience), while a mother bear tries to get her cubs across the street. It's something like herding cats or trying to take toddlers on a walk.
If you are a lover of elephants, you will appreciate the efforts of an orphan elephant sanctuary in Kenya to introduce this baby elephant, who has only know human "parents," to adult elephants in the hope that he will be taken into their care and trained properly as an elephant!
The Cubans are back with friends from around the world to give us a lively version of La Bamba. I can't fathom what goes into this technical feat that connects Buenos Aires with Australia, the Congo, Mali... But it's a treat.
I want to end with something I shared near the beginning of these Letters. It was recorded one year ago today to offer musical support for all those suffering from or due to Covid. It is hard to believe that a year has passed in this dark limbo and that we may have something of a true Spring ahead. I want to honor the thousands of my fellow human beings who really stepped up to the plate in generous and amazing ways. Here 300 people from 15 countries join a virtual chorus and orchestra to sing "You'll Never Walk Alone," which has been particularly apt this year.
It is dedicated to the memory of my dear friend Jack Cross--physician, composer, and great soul--whom I think of every year on this day with celebration for the gift of his music and his life.
Stay well and enjoy the Spring!
Sheri Ritchlin