Musical Education

Norris and I went to a lecture yesterday afternoon on the campus of Mars Hill College. The lecture included performances and shape-note demonstrations by the College Chamber Singers and the Music Department Quartet.  If you saw the movie Cold Mountain, you heard some Sacred Harp singing which is written in the shape-note system. Here's a video Norris took of the Chamber Singers doing the warm-up four-part harmony version of Amazing Grace, where they sing the four syllables, Fa, Sol, La and Mi, used in the earliest versions of the system:

 

Another hymn we heard was Angel Band, written with a seven-symbol system  - this time we have both the syllables and then the actual words.

The lecturer, Dr. Joel Reed emphasized that the chamber singers are not trying to duplicate the real style of Sacred Harp singing, in which the singers are arranged in a square and are supposed to sing as loudly as possible.  But you are hearing the difference in harmonies typical of this style, which emphasizes the fourths and fifths as opposed to the thirds we usually associate with sacred music. The tenors carry the melody while, in this case, the sopranos are singing an octave or more above them.

You can read more about the shape note system and why it was used in this Wikipedia article at the link. In it you'll also see a link to Sacred Harp. The Sacred Harp style is named for one of the most popular hymnals.

The lecture was called "Pathways in Congregational Song: 1860-1960, and included other styles of music, as found in the college's extensive archives. We also heard solos and this quartet performed two spirituals from the African-American tradition - the man on the right is Dr. Reed, the head of the music department at Mars Hill.

Unfortunately, the subject was far too broad to cover all the information we might have wanted to learn in just one hour.

Joyce and Niki's visit

Just two days after Norris' family were here, Joyce and Niki arrived for a 6-day visit. We did a lot of relaxing around the house, but did get out for dinner a couple of times.  This photo is from the Glass Onion in Weaverville on Thursday evening -

Norris and I had eaten there when the place was first opened and the service was not stellar, but we had a good meal this time.

One day, Niki said that when she tried knitting before - my mother had taught her -  it was challenging and she got discouraged by the same issues Joyce and I had when we learned the basic knit and purl stitch. So I thought I could help her with that, and started by showing her how to look at her knitting and figure out how many stitches there are and if they are formed correctly, and how to use markers to keep track of the stitches on the needle or where a design change takes place.  Then I took out some plain white scrap yarn and knitted samples with mistakes so Niki could see how to fix them.  Niki already knew how to crochet, so the scariest part - picking up a dropped stitch - was easy for her, using the crochet hook to put all the stitches just like they were supposed to be - even if we dropped the stitch several rows below.

The next day, commenting that I hadn't planned much for their visit since I thought we were going to be buying fabric and fitting a prom dress like last year, Niki said she would enjoy a trip to a yarn shop.  So after lunch at the new Creperie, we got in the car and went to three yarn stores in Asheville so she and Joyce could see how different shops have their own personalities.  Niki found a beautiful yarn to work with for a real project after the practice she'd gotten the day before.

This is hand-dyed, 100% wool and Niki got to use my umbrella swift and winder to make yarn cakes to knit from.

Niki knit a gauge swatch so we could figure out how many stitches she should cast on, then she used the new-to-her "long-tail" method to start a garter-edged stockinette-stitch scarf. By the time they left on Sunday, Niki's had finished 6 or 7 inches already - I should have taken a photo before she packed it up because her scarf was perfect!

I tried to photograph Niki at her Pointe class on Saturday afternoon - the automatic camera with no flash needed a better operator, but Niki allowed that two were o.k. to post. We like this one because Niki was standing in front of the mirror so we can see her from two sides at once.

The little yellow disk is a "tambourine" which made this a fun sequence. This next photo is one of the few in-motion shots that were not too blurred and didn't happen to catch the "wrong" part of the movement.  Not that this one is great, it's just not as bad as the others!

In the past, Joyce and Niki have come by car - but Joyce's car was not in the best of health so they flew from Chicago direct to Asheville. That meant they didn't have to get on the road on Sunday morning like usual, so we were able to enjoy a great brunch.  It was a clear, pretty day so we took a drive around the RCFD afterwards, looking at all the difficult places you sometimes have to take an emergency vehicle.

If Niki changes her mind about going to Prom, they'll have to come back for a dress fitting.

Norris' Family comes to Weaverville

Norris's family arrived Thursday evening.  We all went out to lunch Friday at 12 Bones and then some members of the group went to tour the Biltmore Estate in the afternoon.  We didn't get any photos of the Friday activities, but we did on Saturday when the entire group went to Weaverville to have lunch at the Jack of Hearts pub.

Norris, Cailey, Marla, Kheley, Marvin, Hallie and Ella

This next photo is not quite as good of some members, but it is the only one that shows Cheryl.

Norris explained to the group that Jack of Hearts occupies a remodeled building that used to be the old Weaverville Fire Station.  For their benefit, here is a Goggle Maps image of the old fire station in 2008.  At that time, it was no longer the fire station, but the remodeling hadn't started yet.

 After lunch, we had dessert at the new Creperie in Weaveville.

Ella and Norris at the Creperie

Hallie, Kheley and Cailey look great on camera!

While we were waiting for the crepes, some of us visited the adjoining shop that sells vintage and antique home furnishings. Cheryl picked out a small dresser dating from about 1920 that reminded her of some of her grandmother's pieces. Marla helped Norris with the haggling part of the transaction.

Norris next to the little dresser

The visit came to and end after dessert.  Here we show Ella getting into the big van (sometimes affectionately called the Prison Van) that brought everyone with their luggage and bedding. This was the biggest group of people we've ever had staying in the house at once.

Here are Kheley and Hallie in the van packed for the return trip to Georgia.

Back to our house, the little dresser  makes a nice addition to the living room furnishings, allowing Cheryl's knitting and all the sheet music to be neatly stored.

Lu and Norris take a minute to relax after the furniture moving

During the visit Moki stayed in the basement, but all the cats were pretty worn out, first by all the housecleaning, then all the visitors.

The piano wall looks much neater since we also moved the cat tree to Cheryl's studio.

We hope the family will come back soon - Kheley, Hallie and Cailey are the reason we have Lilly so we were very happy to have them come and visit her.

It's good to have visitors

We're expecting two sets of house guestsstarting today and taking us through the end of next week. It's always good because we finally take care of things she should have taken care of some time prior - like hanging this Marcus Thomas print. 

We bought the print at Weaverville's annual Art in Autumn last September, had it framed and then didn't hang it until a couple of days ago.

Marcus is paralyzed and paints using his mouth. We got this snapshot of the artist at work at the street festival but you can see better pictures and learn more about him at this link:  Marcus Thomas

 We bought another print by him two years earlier.  You can see it at the end of the post at this link.

End of Day 1

The landscapers just finished up their first day on our drainage project.  The first thing they did was remove the steps and railings from the deck landing and remove the stones that were already around the drain so that the new grade can be dug out.  The steps and rails can hopefully be reused once the landing is extended along the deck and the steps are redirected to land somewhere in front of the path that runs along the wall.  The steps had to be moved and reoriented because the new water path will flow where the steps used to be. Even though it has been a good while since the last big rain, everything is still very wet and sloppy due to continued runoff from above and some bubbling of water coming up out of the ground near where the steps are sitting on the left side of the picture.

The crew has already started digging out and deepening the old swale coming down the mountain.  It will all be eventually lined with boulders and river rock.  This view is looking up the slope from where the steps used to be.

This is a different view of the swale.  This picture was taken from above.  They will continue digging out the water path all the way to the drain and create a rock dry stream bed to make sure the water stays funneled toward the drain.  They are also going to build up the level of the dirt around the house to help direct water back toward the dry stream bed.  There will also be an overflow water path in case the drain gets clogged or if the water flow is more than the drain can handle.  That excess water will flow over the drain and into a channel that will carry it away from the house and down toward the street.

The first of several loads of small boulders and river rock were delivered today.  We will end up with 4-6 tons of new rock before they are done.  All the stone will have to moved from the end of our driveway, and up to the level of our back yard.  They will use the skid loader to lift the stones over the retaining wall along our driveway, then wheelbarrow them along the back of the house to where they are needed.  If the skid loader looks familiar, it's the same one that broke down on the last landscaping project several months ago.  We had it at the top of our driveway for a couple of weeks.  We hope it doesn't break down again and become a permanent feature of our landscape.

The Water Situation

Today, our landscapers are back to work on the drainage issue we ran into with the big rains a couple of weeks ago.  These are the before pictures, taken on Saturday after our consultation with Dave, who runs the business, and the designer.  You may be able to see orange and pink flags (no reason for the color difference) going up the swale in the shadows to the right of the Mountain Laurel on the slope. They will be placing boulders  in that area to make sure the water flows into the channel they will create.  (The steps on the right are the ones leading up to the old logging road that takes us through much of our property.)

In this view, taken from the back where the retaining wall is, you can see more flags outlining the area of excavation that will create a sort of dry-retaining pond to slow the water down before heading down the drain.  The steps from the back porch are being rebuit to turn 90 degrees from their current path - the upright evergreen shrub next to the drain will have to be relocated to make that happen.

 

Cheryl's Dad was asking about the undergrowth - it doesn't show too well in the winter, but these are photos of the area off the driveway, overlooking the lot next door in the first one.Much of the close-in shrubbery is non-native Japanese Spirea. This area was part of the old logging roads, so open to the sun and these invasives like the Spirea and Multiflora Rose came in and took over.

The foreground in this next picture is our landscaping at the end of the driveway.

 

Here are the same two views, taken on Friday in the fog.  This is why we'd really prefer there not be a house built on this lot. Last year's American Beech leaves and the tulip poplar trunks glow in the mist.

 This is just an extra photo because I like these American Beech so much.

 

Posting for the weekend

We haven't had a blog posting for awhile, so we decided to do an update on some Norris activities for the weekend.  On Friday, after leaving the gym and doing some shopping at Fresh Market, Norris and Cheryl came upon a 3-car accident that had just occurred near Beaver Lake.  The car below had been crunched from the rear, then ran into the guardrail to crunch the front end, with a fire starting in the engine compartment. Norris used his personal fire extinguisher to knock the flames down, but they soon re-appeared.  A bystander handed Norris another extinguisher, and the flames were knocked down for the second time.  Since the gasoline was still leaking on the hot engine, the flames came back again, but by then the "real firemen" from Asheville station 7 and Reems Creek FD's Beaverdam station had arrived.  Cheryl took a picture (Norris is in the yellow jacket) just as the Asheville crew had  knocked the fire down for the last time.  The driver of this car had a nasty facial injury and was transported to the hospital.

On Saturday, a local policeman held a special running of the NC gun permit class just for RCFD members.  Norris decided to take the class just for the heck of it and to have a chance to do some target practice after many years of not shooting at all.  After 8 hrs of classroom time, the group went to the firing range to qualify. Each student had to fire 30 rounds from varying distances and all 30 rounds had to land within the outer circle of the silhouette target.  Norris surprised himself by getting all the 30 rounds into the three inner rings.