Blueberries

They are old plants and they got hit hard by the Easter freeze. There are lots of dead leaves, buds and twigs. But the plants seem to have rallied and produced a respectable crop of berries. We've been nibbling them by ones and twos for a couple of weeks, but this evening there were enough to do something with. This little batch will be perfect on top of some yogurt. There are a couple of other plants on the lot that are still a mystery. We're waiting for them to bloom to try to figure out what they are!

Blessing and Open House

We had a short liturgy this afternoon to bless our new home. We followed that with an open house for our church family and neighbors. It was tremendous! For the liturgy we walked around the whole house and shared readings and a prayer for various rooms. Bob Ratchford and Kevin Frederick did a fine job leading us in the liturgy and around the home. We had a huge crowd for the open house. It was wonderful to see so many new church friends. So many folks here had been curious about Barker's Folly, and the work we had done on it; we thought it would just be easiest to invite everyone over to see for themselves! Special thanks go to Charlotte S. and Ellen F. who helped with final preparations, and who helped keep food and drink moving; also Alice S. who worked the punch bowl later in the afternoon. And thanks to all the choir singers who brought tons of food! It was a wonderful spread. We are blessed with a wonderfully caring church family, who have outdone themselves in kindness today. One highlight must be mentioned: the impromptu concert by a spontaneously formed youth choir (on their way to youth conference at Montreat) was a truly moving experience. I'm not sure when I have heard a more stirring rendition of "Jesus Loves Me!"

Entry and Living Room

At long last I was able to finish painting the living room and entryway. I did the entry while on vacation at Easter. I got a good start on the living room, but it went slowly after that. I had to replace some ceiling tiles in the living room (water damage). Things look pretty nice now. I need to paint the rest of the stairway to the second floor (not looking forward to those heights!). The carpet clearners are coming Friday in advance of our open house. In this picture you can see a bit of the new front door which Kent installed this week. Also there is a drop leaf dining table (a gift from the Sollogs in Richmond). On that table is an antique lamp Libby has had for years, waiting for the perfect placement. It's there now: when the lamp is on, is shines through the cut glass of the new door giving a really cool light effect on the front stoop. We put a new fixture beside the front door outside and another in the ceiling of the entry.

Missionary Musician

I recently finished reading an autobiography by Dr. Kenneth M. Scott, M.D. Around the World in Eighty Years tells the story of this amazing doctor/musician. Dr. Scott is affiliated with the Black Mountain Presbyterian Church, where his son, Ken Jr. sings in the choir and daughter Betsy (with her family) attends. Dr. Scott Sr. is an organist in addition to being an MD. He played organ to help pay his way through school, en route to being a medical missionary in Korea and India, before settling in Swannanoa, NC. Dr. Scott gave Libby and me this book as a welcoming gift. What a delight it is. It is in the missionary genre, telling stories of work in the mission field as an encouragement to other missionaries and all Christians. Being a travel buff as I am I was enchanted with the stories of people and places around the world. The added connection with Dr. Scott being an organist was a happy bonus; there are couple of tales that are universally familiar to organists and pianists on the run! Dr. Scott worked during the incredibly exciting era of Christian expansion in the early to mid 20th century. Call it Christian imperialism if you must, but Dr. Scott reveals a mindset that is humble, devoutly earnest and brave. Published by Providence House (ISBN 157736077X) the book will be hard to find on the shelf at your usual bookstore. Best to order through a Christian bookseller. Dr. Scott recently wrote a new tune for the text "Take my life and let is be" by Frances Havergal. The choir at church was pleased to sing the first stanza recently at worship; we hope to teach the tune to the congregation in the coming weeks.

New Music

I do a bit of composing on the side. Nothing comes easy, and it's a long time between projects. But every now and then the effort pays off. I am having a set of Christmas carol arrangements for flute and organ published by MorningStar Music. I had the proofs in January, and just got my complimentary copies last week. The book is available now, and will be promoted heavily late this summer for the 2007 Advent-Christmas season. I wrote these three pieces to be part of a concert at Crestwood Church a few years ago. After the season, I did some serious editing and sent them off. I didn't hear anything for a long time. Then I had a letter last fall asking if they were still available, i.e. not yet published by another firm. I hope there are plenty of church musicians who will find these useful. I had fun writing them, and our performance (Libby did the flute for the premier) was well received. Visiting the link you can see images of several pages from the score, and hear clips from two of the three arrangements. Tell your friends!

State Road 10

Leave it to Libby to actually dig up some information about NC Highway 10. And you might know, there are geeks out there interested in the history of roads and highways! (That's one (organ) geek, talking about others, so it's okay.) We found some sites that talk about the history of NC Highway 10. There's this one, and here, and this one. And if that's not enough, there's always Wikipedia. Pretty interesting stuff, if you're into that sort of thing. I went to the funeral of a friend's dad in February over in Catawba, NC. On the way in I had noticed some signs for NC 10. On the way home I decided to follow route 10 part of the way just to say I did. So I was actually on route 10 between Catawba and Newton, NC. Our little bit of NC 10 is only two blocks long. It starts at Padgettown Road, intersects Kerlee Heights Road, and then dead ends just a bit short of McCoy Cove Road, all in the east end of Black Mountain. On the back side of our house is Highway 70, which is also known as State Street. It's the main drag in Black Mountain, and runs over to Ridgecrest.

Where we were

When we moved to Black Mountain, we didn't go directly into our home at State Road. We rented a home in Christmount for six weeks or so, while Kent did the renovation work. I realized we had never really talked about that, let alone shown any pictures. Here is the place and a link to more photos. We remember fondly John Lamotte bringing by brownies before we even had the truck unloaded, and Mary Alice Murphy offering a hand truck to help with moving our clothes into the rental. Dot Borden and her family own the home. We've never met them, only spoken by phone. Charlotte Sprawls was instrumental in getting us hooked up. It was very nice to have a nice, tidy place to roost while State Road underwent the renovation work.