Concert at Sanctuary Hall

Last Saturday the Ellett family attended the Jake Armerding Trio concert at the East Weymouth Congregational Church where the sanctuary had temporarily become a music hall. We were fortunate to get tickets at half price by purchasing them last week at the church fair but we saw a great show that would have been worth every penny of the full fifteen dollar ticket price.

The Jake Armerding Trio consists of Jake Armerding on guitar, fiddle and vocals; father Taylor Armerding on mandolin and vocals; and brother Jesse Armerding on drums. They played an eclectic mix of folk, bluegrass, gospel and rock-and-roll with a hint of jazz thrown in. Most of the songs were originals with the exception of the encores. The final encore was a fantastic cover of Paul Simon’s “Graceland” that raised the roof. All the songs were played with honesty and feeling. The up-tempo tunes had a great deal of energy. It was clear that the musicians enjoyed playing as much as I enjoyed hearing them.

I’m sorry to say that Maura didn’t seem to enjoy the music quite as much as I did. She seemed half asleep during most of the performance. She did wake up during Jesse Armerding’s drum solos which held her spellbound. Once or twice during the show she started whining. I admit that I wasn’t paying enough attention to her to get what she was whining about. In Maura’s defense the show was late for her and she was tired. I don’t think she got quite enough sleep the night before. Perhaps the homebaked goodies she had during the intermission improved her mood. She didn't whine during the second half of the show. When we asked her if she enjoyed the show afterwards she said she did.

Several times during the performance Jake Armerding commented on the great sound in the East Weymouth Congregational Church sanctuary. Musicians enjoy playing there because it has wonderful acoustics and makes them sound their best. The sanctuary can hold about 300 people in the pews and there are no bad seats. If you live on the South Shore, or not too far away in other parts of the Boston Metropolitan Area I recommend you come and hear it for yourself. Jake Armerding was the first event in the Music at Sanctuary Hall series at the church. Information on upcoming events can be found at http://www.eweyucc.org/specialevents.html.

My Helper Maura

Last weekend was a stressful and busy weekend for me. My activities centered on my church, East Weymouth Congregational. Saturday was our annual Christmas fair. The fair features a craft tables, raffles, a silent auction, home baked goodies and a snack bar featuring my own famous chili. It’s my mom’s recipe and I’m going to teach Maura how to make it soon, passing it down to a third generation of the family. As a member of the Stewardship Committee I helped plan the fair and, barring serious injury or death, I had to be there. My job was selling raffle tickets.

Friday was set up day, though I’ll admit there was little to do. The heavy work had already been done on Thursday night and no one had let me know so I wasn’t there to help. There were a few little things that still needed doing. I helped label the raffle cans and collected the gift certificates we were offering as prizes to hold until the morning. I’d brought Maura along because it was Friday afternoon after school and I had no place else to leave her. She enthusiastically helped with the decoration, helping to stick paper gingerbread men and holly leaves about to give the hall a festive look. Maura did more work on Friday than I did.

I know I can always count on Maura to work hard at a task if she is enjoying it. Given a chance to help decorate or set up for a fun event she’ll pitch right in and work with a smile. It’s not always that easy to get her to help out at home or do chores that have less appeal. She’s long been responsible for putting away her things in her room and in her corner of the living room and recently we’ve given her a few more chores. It usually takes a few reminders and occasionally a threat to withhold her allowance before she’ll do them. I’ll admit we haven’t given her pleasant things to do. She empties the dishwasher, which must seem like busy work, and cleans out the cat boxes. No one enjoys doing that. She’ll avoid both jobs unless pressed.

I can’t blame Maura too much for shirking on her chores. I’m not very good at remembering to do some of mine either, and for the same reasons. The dish washer get loaded and run, unless I’m very busy, and I get dinner made most days (once and a while I leave it for Jennifer). It can be weeks before I get around to mowing the lawn; I don’t need much of an excuse to put it off. Maura, I’m afraid, takes after me.

Maura’s First Competition

Last Saturday Maura competed in her first ever ice skating competition. She skated in the Halloween Classic at the Rockland Ice Rink, where she takes her lessons. It was fun for her to compete first on home ice where she had been working on her program all summer and fall.

Maura and her mother had been busy getting ready during the week before the competition, getting the things she would need and making sure they were all in her skating bag and ready to go. My parents came for a quick visit so they could see Maura skate. They were in the stands with Jennifer and I watching. Family friend Rheannon Swire and her dad completed Maura’s cheering section. Rhe is an accomplished skater and one of Maura’s idols. Having her in the audience was almost as special to Maura as having her grandparents come to see her.

We got to the rink early to make sure Maura had plenty of time. It was good to watch the more advanced skaters who skated before Maura. We could see what Maura will be doing in a few years. Next time we won’t arrive so early. It is easy to forget how cold it is in the rink and we were all freezing by the time Maura was ready to skate, including Maura. She wasn’t nervous though, until right before she went on.

Maura didn’t win. In fact, she came in third in a field of three. Nevertheless she did very well for her first time out. She completed her program without falling and almost on time. She will skate in competition again and next time I expect she will do even better. She learned a bit about what the judges look for and she is inspired to work a little harder, on and off the ice, so she will improve. We’re planning to enter her in one competition a month during the winter, but the first one won’t be until January. She can use the extra time to get some practice.

After Maura skated her grandfather and I gave her a big bouquet of flowers. She had a big smile on her face as she waited for the scores to be posted. I hope she continues to enjoy skating competitions as much as she enjoyed her first one, even as she takes them more seriously. I’d like to see her win someday but the important thing is that she always does her best and makes the effort to get better. That is what the competition is really about.

Our Annual Nashoba Valley Pilgrimage

Last Sunday we made our annual trip to the Nashoba Valley Winery in Bolton, Massachusetts. Circumstances were less than ideal for the trip this year—Maura had Hebrew School until 1:00, Jennifer was not feeling well and the sky was cloudy and threatening rain—and I might have suggested we skip this year if the trip to one of Nashoba Valley’s fall festivals wasn’t a long standing tradition in our family. Maura has been to a Nashoba festival every year of her life and Jennifer and I have been making the trip annually for even longer than that. We were also expecting to meet friends there and we don’t like to disappoint.

I was in a bad mood by the time we arrived. I’m a nervous driver and it was rather a long trip. Traffic was horrible considering it was a Sunday afternoon. Fortunately for me and my family my mood quickly turned around once we had parked the car and located our friends. A snack and conversation started cheering me up and the attractions of the festival finished bringing me around.

The festival we’ve attended the last few years is the Brews and Bluegrass Festival. It features the products of Nashoba Valley’s brewery and the bluegrass music of Southern Rail. I always enjoy both and this year was no exception. The beer is always good and this year I particularly enjoyed the Blueberry Porter. Southern Rail consistently gives a great performance and I enjoy hearing them every year. Someday I might go see them at another venue. Unfortunately their closest performance this year is at a bad time for me and I won’t be able to make it. I may have to check online for their spring and summer schedules.

Maura, as usual, had a great time. Of course she doesn’t drink beer so we’ll have to attend twelve more festivals before she can enjoy a brew with her father but Nashoba offers food and activities for kids. Our family favorite is the caramel covered cider donuts which are very much worth standing in line for. Maura also enjoys the music and playing with her friends. They danced to the music and ran at high speed through the crowd. This last activity did not meet with parental approval and earned Maura a reprimand.

Since we arrived late we stayed until Southern Rail finished their final set and then explored some back roads on the way home to avoid the bumper-to-bumper traffic. Despite the cloudy weather it was a very pretty drive through the countryside. The fall foliage was nearing its peak and the trees were aflame with bright reds and yellows. Perhaps next year we will go that way again, and maybe it will be sunny.

Maura Goes to the Circus

Maura had a big adventure without me last Saturday. She went to see the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus at the TD Garden with her Aunt Andrea and her cousins. She came home with a big red plastic clown nose and a smile on her face. By her breathless account she had a wonderful time. She went on about the pirate acrobats building human towers by flipping people into the air with a seesaw, the animal act in which an elephant picked up a dog and put him gently down in the ring and the seven motorcyclists riding inside the spherical steel cage. I wish I could have been there to see the smile on her face and the wonder in her eyes, not to mention the “greatest show on earth.”

As Maura gets older I know I’m going to miss more of her special times. She’ll have more opportunities to do fun things without her father and she won’t always want me around even if I can be there. That’s the way things should be. As children grow up they are supposed to develop their own identities and separate from their parents. They grow, they learn, they develop. It’s a parent’s job to help them when they need help and get out of their way when they don’t.

Maura is doing a good job of becoming herself. I’m happy and proud when I see her succeeding without help from me or her mother and I’m glad she doesn’t need us all the time. I’m especially glad she doesn’t need our help to have fun. Maura’s growing independence tells me that her mother and I are doing our job as parents. I’m also happy that Maura does still need us, and not just to feed her, cloth her and get her to school. She still needs our approval, our advice and our company. She still wants to be read to and tucked in at night. She still needs to be reminded of her responsibilities and provided with consequences when she fails to fulfill them despite the reminders. She still enjoys having adventures with her father.

I enjoy having adventures with Maura, too. She is good company. She is intelligent, curious and good natured. I’m happy to spend time with her. So, to Maura I say, “I like the circus, too. Let’s go together sometime.”

Bogs and Beaches

Thanks to a teacher in-service day on Friday followed by Columbus Day weekend, Maura had four days off from school. We had considered going camping and the weather would have been perfect for it but Saturday was Yom Kippur, which meant that Jennifer and Maura were in services. On top of that Jennifer thought she might need to work Sunday or Monday so we decided not to plan a camping trip after all. We did get the chance to get out for a few nature hikes.

On Friday afternoon I took Maura to Ponkapoag Bog in the Blue Hills Reservation. We walked the boardwalk that crosses the bog to the edge of the open water of Ponkapoag Pond. We searched for signs of southern bog lemmings but didn’t see anything that we could be certain of. I’d hoped to find green droppings or piles of clipped sedges that indicate their presence. All we saw were narrow paths through the vegetation in the open parts of the bog that could be lemming runs. While we saw no clear signs of lemmings we did enjoy the walk and noted the succession of environments as we moved away from solid ground from thick woods dominated by maples and cedars through open meadows to a final verge of stunted cedars on the edge of the open water. We saw some beautiful red dragonflies and few birds flitting through the brush that I couldn’t see well enough to identify  but nothing else was moving in the bog. The weather was perfect but I suspect most of the wildlife had already moved on for the season.

On Sunday we made a family expedition to Plum Island, in Newbury, Massachusetts, on the shore north of Boston. The weather was unseasonably warm for October. The temperature reached the low 80s Fahrenheit, ideal weather for a day on the shore. There was heavy traffic on Interstate 95 around Boston so getting to Plum Island was a chore but we enjoyed our visit once we arrived. A wrong turn took us to the inhabited part of the island where we discovered that Plum Island Light was open for visitors. We ate our picnic lunch on the grounds of the lighthouse and then took the opportunity to climb to the top, stopping along the way to chat with the friendly Friends of Plum Island Light who staff it when it is open. The view from the top was spectacular and we learned how lighthouses work.

After the lighthouse side trip we finally found our destination on Plum Island, the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, which occupies the undeveloped part of the island except for the beach at the southern end which is a state park. We parked at the Hellcat Trail lot and walked both loops of the Hellcat Interpretive Trail where we learned about the National Wildlife Refuge and the barrier island environment of Plum Island. Both loops of the trail are on boardwalks to protect the environment and allow visitors to cross wetlands dry shod. A pamphlet available at the trailhead describes the trails and gives information on the wildlife and ecology. One loop winds through a man-made freshwater marsh which was constructed in the 1950s to improve habitat for migrating birds. We saw an egret, swans, and ducks in the open water and learned about invasive species in wetlands, including the common reed which still fills much of the marsh. On slightly dryer ground the trail wound past bayberry and through stands of red maple.

The other branch of the Hellcat trail climbed the large stabilized secondary dunes that make up the backbone of the barrier island. At the top an observation area looks out on the smaller, less stable primary dunes closer to the beach, with their spreading mats of false heather and beach grass holding them in place. Along the way the interpretive guide described the ecology of the island and the plants that survive in the harsh environment of salt-spray and shifting sand. It also discussed the impact of development on barrier islands and their important role in protecting the saltmarshes and the mainland behind them from the impact of storms.

The one environment on Plum Island we didn’t visit was the actual beach. It took too long for us to get there and we didn’t have the time for one more walk down to the water on the ocean side. Perhaps next year we’ll get to visit the beach there or make a trip to the Cape Cod National Seashore for a trip to a wild beach.

Maura Taken Sick

Maura is generally a healthy child. Jennifer and I see that she eats her vegetables, gets adequate sleep and isn’t a couch potato. She gets the occasional cold and suffers from hay fever in the spring but she has not often been seriously ill. Last week she was.

On Monday she complained of having a cold in the morning. I took her to school anyway. She wasn’t complaining of anything that should keep her home. An hour later, though, I got a call from the school nurse to let me know she was running a fever of 102°F and I should come pick her up, which I did, right away. Children’s ibuprofen brought her fever down but it didn’t go away and she developed a cough. Since she wasn’t improving we called her doctor on Tuesday evening and on Wednesday morning he saw her and diagnosed pneumonia.

In times gone by this would have been a dangerous illness and everyone we told of it reacted as if Maura was on death’s door. Thanks to modern medicine, though, she was rapidly on the mend. A course of antibiotics treated the infection very effectively. On Thursday her fever was much reduced. On Friday it was gone entirely, and she was able to go to Rosh Hashanah services with her mother.

The most traumatic part of the whole week for Maura and for me was convincing Maura to take her medicine. She hates liquid medicine and she is very stubborn when she’s sick. Even when she knows it will make her feel better she won’t take the medicine if she doesn’t like the flavor. Since almost every children’s medicine is flavored either with grape or cherry, the two artificial flavors that Maura hates the most, she usually refuses, leaving Maura still sick and me frustrated. This time we finally hit on a solution. After it had been mixed into a banana-chocolate smoothie Maura claimed not to taste the medicine and happily drank it all down. I’m looking forward to Maura growing up just a bit more. She might not grow out of her aversion to liquid medicine but after a few more years of growth it won’t matter. She’ll be large enough to take an adult dose and she has no trouble swallowing pills.

Maura is back in school now after having been out all of last week. She seems not to have missed a beat. She is rapidly catching up with her missed school work and moving on to new material. While the extra week off hasn’t seemed to hurt her academically I hope she isn’t sick often this year. No parent likes to see his child sick but Maura being home unexpectedly causes other problems for me. Except for her aversion to liquid medicine Maura is a very good patient and not at all demanding but it’s much harder to get work done when she’s home.