The Heart of a Mandolinist

After yesterday’s performance at the Christian Congregational Church in Lubec,ME I am still full of music. Being more of an admirer of traditional music I’m also a bit skeptical of a program consisting mostly of contemporary pieces. But not so yesterday. Every piece they played was so wonderfully full of harmonious melodies that I whispered into Bea’s ear: “It is like a wonderful dream”. Quite a few pieces were composed by the performers themselves. The heart of a mandolin composer must be breathing pure harmony and peace. How else could it be that even the most recently written pieces are transmitting so much harmony? Music is something  everybody is relating to in one or the other way. Bea and I like harmonious music. But we are fully aware of that composers enjoy the freedom of writing music expressing their own feelings. The performance we were listening to 2 weeks ago stood in stark contrast to yesterday’s as it was written when the composer was imprisoned in a German Concentration Camp. He needed to express all his and his fellow comrades misery and agony. So the music was full of heartbreaking screams and sadness. But there were no guitars and no mandolins in his pieces. That way it was still a great experience, but it has the potential to make us feel uncomfortable. It seems like mandolins are instruments to be used when harmony and peace is present in the players mind. People playing mandolins seem to be generally happy people, even though the range of expressions is amazingly wide. Melancholy, idle pleasure, happiness and a wild dance can be performed – but it all carries harmony as its main ingredient. I have a mandolin myself, but I have never played it. Sadly, I never learned to play any instrument. My mandolin belonged to my grandfather and I found it 50 years ago in a hidden-away storage in my grandfather’s house. At the time it had a few colorful ribbons tied to it. All the strings were gone. I left it as it was, but could never part with it as I know my grandfather played this mandolin when he was enlisted in WWI and was confined to the trenches in France. He might have played a simple melancholic melody on it or a lively dance when he was allowed to leave the horror of war to go home for 2 weeks. We don’t know what he really played on it, but I’m sure that his mandolin gave him a lot of comfort. I know that he had a girl friend – my grandmother. They were engaged when grandmother was 16 – married a year later. In 1914, when WWI broke out, grandpa was 18yrs. My father has a picture of him in a soldiers uniform – this mandolin in his hand. Grandfather’s Mandolin    Thanks for stopping by again!

A Good Thought and OOPS…

When i read Bob’s comment on my last posting re. the sale of our MH, I thought why I didn’t think of that myself. Bob suggested to put a link to my advertising the MH into the blog. Sure, why not – so I went ahead and inserted a link to the ad. Done! When I also did a posting on our Campobello Sightseeing website this morning something stupid happened. As I made the posting through windows life writer I forgot to change the blog identity and the posting went out on this blog. Then I discovered what I had done and deleted the posting, but alas, it was too late, the posting was already gone into the list as American-Traveler’s last posting. And I am sure some of you had already clicked on it – and nothing came up. Sorry folks, that shouldn’t have happened. But I know similar things have happened to other bloggers too. As for today’s happenings we released more happy customers after a beautiful sightseeing on Campobello. I have great fun watching these people getting more and more excited about being on this tour. Everyone of them has said they would never have known where to go on the island and what to see. So that is my best reward I can get from visitors. And tonight we will be going to yet another concert at the Lubec Summerkeys. The performance today will be a mandolin concert. As we both like guitar and mandoline music we are looking forward to this evening. Thanks again for hanging in here.

Can’t believe I really did it

Yesterday I drove the motor home down to the beach to take pictures of it. This morning I assembled the pictures for an ad at the autotrader.ca    Am I really offering our beloved motor home for sale?  Guess I am. If we don’t want to pay excessive fuel costs for the 3,500-mile stretch to California, then we have to be smart and find a solution. Well, it is not sure that it actually will sell. And we sure won’t give it away. I have been looking at travel trailers of the larger size. What I noticed is that many of them are equipped with bunk beds. They are made to accommodate a family with kids. We have no kids and nobody is really visiting us in the desert, so we are looking for the floor plan with a comfortable rear living room and equipped with all the goodies we are used to. We would have to get a trailer hitch mounted on the Chevy Van. Over here we had another terrific day. The tourists are streaming across the bridge, hotels are getting booked and even we are getting customers. Have a great middle day of the week and thanks for being curious.

What a beautiful Day

After days with high humidity the wind switched to the North-West. The temps got down to around 72F and the air became crystal clear. In the afternoon we called a neighbour and invited them for coffee.  Strawberry ice-cream, fresh strawberries AND whipped cream (the real stuff) served on the porch. What a feast! Afterwards we took our friends on a ride through the natural area of the Roosevelt Park. And, really, it has never been a more perfect day for just that. From the open convertible we enjoyed million-dollar-views. The serenity of the pristine looking beaches and forests, the endless blueness of the ocean with seals looking up to us on the view platform --- there are no words and no pictures which can describe the beauty of this afternoon.  For the first time we saw both Grand Manan ferries on the horizon. One going towards Grand Manan, the other just coming from the island. They met in the middle, then parted again. Dark forests and then sun again breaking into the darkness, rabbits and squirrels were bounding across the paths. And most amazingly: almost no other people around. What is everybody doing on this glorious afternoon? Watching TV? Eating fast-food? Gone shopping? I can’t believe that this area is not crowded on a day like this. When I look through the steel barbeques the park has set up in the many picnic areas throughout the park, I realize they haven’t been used in a long time. What a waste! We got back home around supper time and I had the idea of making a noodle salad and throwing a couple of nice pork chops on the grill. Good stuff and just right on a day like today. We think it is about time that YOU come on over to see this place. I’m sure you end up with saying: I could live here.