Daily prompt: West End Girls

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Blandford, hill towns, postaday2014

Every city and town contains people of different classes: rich, poor, and somewhere in between. What’s it like where you live? If it’s difficult for you to discern and describe the different types of classes in your locale, describe what it was like where you grew up — was it swimming pools and movie stars, industrial and working class, somewhere in between or something completely different?

Blandford, Massachusetts is a small hill town located towards the base of the Berkshires, population of about 1200. Its geographic size is very large, but the population is mostly concentrated in its center. Blandford for reasons that unknown to me, is mostly of republican makeup, though this is no longer an upscale hill town. Long ago at the end of the 1800’s Blandford was much larger in population and very prosperous; something happened at the turn of the century that shut down most of its industry. What is so intriguing is that no one knows what it was, not even the Blandford Historical Society and trust me I have asked, because I find it to be a fascinating mystery. I have to get in touch with the intern who is working with Jeanne York, our resident historian; she is working on her PH.D and the loss of Blandford’s industry is part of her thesis. I will be very interested to find out what her conclusions will be or if she will be able to come to any.

Nowadays, Blandford is struggling as many hill towns are struggling; we have too many houses for sale which further weakens the real estate market. The reason why so many houses are for sale is because there aren’t enough jobs in the area. The jobs that are available are becoming farther and farther away; my hubby’s work is an excellent example. He has to commute from Blandford to Boston and now down to Virginia and New York. It is too hard to make a living and live in a nice place like Blandford far away from city life. It has gotten to the point that living in Blandford has become too costly in terms of gas, heating oil, water and real estate taxes. My hubby and I have decided that we are going to put our home on the market in a year or two and relocate to Boston now that our babies are on their way to independence. They needn’t worry about what we get in Boston, there will always be enough room for them; they may need to share a bed with Jack, but I know that Jack won’t mind sharing with them lol.

Our second meeting of the Blandford French club

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Blandford, foreign language, French, library, postaday2013, speaking, translation

Yesterday was our second meeting of the Blandford French club at our Porter Memorial Library right at the heart of our small town. We were only three, but instead of being sad or bothered by our very small turnout, we spent more than an hour speaking French together about this, that and everything. There seriously was not one second of silence and the hour sped by, it was great. I am the only native speaker, but both ladies have spent quite a lot of time throughout the years visiting and traveling through France so their ears are very much in tune with the lyrical cadences of the French language.

I am so glad that my friend, who is head of the library board of Trustees, decided to start the French club; it is only once a month, I know, but it is better than nothing. I really like the two ladies, they are kind and sweet. They share the same passion for baking, cooking and gardening that I do, so even though we are speaking in a foreign language, we are speaking about things that we all love and it makes it much more interesting; especially when the three of us are searching the ceiling for those certain vocabulary words that sometimes elude us. I don’t know why I always look up at the ceiling when I can’t think of a word, but I do look up waiting for the elusive word to appear and it never does, you would think that I would learn by now, but I don’t.

I have to remember to bring a few French children’s books for my ladies, they asked me if I had any because they would love to have some easy French reading to maintain whatever progress they make during our once a month conversations. I also have to see if food will involved in future meetings. I am so happy that we started this club.

A new French club in Blandford

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Blandford, extracurricular activities, French language, French speakers, postaday2013

One of the members of the Blandford Historical Society asked me if I would be interested in leading a French club at the Blandford library. She is a very active member in our community, she is Blandford’s local reporter for the Country Journal, she is President of the Blandford White Church Steering Committee, she is also on the Board of Directors of the Historical Society. Moreover she is one of the Massachusetts Library Commissioners, so as you can see, even in retirement, she is one busy lady. She made me tired just describing all of her duties.

Anyway, she would like me to lead the group since I have all of the “expertise”. I am partially looking forward to this and partially dreading it. I do have hermit-like tendencies which I know isn’t a very good quality to have. I am very happy being alone and I do usually need to be strong armed into social gatherings. Once I am there then I am fine; it is the getting there that gives me trouble. I really don’t know why I balk so much at getting out to socialize because intellectually I know that I will talk and laugh but getting there feels like such a battle in my head. There are times that I dread the whole process of deciding what to wear and then wearing it and then going. It’s like the skiing thing, I easily convince myself that it’s too tiring, too much work and just too much. I am going to go ahead and lead the French group and try not to talk myself out of anything. I should embrace people and socializing, a little can go a long way. It will be good for me, right?

The gloom of Blandford

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Blandford, fireplaces, firewood, fog, gloom, postaday2012, rain

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Today was the first day that I broke down and went foraging in my closet for my lovely robe de chambre, a present from my hubby, it is more than a bathrobe, it is my fall and winter attire until it warms back up. The fog was heavy and dreary, our first wood delivery, which tomorrow I will put into the garage, was yet another signal that fall is here to stay. Why can’t I just accept this changing of seasons, I never spend so many days refusing to welcome fall, I am entering this season kicking and screaming, can’t explain it.

I am going to cuddle with Jack and use his hot little furnace of a body to warm my hands. He is a wonderful lap dog. Rex is way too large to be a lap dog, but he never minds when I stretch out next to him to leech his heat. Dogs are great that way, always willing to help.

When was the last time you were in the great outdoors?

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backyard, Blandford, Cobble Mountain reservoir, postaday2012

When was the last time you enjoyed the great outdoors?

June 16, 2012

The Great Outdoors

Otis Reservoir Area

I live in a small town but I don’t know if that qualifies as the great outdoors. My backyard really wouldn’t be what I call the great outdoors but just down the road five minutes either way, we have Cobble Mountain reservoir and in the opposite direction we have Blandford State forest complete with camping grounds, hiking and hunting trails. I’ve been camping in the State forest with the best camper I know, my hubby.

Another interesting program at the Blandford Historical Society

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Blandford, Blandford war veterans, Historical Society, postaday2012, potluck dinner

Tonight we had another educational program at our Historical Society, it was a slide show of every Blandford resident who served our nation’s military; from the Revolutionary War to the present day. There were actually three hundred strong from Blandford who served in the Revolutionary War, our own General Knox, who became a close personal friend to General George Washington, was included with an accompanying picture. I was surprised to see a Jones amongst the 300, my friends laughed along with me, saying that he was fighting on the wrong side. The Civil War hadn’t as many combatants, but there was one young man of note, he was only twenty years of age and he made his way all the way down to Philadelphia and took part in twenty battles. He actually captured a confederate flag during one of those battles. We have the copy of that confederate flag with the square of the original flag and the young man’s Congressional Medal of Honor on display at our Historical Society. I was particularly impressed with the young man’s courage, patriotism and sense of duty, walking from Blandford, MA to Philadelphia, PA isn’t a small feat, even on horseback it takes courage and determination. We moved along in history to the Spanish American War and we had the one soldier, he was in a group picture honoring the veteran’s returning home from World War 1, he was featured along with the old white bearded Civil War veterans and the brand new veterans just come home in 1918. As we moved forward to both World Wars, the audience became more lively because old family members, old friends of the family were present in every slide, it was a nice trip down nostalgic lane for our society’s members, quite a few of them were featured when we got to Korea and Vietnam. They were all young and handsome in their nice starched and pressed uniforms, I could tell that they were very proud of their time serving the military and our country.

The slide show started after we had finished our potluck dinner, I wasn’t very creative this time, I brought brownies and I wasn’t the only one. This gathering could have been called potluck dessert because the dessert table was very well represented as opposed to the dinner table. I was happy because there was an excellent chicken curry salad and a lovely barley, tomato, cucumber, cilantro salad and finger sandwiches. Passing by the dessert table on my way to sit down, I couldn’t help but linger to see what delectables might tempt me later on. There was a gorgeous fruit platter, there were chocolate covered strawberries, cheesecake balls rolled in ground nuts, chocolate glazed chocolate squares, banana bread, blueberry muffins, banana walnut bread, brownies, brownies with walnuts, fudge and more brownies. I might be missing something, but wasn’t that one huge spread of sweets? It was a lovely night at the Historical Society.

The musical program at the White Church, here I come.

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Blandford, music, postaday2012, White Church, woodwind instruments

I’m all ready, the cookies are set, I put some aside for my hubby and the babies. As I wrote last night, they aren’t even getting the ugly ones, I made a whole batch of pretty cookies, hooray! I just had one as I tried to take a picture of my cookies to show you the end result.

They are quite yummy especially if you enjoy the flavor of hazelnut, one of my favorite nuts especially with chocolate. I am sure that the musical performance this evening will be lovely, it is all woodwind and I hope that it will be classical. I do love the great maestros, I just could never keep who composed which concerto or symphony straight in my head. My father had an extraordinary ear for music and languages, every Sunday morning we would be woken with Brahms, Beethoven, Grieg or Chopin blaring from the living room. I loved the music, just not the hour. I should get ready so that I’m not late and my cookies get a nice spot on the refreshment table.

The responsibilities of being a small town citizen

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Blandford, local politics, postaday2012, small town

I’m sorry to be so late in writing today but would you believe that our annual town meeting just ended at 12:17 am. It was painful to hear the back and forth over small minutia. I am so tired that I can’t think or write clearly. I promise that I will fill you in on the business of running a small town tomorrow.

Blandford Council of Aging hosts a Talk on China

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Blandford, China, Council of Aging, postaday2012, presentations

Tonight the hubby and I were invited by a dear friend of ours, Linda van Wookhoven, to the Council of Aging’s talk on China being given by a gentleman, I forgot his name. Linda is a retired nurse who is an angel. She and two other retired nurse have been sponsors and founders of a nursing school, for the past six years, in Tanzania, Africa. Each year Linda and her colleagues fly to Tanzania for a month and find and mentor a few girls from several villages to enter the nursing school. Stateside, they do a lot of fundraising for their girls that are currently in school and for those that they are grooming for future placement in nursing school. The need is great in Tanzania, Linda gave a talk last year with a visual presentation of the school, the classrooms, the hospital, the clinic and the students. It was an amazing talk and we came away very impressed with Linda’s commitment and cheerful dedication to her girls in Tanzania. So when she personally called to invite us for the China talk, we felt that we needed to attend.

We just got back from the presentation which was given by Mr. Langmoore, who has given interesting presentations in the past, and he didn’t disappoint this evening. His photos of Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and another city of which I can’t remember and I was paying attention, (isn’t it sad) were the highpoint of the presentation. Mr. Langmore made his wonderful pictures of the Forbidden City, Tienemen Square and the Great Wall, come to life with his anecdotal stories. We got to see monks, a visit to a Silk factory, a jade factory and many other place where Mr. Langmoore delighted to remind us that even though China is a communist nation, they are really gifted in the ways of capitalism. I am very glad that we went, it was a lovely evening amongst friends.

A day filled with Blandford activities

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Blandford, hiking, postaday2012, potluck dinner, pristine blue, snow covered ground

In my small town we have various committees who plan quite a bit of recreational activities for Blandfordites. Since I am on the board of directors of the Blandford Historical Society, the hubby and I get invited to all the gatherings and social events. Today, our first outing was hiking the trails at the Knittel Conservation Area on Herrick road. The Conservation Area is quite large, 243 acres dedicated to the public for nature’s activities. The hike was quite lovely, in the mountains and snow covered ground, the sky’s pristine blue,not too cold, not windy. A glorious day for a hike and for really appreciating the luxury of being able to walk down the road, meet up with your fellow townspeople and breath cold fresh air, hike around a beaver dam, and wonder if you might see some wildlife like a moose, a deer or coyote. We walked for a good forty minutes and then it was time to go home and prepare a dish for the potluck dinner at the Historical Society. I agonized over what to make yesterday because I don’t have a slow cooker or anything to keep a dish warm so I was torn. It was only late last night that I decided to make pasta Carbonara. What pushed me in that direction is that pasta Carbonara still tastes good lukewarm, I had all the ingredients and I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t like it. Essentially, pasta Carbonara is linguine, I used thin spaghetti, folded into an egg, cream, Parmesan cheese, bacon and onion mixture. What is not to like? At 6:00 we met at the Historical Society, everyone put out their dishes and we had a lovely dinner, the food was delicious and eclectic, there was potatoes gratineed, a pork stew, chicken and rice soup, a cheese and broccoli quiche, pasta, coleslaw and dessert. Someone even brought red wine, there was water for me and tea for whoever wanted it. The conversation flowed freely, everyone had seconds and we all cleaned up together. The hubby and I had a wonderful day in and around our town.