Ethan had his senior viola recital this past Friday -- we drove up to Andover to listen in, and I did some recording. I am not an especially skilled camera man; I bungled the start of the second set of pieces, but most of it came through.
Here they are uploaded to youtube. First piece, very technical/tricky:
Johann Sebastian Bach, Cello Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008
Second and third pieces, a bit more accessible:
Franz Schubert: Sonata Arpeggione for Viola and Piano in A Moniro, D. 821,
Edward Elgar: Salut d'amour, Op. 12
The Elgar starts at about 9:15 into the video.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Sunday, February 22, 2015
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SnowBegone
2015 has been a truly punishing winter from the snow perspective -- we are up to 100 inches of snowfall so far, and we're not even through Feburary. Definitely the snowiest winter I have ever been through, bar none. Photos from the first big snowstorm:
Lydia was a huge help this winter on the shoveling front -- she always did her share, and never complained:
Back in Jan you could still sort of see our mailbox:
Here we are on the second big snowstorm (or was this the fourth? can't even remember). I myself managed to miss the third one (24") since I was away visiting in California; Lydia and Amy had to do all the shoveling on their own. Pix:
Our poor mailbox has been whacked by the snowplow and is now just sort of stuck in the snowbank, off to one side. I am going to wait for a while to repair it (not especially looking forward to digging it out):
View from the front porch. If you are familiar with what it normally looks like, this will give you a sense for how deep the snow is:
Photos from this morning (Feb 22). Upon hearing dire threats of rain this weekend, I spent several hours yesterday shoveling the roof (weird experience), throwing down vast quantities of white stuff and a ton of ice. Just to be contrary I also decided to shovel our front walk, although I left in a snow tunnel just for good measure:
View from the front porch again, this time after shoveling:
And last but not least -- short snow video.
Lydia was a huge help this winter on the shoveling front -- she always did her share, and never complained:
Back in Jan you could still sort of see our mailbox:
Between the storms: serious cold. Many weeks we never got above freezing (or anywhere near it), so no snow melting to speak of.
Here we are on the second big snowstorm (or was this the fourth? can't even remember). I myself managed to miss the third one (24") since I was away visiting in California; Lydia and Amy had to do all the shoveling on their own. Pix:
Our poor mailbox has been whacked by the snowplow and is now just sort of stuck in the snowbank, off to one side. I am going to wait for a while to repair it (not especially looking forward to digging it out):
View from the front porch. If you are familiar with what it normally looks like, this will give you a sense for how deep the snow is:
Photos from this morning (Feb 22). Upon hearing dire threats of rain this weekend, I spent several hours yesterday shoveling the roof (weird experience), throwing down vast quantities of white stuff and a ton of ice. Just to be contrary I also decided to shovel our front walk, although I left in a snow tunnel just for good measure:
View from the front porch again, this time after shoveling:
And last but not least -- short snow video.
Saturday, November 8, 2014
State Championships
Photos from the Mass middle school state championship race this weekend... results here.
Fine weather-- cool but sunny, a wonderful day to watch the race.
They rejiggered the course this time around to create a larger starting, line, which I thought was a big improvement. This is the start of one of the boys races (huge line of runners) -- less crowding, meaning less jostling and fewer runners falling:
Before Lydia's race:
Coach OB, the grand master of middle school cross-country coaches...
Leaders in the girls championship race, early on (note the three Diamond runners);
Lydia running in the girls championship race:
Lydia finished 35th overall in the girls championship race, with a time of 12:58 and pace of 6:58 (yikes! I have never even come close to that). The diamond girls team won handily, boys team won as well -- yay!
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Hurray-- great way to end the season...
Fine weather-- cool but sunny, a wonderful day to watch the race.
They rejiggered the course this time around to create a larger starting, line, which I thought was a big improvement. This is the start of one of the boys races (huge line of runners) -- less crowding, meaning less jostling and fewer runners falling:
Before Lydia's race:
Coach OB, the grand master of middle school cross-country coaches...
Leaders in the girls championship race, early on (note the three Diamond runners);
Lydia running in the girls championship race:
Lydia finished 35th overall in the girls championship race, with a time of 12:58 and pace of 6:58 (yikes! I have never even come close to that). The diamond girls team won handily, boys team won as well -- yay!
Hurray-- great way to end the season...
Andover/Exeter Cross Country
Amy and I drove up to Exeter to watch Ethan and the rest of the PA cross country running team take on their rivals, Phillips Exeter. Weather was absolutely wretched-- overcast, very cold, drizzling. I was very glad for all the layers I had on.
Exeter is a very strong team; Andover definitely had their work cut out for them. Here is Ethan at the mid-way point, with a big lead over the second runner:
Final stretch:
After the race:
Ethan finished first, with a time of about 15:49 (a new PB, first race under 16 mins). Results here.
Alas, the team did not do so well. Exeter won the race in an absolute squeaker (27-29), blech. Ethan gave his absolute best, however, and the team put up a good showing in spite of the final result.
Exeter is a very strong team; Andover definitely had their work cut out for them. Here is Ethan at the mid-way point, with a big lead over the second runner:
Final stretch:
After the race:
Ethan finished first, with a time of about 15:49 (a new PB, first race under 16 mins). Results here.
Alas, the team did not do so well. Exeter won the race in an absolute squeaker (27-29), blech. Ethan gave his absolute best, however, and the team put up a good showing in spite of the final result.
Girls Cross Country (Diamond vs. Clarke)
Couple of photos from Lydia's Oct 27 cross country meet: Diamond Middle School vs their arch-rivals, the cross-town Clarke Middle School.
Here are the girls in their "huddle" before the start. Serious expressions first ...
They finish with a cheer that involves a lot of yelling and them jumping up and down -- this is one of my favorite photos of the year:
Start of the race:
Leaders after one lap. Lydia's friend Kesinia is lurking behind the other two runners in front, biding her time (queue the theme music from "Jaws", since she will eventually come in first).
Lydia hitting the same turn:
Lydia at the finish:
One of the Clarke runners passed her in the last 50 feet, so she was super upset about that... but on the other hand, a different way to look at it -- Diamond's number one runner beat the top runner from Clarke, Diamond's number two beat the second runner from Clarke, and so on down the line until Lydia... the girl in the photo above passing her at the finish line wasn't even the girl she needed to beat (Lydia was way ahead of her counterpart). Girls team won the race handily...
Here are the girls in their "huddle" before the start. Serious expressions first ...
They finish with a cheer that involves a lot of yelling and them jumping up and down -- this is one of my favorite photos of the year:
Start of the race:
Leaders after one lap. Lydia's friend Kesinia is lurking behind the other two runners in front, biding her time (queue the theme music from "Jaws", since she will eventually come in first).
Lydia hitting the same turn:
Lydia at the finish:
One of the Clarke runners passed her in the last 50 feet, so she was super upset about that... but on the other hand, a different way to look at it -- Diamond's number one runner beat the top runner from Clarke, Diamond's number two beat the second runner from Clarke, and so on down the line until Lydia... the girl in the photo above passing her at the finish line wasn't even the girl she needed to beat (Lydia was way ahead of her counterpart). Girls team won the race handily...
Braces Off
Before and after photos (braces for Lydia). She didn't have them on quite so long as Ethan did, but she was certainly glad to see them go...
Here's the "before":
And the "after":
Here's the "before":
And the "after":
This is back in mid-September, of course... since then she has also had her long hair cut off, so she looks even more different now.
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