Thursday, April 30, 2009

It's almost May, and the skies are turning gray. It was sunny this morning when I hopped on the bus with Sophie, all of the other second graders, and a handful of other chaperons. I'm glad it worked out that I was able to go on this field trip, because I never would have heard the end of it if I'd just gone on Nathan's trip and not hers. This one was a bit closer to home too - a mere half hour away. The second graders, mostly instigated by Sophie, sang loud songs for most of that half hour, including some Christmas ones.

We ended up at a place called Filoli Gardens, which is basically an old English-style country mansion nestled in the hills of the San Francisco peninsula. The gardens are impressive, and we were led through them and out into the forest by a volunteer docent (lots of volunteers - there was one docent for every four kids, and one chaperon for every two kids). He knew his stuff, which is nice because I probably wouldn't have been able to keep my mouth shut if he hadn't. I even picked up a little info along the way myself.

Poor Sophie spent an inordinate amount of time sadly staring at the taxidermied fawn in the nature center, no doubt thinking of the injustice of it all. I tried to explain to her that sometimes animals die of natural causes, but she wasn't buying it. She had this idea that the animals were killed specifically so they could be stuffed and mounted in the museum.

For the most part though, the kids loved it, but before too long we were all back on the bus, headed southward.

Now I'm home, taking advantage of the lull in demands on my time. It won't last of course, but I'm a firm believer in taking a step back and just breathing when I have the chance.

Speaking of relaxing, I've been to a couple of gigs this week, and I've reviewed them on my other blog. Check it out.

Currently listening to: Helena Espvall & Masaki Batoh "s/t" cd

2 comments:

Prettylittlecrow said...

Wow! You saw Tim Eriksen. Let me say that I envy your live music experiences!

Tim reinterprets so many elements I love..instruments and traditions/influences. Even as he nods to music across generations and continents, every piece is rich and uniquely his. He breaks and fills your heart simultaneously!

I especially love the tracks on Every Sound Below. I am Scottish and I can hear the soundtrack of my childhood in there. As well as the American Traditionals that I love so much now.

There isn't enough time to do right by musicians like Tim. Thanks for writing about the show. I loved the impetus to listen to him tonight.

~Lorelei

dr silence said...

Hi Lorelei,

The live music is one of the things I love about the Bay Area. I only wish my writing could do it justice. That's one of the reasons I started the music blog - to improve my writing in that particular arena. The other reason was because I don't think the average visitor to this blog really cares about the music I listen to. I'm glad you're an exception to this.

I think you managed to nail down Tim's musical appeal in a few short sentences in your comment. I couldn't agree more!

Hopefully he'll make it up the northwest sometime soon! Maybe you could lend him some instruments.

smiles,
John