A Berkshires Idyll

Last weekend we tooled out to the Berkshires, always a delightful summer destination. I had an apricot pandowdy along and a chicken salad with mango and grapes in a curry mayonnaise. Also "lite" Kielbasa from the smoker.

Friday night, after a brief but intense downpour, we took in the Gray Fox Bluegrass Festival. Really cool music on a beautiful summer evening, because the rain took the heat out of the air leaving only softness. Cresent moon rose over the trees and the musicians played their guitars and mandolins and fiddles and a beautiful woman with a bare midriff danced to the music while twirling a hula hoop. She looked like a professional dancer with strong arms and back and a long, lean torso. We decimated the pandowdy and a couple bottles of wine, and made a large dent in the Kielbasa. Yum. The music got better and better. Gotta dance!

Saturday morning we stopped in Great Barrington at a bagel place and drove on up to Tanglewood for the 10:30 rehearsal. It was the modern music program. Sometimes it's hard to tell when the orchestra has stopped tuning up and started playing. We listened to Harbison, Wuorinen, Varese and Gershwin's American in Paris. The Gershwin number sounded fantastic. I'd never heard it live. The Symphony did a great job. James Levine sits on his stool and doesn't expand too many calories but he still gets a heap of music out of the orchestra. The Harbison number had the advantage of brevity. Not so the Wuorinen, which was long, and Peter Serkin's piano magic and the composer's prescence still couldn't save the tedium of the piece. Those in the know say that if you have ever actually played this modern stuff, you come to appreciate it, so maybe I should dust off the squeaky clarinet from high school and tootle away. The Varese Ameriques was better, and sounded like an NYC at rush hour, only musically, and I liked it a lot.

Came back to our hosts, ate the rest of the chicken and other salads, and took a huge long nap. Sat in the hot tub to wake up and enjoyed a grilled salmon dinner with roasted potatoes and salad. Hint to you cooks: Annie's Goddess Dressing is pretty tasty and doesn't have yucky chemicals therein.

Finished up the evening with good conversation.

After breakfast we visited the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge. Lots of New Yorker covers on display. Neat display of weathervanes, apparently the result of a contest. Fun and whimsical and creative and they even functioned!

Late lunch at the Red Lion and back onto the Pike.

Summer in New England can't be beat.