New England 6

AUGUST 2025 

This issue is very late because an entire month of journaling in BlogTouch disappeared into cyberspace when I hit the publish button! That’s right - gone, poof, nowhere to be found! Imagine the expletives I spewed. I looked everywhere in my Mac, including the Time Machine and external drive that I back up to. Reached out to the developer in Australia 3 times to no avail. Brought in a heavy hitter, Amy, to see if she could help. She actually did - she recommended I draft it in Pages instead of the BlogTouch app when we couldn’t find it in the backup data. So that is what I am doing - with nothing more than pictures I have taken to guide me. So frustrating because my method is to write soon after an “event” so that the details are fresh in my mind. Oh well, stop the whining and start rewinding…

Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival is a magnet here in “the Berkshires” for lovers of diverse dancing to all sorts of music.

Debbie, Monica, and Julia (3 generations) invited me to join them. We started at the Gastropub Station for dinner - it’s a new venue in a historic train station in Lee. It was very expensive, but delicious. I had my eye on the saffron risotto, but was worried that the portion might not meet my needs. So I went with the VERY costly half a chicken with a pomegranate peppercorn sauce. A half a chicken is half a chicken - right? It was sooooo moist and delicious and more than I should have eaten!

The show was a super lively interpretation of urban picnics among slaves. Some performers played numerous instruments (keyboard, horns, drums) even while dancing. In the end, they invited audience guests to join them on stage! Monica couldn’t resist! She went up at the end of the long line of participants - see the brief video in the body of this email.

We hosted our annual pool party/jam session with Amy, Melissa, Karl, Karmella, Vaeda, Kathleen and Melissa’s brother, Jon. Kathleen on guitar and vocals. Karl and Monda on ukuleles, Amy. And Monda and Melissa on 3 part harmony. 

JACOB RYDER CLARK turned 16 years old! Can’t believe it - got his driver’s permit right away. I’m 5’7” and shrinking; Shannon is 6’; Jake is 6’4” and growing…

Rich’s son, Perry, came to Lee Farmer’s Market with his family in tow. It was good to see them and for them to see Rich “at work” selling his art…

Our neighbor vendor is Richie and his Snack Attack food wagon. He feeds us breakfast and lunch every Saturday - he is a very generous man and we wanted to repay him in some way. Rich got him a French knife to use for his prep work. He is happier giving than receiving…😂

International Folk Dancing was fun and educational. It was progressive over 6 weeks and in the end, we learned 20 dances from around the world. On the last day, we did 18 of the 20!

Rich’s sister, Eileen, planned a Colomb cousins luncheon at O’Tooles. Rich hadn’t seen them in many years - it was fun to hear all of the stories.

Zachary (13) was a standout football player in the Youth League, but this year he didn’t want to play football. He decided to play golf! The fist time out, he lost 14 balls! So the family joined efforts and came up with buckets of old range balls. It’s only been a couple of weeks, and he has improved very much. He parred twice and is excited about it. It’s in his blood - BopBop and Uncle Randy won many championships over the years.

Back to school here in Lee…

Lee Art in the Park is a 2-day event of professional juried artists which draws a terrific audience.

Rich was commissioned to do a portrait of Walter for his 7th birthday. Dick, Robin, Joe, and Ace seemed very pleased with it…

RichArt Creations had our best weekend yet! 

Brought Roadrunner home from Binghamton, NY - Nora used it this summer as she is a traveling nurse.