St. Patrick's Day Performances, 2011

(updated on March 20th with pictures and videos links!)

The season of St. Patrick actually began for me before I turned the calendar into March. The Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra started rehearsing quite some time ago for our upcoming concerts. Here's a list of all our gigs, including the March 18th launch of our new CD Since Maggie Dooley Learned the Hooley Hooley.

Three Days in the Olympic Peninsula

(Part I of a three-part series on my 2010 vacation in the Pacific Northwest)

I hate winter. One of my most effective coping devices involves either planning future vacations or reliving vacations I've taken in the past. In the spirit of getting through the winter, then, here's the first of a three-part series devoted to my excursion to the Pacific Northwest in September of 2010, when my husband and I toured through the Olympic Peninsula, Seattle, southern British Columbia, and the Mt. Baker wilderness.

Part I will confine itself to our three days in the Olympic Peninsula. Our route is depicted below. The various locations I describe will match the letters on the map.


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In memory of Kitcat...

As I admired our Christmas tree this year, I missed Kitcat. This was our second Christmas without him, without any cat at all. Although there are certain advantages -- no tinsel eaten and no ornaments broken -- I missed having a cat under the tree.

Governors Island 10K Race

The Hood family was up early on Sunday, October 3.  The occasion was our son Michael's first 10 kilometer race, held on Governors Island. We took the 7:10 AM ferry, but the race didn't start until 8:30 AM so we had plenty of time to enjoy the views. The sun hadn't been up long, as you can see from the hint of a sunrise in the pictures below. What you can't see are the strong gusts of wind reminding us that fall had arrived.

The Manhattan Financial District,
with a view of the Brooklyn Bridge on the right.

Fernando found my phone!

On Sunday, October 3, I lost my cell phone. The last time I remembered having it was on the ferry returning to Manhattan from Governors Island.  Hoping that it wasn't on the bottom of the New York Harbor, I called it several times but no one answered.  Being an incurable optimist, though, I thought I'd wait a while before canceling the service.  Well, sometimes optimism is rewarded.  Later that evening someone named Fernando actually did call to say he had my phone! 

Fernando and I planned to meet the next day in Battery Park. When I asked how to find him, he said, "just ask anyone for Fernando."  He claimed he was well known to the park regulars since he works there every day as a Statue of Liberty impersonator. Tourists pay him to pose with them for pictures. If you're not familiar with this custom, check out the picture below.

Photo compliments of The Bowery Boys, used with permission,
from their 2008 blog post entitled Spawn of the Statue of Liberty

The Thoreau You Don't Know

© 2009, HarperCollins Publishers, used with permission

I just finished reading The Thoreau You Don't Know: What the Prophet of Environmentalism Really Meant by Robert Sullivan, published in March 2009. From the outset let me say that Bob's daughter is a fellow musician in the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra. Therefore, I have had passing conversations with Bob on several occasions. So yes, this is a somewhat biased review.  Please read it anyway!

Close Encounter with a Snapping Turtle

I had seen real, live snapping turtles before, in zoos or shelters, but not in the middle of a lonely country road. As snappers go, he wasn't even that big, but he was still an awesome sight. Here he is, just as I saw him from the car, happily basking in the late afternoon sun smack in the center of the road in Greene County, New York (which is in the Catskill Mountains).

Enameling with Catherine Crowe

Since this was my sixth time attending Catskills Irish Arts Week (CIAW), I decided to try my hand at one of the Celtic art classes: enameling. The class was taught by Catherine Crowe, who made the enamel crown on my new flute.  I took a pretty consistent set of pictures during the work on my first piece. These pictures offer a glimpse at the process, starting with the copper strips above which will become earrings.