First, we eat.
Friday, I mentioned that we were going over to Breton Bay
for the annual spring dinner meeting of the St. Mary’s County Historical
Society. And historically, it is held at
the picturesque Olde Breton Inn, home of the famous county Baileys. And, as I said before hand, I thought I could name the menu from
memory. And, I was right! To accompany
the cash bar there were little bits set out to go with.... your small drink... Standard
That’s country ham, by the way, not “stuffed”, and of course
cheese cubes, those little cuppy tostito thingies that held “something”. You get what you expected..
As with dinner. Every
year: Eddie tells you to get in the (always) buffet line
Which every year starts with steamed (to death) veggies; squash
“stuff”; some sort of slaw; the standard off the truck chicken cordon blue:
and one of the things they always do well
Then mashed potatoes (and canned gravy), leading to the hand
carved steamship round
With horseradish, horseradish sauce, or au jus. So you construct your plate with what you
always get and there you go:
The time honored standard Bailey plate. And lest you think I’m being critical, I’m
not. From the moment I received the
invite and confirmed that it was same location, I knew exactly what I was going
to get. No surprises, nothing awful,
nothing really great (with the exception of the oysters, which are always very
nice), don’t have to worry or think, just go on auto. Get the food, talk to your table mates, have
a nice time.
The program for the evening was a presentation on two
historical books. The first was about the
rise (and fall) of the local commercial seafood industry (oysters, clams,
crabs, fish, etc.) lots of neat pictures
of shuckers, fishermen. The second one
was a history of the local wooden boat construction that of course HAS died
out. Pictures of “Cap’n” so and so, and his
boats. Both are available at the Calvert Marine Museum.
Events
Well, kinda. We have
a little PNC bank branch office on our corner now, replacing the older one next to
it. Saturday, they hosted a “Taste of
235” which had several of the restaurants up and down Rte. 235 participating (from Mixing Bowl to D. B. McMillans) along with places
like Anita’s Cakes, Dunkin’ Donuts (price and participation may vary, limited
time offer, see store for details – ever hear their radio commercials? Godawful). Of course the intent of the bank was to
convince you to do business there. Which
I will never do based on how shabbily they treated us when they snagged our
home equity line of credit.
So when the lady with the smile and clipboard approached our (mixed) little
table and got past “how you guys doing today?” and all chatty about the
weather, I just glared at her. I was “nice”
and didn’t say anything. It wasn’t her
fault, in fact she was pleasant, but you can have the damn bank. Anyway, there were booths set up and you
could sample the wares of the vendors. There
were lots of people there sampling this and that...
It was “kid friendly” so you had to have the “balloon bender
guy”
And strangely enough I didn’t see any face painters. The folks from the Tides brought some hot crab
dip in little rolls
I saw some of our neighbors, and most everybody had
seemingly a nice time, so I will give the bank (despite ulterior motives)
credit for providing the opportunity to bring folks together.
Music
Last evening (Sunday) despite the day long wind and rain, we
decided to try to go to the concert of the “Suspicious Cheese Lords” which was
to be held in the brick chapel at Historic St. Mary’s City. Several times I have cursed and praised the
acoustics inside, cursing the screaming kids, and praising the music. One of the people at the City arranged to
have them perform last night in the Chapel.
They are a group of ten (last night) gentlemen (not “guys”) who sing a
cappella medieval music. They have quite
a reputation around the mid atlantic.
Driving down there through the cold rain and wind, we wondered if
perhaps it would be canceled or at least moved into the (warm, dry, near bathrooms) auditorium at the
Visitor Center. Surely they wouldn’t
make people do the walk. Yes, they did,
and stop calling me… (insert rim shot here).
So with umbrella held horizontal to protect as much of the body as
possible (not very effectively) we made the walk I have done so often as a
ChapVol out to the chapel. Once inside
the only bother was the fairly chilly temperatures (to go with the damp pantlegs). But sure enough about thirty or so hardy
souls had braved the elements and were seated on benches and chairs. Eventually they were introduced and started
singing
As you can see, the acoustics are from the large flat, blank
walls. Those walls have been called 17th
century amplifiers. And they did their
jobs. What lovely music. They ultimately sang about 14 selections from
early 15th century to a contemporary piece by one of the “Lords”. One of the more beautiful pieces was “Lamentations
of the Profit Jeremiah” by Thomas Tallis (1505 – 1585). Of course it was sacred music, all it latin. By the time they neared the end, the light
was fading and they resorted to flashlights to see the music.
It also created some pretty patterns on the ceiling
It is amazing what the human voice can do. To my humble engineering ear, they were right
on pitch, timing was great. It was a great experience hearing music pretty much as it
would have been sung 500 years ago. Kind of
chilling.
So that was our weekend, how was yours? Nothing to do? Hah!
Okay time to quit this and go get
DFD (preceded by cocktails)
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