Summer

Is certainly upon us. Roger returns from Guinea this afternoon; I am blogging during the endless advertisements in the early part of the Tour.

River Rep

Twenty years ago we moved into a huge Victorian house in the Ivoryton section of Essex--the same one that we sold 15 years later with paint cans in the basement. My mother came for an early visit and noticed that the playhouse just down the street was doing Noises Off, a British farce that she had seen in London and greatly enjoyed. She suggested that we all go, including Theo (then known as "T") because it was the sort of farce that he might enjoy. As, indeed, it was; he laughed all the way through and became a permanent fan of live theater on the spot.

The performing company is a professional group named The River Rep and based in New York; Noises Off was their first production in Ivoryton. They are a true summer stock company, producing a new play every two weeks with many of the same actors. We subscribed the first summer--and every summer after that until we left for Africa. By the second summer we were housing one of the actors on the third floor in our big house and over time River Rep became as important a part of summer as local corn. Theo appeared in a speaking (and singing and dancing) part in Annie Get Your Gun in 1990; he was also in Our Town and a couple of children's shows. He worked in the box office for two summers although he didn't like that much and cheerfully moved on to teaching sailing when he was old enough.

When we got back from Africa we were saddened to learn that River Rep would not be renewing their lease on the Playhouse after the 2005 season. Last year they were completely missing from the local scene; this year they have returned to a small stage in a nearby town with a single production, The Foreigner. Thursday was the opening night gala--the play was excellent as always and we look forward very enthusiastically to having them with us in Old Saybrook, in a theater named after Katherine Hepburn, which is being refurbished at the moment. The gala was lovely but I am incompetent at taking good flash pictures in a crowd so you'll just have to believe me.

Other news

I was saddened to learn from Jean's blog that Tiger, aka Jenni, has been denied the right to enter the home industries cooking contest at The Games at the end of August. I know she had been practicing whiskey cake and must be very disappointed. On the other hand, there was always a cake to eat up so all wasn't lost--and not being allowed to try is better than having the yellow jersey, as it were, ripped from her shoulders after the event.

Roger will enter the pillow fight again. He also gave Alistair some coaching in pillow fight tactics in the hopes of developing another family expert. Alistair believes that the judging of the children's entries is biased towards the local school and says he will not try in that area again. I prefer to simply enjoy the games rather than compete--Theo's and Roger's enthusiastic participation gives me a pass. There is always a lot to eat and drink so enjoying isn't hard at all.

Janet, the Games are right out of Monarch of the Glen, or perhaps vice versa. There are several scenes in the series that take place during local celebrations that look exactly like Strathardle. I'm sure there will be lots of pictures; I'll focus on Local Color and let Jean fill in the family stuff.

The Tour

I haven't time now to comment properly--except to say that the final time trial was thrilling and the results very satisfying. How nice to learn you like it too, Janet.

Cats and Garden

We're to the point of fairly overwhelming harvests as the picture shows. Anja is very taken with the green beans and steals them to play with whenever she gets a chance. I guess it's not just beans; I found a blueberry in her water dish when I last changed the water.