Ciderfest 2007

Hello Friends,
Today on the menu we have a visit to Ciderfest 2007.

Ciderfest is a gathering of friends in Strafford Vt on Columbus day weekend. The gathering was started around 2000 by my good friends Mat and Ethan as a chance to catch up and hang out with old and new friends. The organizers Mat, Ethan, Allison and a few other folks start on Thursday with setup of the outdoor cooking area, building of the dance floor and preparing the cider press. Mid day on Friday more people start to show up and by the end of the weekend there have been maybe as many as 150 people coming and going.

During the weekend there is: contra dancing, a tango workshop, waltzing and more to the music of the Ciderfest Band.



The cooking and eating of good food from the Ciderfest Kitchen.





Good ol' hangout time around the campfire, with a good game, or jamming with friends.






There are also a few other things we have on the schedule.

• Apple cider pressing
• Apple fritters during the Saturday evening contra dance
  
• The Sunday morning hike and group photo
• The Ultimate Frisbee game and the dip in the pond after
• Enjoy a beautiful fall weekend with friends

Well friends that's all for now, I'll see you all soon.
~will


P.S. Katura, I made a well liked Chocolate Stout Cake. Which said to wisk the cocoa into the Stout, why??

Working with the Merce Cunningham Dance Co.

Good Monday to you all,
As some of you know I work doing lighting, sound and technical support for theater and this week I was working on a performance by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College. Merce Cunningham started choreographing modern dance in the early forty's and is considered by some to be greatest living modern Dance choreographer. It was great to see him working with the dancers and sitting offstage during the performances in his wheelchair. He is now 88, but the love of dance is still very much alive in him. At points he would lift himself up off his wheelchair and dance a little with a smile on his face.


The dancers where AGMA Union and under their contract there wasn't any photography allowed so I only got a few photos and I didn't take any of dancers in a way that they could be recognized.

Backstage during the show.

Backstage during the show as well.

One more backstage shot.

I was playing around with my camera and light (I seem to do that a lot) and used a string of blue rope lights that where used to light the up stage crossover to make this image.

Blue rope light aka "Ethereal Blue"

This shot is of the boom lights. Boom lights are lights mounted horizontally on vertical pipes on the sides of the stage used to light the sides of the dancers. Usually there are three lights on a pipe one at about shin hight, one around four feet and one around six to nine feet. The shins are used to light only the dancers and are cut off the floor, it makes the dancers appear to float in space, the Mids help to define the shape of the body and give it depth and the Head Highs do much the same as the Mids but with a different effect because they are pointing down to as much as a thirty degree angle.

Inversed boom lights.

After seeing the dancing in this show I can't wait to get out and dance soon.
I hope you all got a chance to enjoy the wonderful weather we had this past week, high eighty's and bright sun, fall colors... Good stuff. I was stuck in the theater for most of it, but I did get a little sun yesterday at Ciderfest. More about Ciderfest soon. Enjoy life,
~will

Gile Mountain

Hi Everyone,
It's been a busy couple of weeks of both work and photography. I have for you today a set of photos from a hike I did up Gile Mountain two weeks ago. I spent the afternoon strolling up the mountain looking for hidden gems where the light fell. I got to the top and climbed the old fire tower and spent the three hours till sunset eating my picnic dinner and playing with light. The sunset was at 7:57 with a series of bursts of color, some of which you see below. My god-father Brown, his wife Cyn and my brother Del joined me in the tower just after sunset and we hung out talking till it was dark. We then made our way down the mountain by flashlight and the sounds of night things.

That's all for now, enjoy!
~will

The trail on the way up Gile Mountain.

One of the jems in the afternoon light.

Birches on the trail.

Ferns lining the trail.

Fungus on a tree.

Maple leaves turning red.

As the sun was setting.

Just after the sun set.

About fifteen minutes after sunset.

Tunbridge Worlds Fair

For the two sisters who missed the ritual of the Tunbridge fair.

The Tunbridge Worlds Fair, September 13th - 16th 2007.
I went to the fair on Thursday (Ag day) when it was a little quieter, more of the local farmers and backwoods types it seems. On Thursdays they have the pony pulls, starting early in the day with the under 1400 lbs class at 10:30, then at 2 it's the 1401 - 1800 class and rapping it up in the evening at 7 is the free for all pull. I always like to see the free for all class, it was my dad's favorite class of the pony pulls because you really get to see the spirit of the ponies and the quality of the drivers. The ponies pull a stone boat in teams of two, if they pull the boat 6 feet or more they move on to the next round. Every round they add more weight to the boat and by the end the boat weighs about 6200 lbs. It is amazing to see these small ponies and drivers move a 6200 lb sled 6 feet. Here is a photo of one of the teams pulling. (it is very dark in the pulling arena and I didn't have a tripod so count this as a snapshot.)


Besides the pony pulls I have a few more important things I always do at the fair. I walk through the Floral Hall where the vegetables are judged then I head over to the livestock barns to see the dairy cows, oxen with backs higher then my head and the usual assortment of pigs, sheep, goats, rabbits and birds of all sorts.
Here is a shot that I always see at the fair looking back down the old midway from the Floral Hall


This is a standard Tunbridge Fair photo of the 4H kids with their dairy cows.


There is also Nelsons Fudge, it used to be in Floral Hall but now it's in a Commercial building inside the Racetrack. Nelson's Fudge is a time honored tradition in my family, my sisters and I have been getting their fudge at the fair for as long as I can remember. There are so many things about this fair that I strongly associate with the fall. I head back towards the Sugarhouse, across the racetrack (I have to wait behind the rope while the Trotting Horses go by.) and up to Antique Hill. Walking up the hill past The Sugarhouse towards Antique Hill I saw this shot.


Antique Hill is a large knoll overlooking the rest of the fairgrounds, it is setup to look like a little town with a Civil War encampment, a blacksmith, a printer, a one room schoolhouse, a barn filled with old farming equipment and a log cabin with antiques and displays about life in the olden days. The whole thing is sort of like a little living history exhibit. This photo is of my mom's good friend Sue, she is a living history expert and works every year on Antique Hill in the Log Cabin.


This is a shot of the Country Store exhibit in the log cabin.


After hanging out at the fair all afternoon and evening with my mom it's time to head home. On the way out I saw the lights from the rides and like a moth to a flame I was drawn, here's what came of it.


Wow, a long post for you. I miss having my sisters around. They are both off in cities with foreign names, hopefully enjoying life.
~will

My First Post.

Two Saturdays ago I woke up at 5am and headed out to hike Mt Cardigan. I was at the trail head by 7am and to the top by 8:30am. On the top it was cool, gray and blowing fog.



I had planed on taking some photos of the nearly 360 degree view from the top to make a panorama, but that idea looked like that wasn't going to happen. The wind on the top was amazing, it was just me the mountain and nature. I spent an hour or so on the top enjoying nature and taking photographs of the beauty that one can find even on a cool breezy morning at 3000 feet.


I waited on the top in hopes that the cloud cover would break and I could get in some shots of the view, but alas the weather was not in my favor so I headed down the mountain.
I got back to my car, did some stretches and then headed off to the Norwich Farmers Market. Down off in the valley it was a foggy early September morning and the farmers market was buzzing with the regulars. As I walked around the market I found this little display.


That's all for now. I'll be back soon,
~will

Here we go!

Well here we go. I am starting this blog for three main reasons.
The first: To help keep my friends and family up to date about what I am doing and enjoying.
The second: To have a place to share my photos and the music I am listening to.
The third: To work on my writing while doing the first two.

Please comment and tell me what you think.