last weekend

Last weekend, we journeyed west to the Massachusetts Berkshires for a couple of days away.

We stayed in a sweet bed and breakfast in a small town that nearly everyone has failed to hear of. The B&B is on an old farm that's been in the same family for generations; the people who run it are a sister and brother in their late 70s or early 80s, but full of energy and terrific hosts. Their home is furnished with antiques, including Shaker items that their father bought at a yard sale when the Shakers up the hill were pulling up stakes. As happened last summer there, we met fascinating people, including a former spy. (I was visiting Cambodia. Oh, what were you doing there? Well, I wasn't living there -- I was just visiting; I was actually living in Laos. And so on.)

We went to two concerts at Tanglewood (summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra). One featured Joshua Bell, a violinist we've seen a number of times, and whom we like. (Apparently everyone else likes him too -- the cheers after he played approached what one might hear at a sports event.) The second featured Emanuel Ax, a popular pianist. And Kurt Masur conducted both concerts; he was also quite popular with the audience.

In addition, we went to a dance performance, of hip-hop. The dance troupe is run by Rennie Harris, who gave a great talk-back afterwards. He said that hip-hop is often seen as pure entertainment, but he wants to present the full range of emotions, from rage, to sorrow, to play. It was pretty amazing to see him dance. He's quite tall, certainly taller than Robert, and heavy (but not particularly fat). But he was incredibly light on his feet, far more graceful than I usually feel.

On Sunday afternoon, it was a little hard to leave. But we'll be back later this summer, so we have a little more Berkshire experience to look forward to.