Berkshires weekend 1

Before the delight of last weekend fades away, I wanted to record a few thoughts about it. We went to the Berkshires for the first of two weekends there this summer.

We stayed at one of our favorite inns, deep in the country. Over the years, we've gotten to know the inn family a little and I enjoy catching up with them. The inn is so very peaceful. It's not fancy but it's warm and comfortable and the people -- both who run it and who stay there -- are nice. The breakfasts are real weekend breakfasts -- the kind that make you want just a nosh at lunchtime to hold you over til dinner. The website, while charming, gives only a glimpse of the actual charm of the place. So just being there is like a little vacation.

On Friday, we went shopping. There's a small outlet mall nearby where we like to pick up supplies for the year. Robert bought a bunch of shirts, a pair of shoes, and a belt, for example.

That evening, we went to one of our favorite Indian restaurants, then to Tanglewood for an all Beethoven concert. There was a thrilling triple concerto with three incredibly young soloists. They looked like they were in high school, but then again, I am aging and young people are looking very young these days. In any case, they did a bang up job, and then not in keeping with most soloists, ran around the stage hugging each other and the conductor (Bernard Haitink), and merely shook hands with the first violinist who is a crusty Eastern European woman who probably is Not Hugged often.

On Saturday, we went up to the Clark museum in Williamstown, one of our favorite museums. They have stellar summer exhibits, so we were looking forward to "Like breath on glass," which is a collection of "soft" paintings (Whistler, Ennis, Steichen - yes, the photographer) from all over the world. We went through and then talked about it. Turned out we were both left cold. How disappointing.

So we drowned our sorrows by walking through the woods to their brand new conservation building, the Stone Center. It's a very exciting building, modern, but integrating indoors and out in a playful and unusual way. It's really fun both being outside it and inside it. A lot of attention was paid also to the landscaping around the building, so much so that I had to look carefully at how naturally it all fit together. The landscaping leads up to the woods and seems to draw the woods closer somehow. The Center also has an exhibit space and they're now showing just twelve paintings by Homer and Sargent from their permanent collection. But oh, these are *paintings*, delightful satisfying moving paintings.

Sorrows not sufficently drowned, we went back to the main museum and perused some of their permanent collection, sticking mostly with the impressionists. I usually end up in the rather impressive center room, but this time headed for the back hall to visit with less familiar works.

We went back to the inn for a quick lie-down, then had dinner at a Malaysian restaurant which is tucked into an old lounge in an Econo-Lodge. The restaurant is run by a family and we had conversations with several of them, including Mom-head chef. and a son who went to Boston College. The food was outstanding. Darn. Another restaurant we like out there. We'll have to go back.

In the evening, we saw our last unseen William Finn play, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. What's it about? A spelling bee. It's a musical. There's audience participation. There really is a spelling bee -- that's all there is. It sounds like a recipe for disaster. And it's poignant, laugh-out-loud funny, and now I think everyone should see it. We both loved it.

The next day, after yet another wonderful breakfast (pancakes with homemade maple syrup and muffins the first morning, eggs benedict the second), we headed out to the Norman Rockwell museum. I used to dismiss NR when I bothered to think of him but after visiting his museum once, we've gone back several times. It turns out that the Saturday Evening Post represented just one dimension of his work and that he was a really good artist whose work doesn't always reproduce well. NR was alive not too long ago, so there are many locals who remember him, some of whom work at the museum.

In any case, the museum had a huge exhibit of political cartoons by Steve Brodner -- great commentary on current life, with a nice political twist for this election year. A companion exhibit is a collection of presidential portraits by none other than NR himself. There was a little video playing. I just remember the snippet "I took out his wattles [I think he was referring to Nixon's jowly face]. Nobody wants to be told by his portraitist that they have wattles, so I took them out." Oh, and there was a very fun outdoor exhibit of garden gates by local artists.

Then on to our favorite picnic store, Guido's and back to Tanglewood. The conductor, James Levine, has recently taken ill, so the assistant conductor stepped in at the last minute. Talk about big break mixed with immense pressure! He's young (31?), but apparently up for the task. He handled the concert beautifully, smiling throughout. We heard delightful fond chestnuts from Haydn, Bach, Mozart, and and there was a Shubert symphony at the end. Peter Serkin soloed in the two middle pieces and I liked him, though the Globe reviewer was not very complimentary.

Then home, a quick dinner (er, takeout pizza -- we almost never do that), and I was beat for some reason. Early morning wakeup calls from the kitties didn't help. But I'm finally catching up.

Oh, and for the first time, we didn't have anyone stay at the house when we went away. I asked my neighbor if he'd mind coming over twice. He ended up coming four times and played with the kitties and gave them treats. He even got within a few inches of Koa and said that he probably could have pet her had he done it one more day. I had no idea he was such a cat person. And if he asks me to look after his kitty next time he goes away, I'll ask him to do this again. He did such a nice job that the cats were totally fine when we got back -- not even the tiniest reaction out of the ordinary. That was a huge relief.

So we have a quiet weekend lined up this time around and I'm hoping to do some catch up and maybe even a little sleeping. And then back to the Berkshires in another couple of weeks. Hooray.