April's Note, 2014

Dear Friends,
April showers greeted us early this week along with some high winds that started our tin roof whistling and banging. That always sets the nerves on edge as we once had a roof blow off our house. But that's another story. Things are calm now and we're feeling as if we've seen the last of real winter in the Valley of Virginia.

We got a jump on spring by heading south to Texas, Mississippi and Tennessee where we saw our first redbud around Memphis.  There are no redbud blooming here yet as we're at about 2000 feet in altitude, but the forsythia and daffodils finally came out this week and some peas and onions we planted before we left for Texas are starting to come up in the garden. We planted our potatoes on what's referred to as "Dark Night," the last weekend of March. The Farmer's Almanac recommended it, and since the FA was so right on in it's prediction of a cold, long winter, we're paying it good attention these days.

Tomorrow morning we'll board the "Crescent" in Charlottesville, VA and head by train to New York City for a performance on A Prairie Home Companion this weekend. If you're by a radio, check us out on your local NPR station either for the live show on Saturday or for the rebroadcast on Sunday. We have fond memories of another trip on the "Crescent," this time to meet up with Garrison Keillor and a troupe for The First Annual Farewell Reunion shows at Radio City Music Hall. We had a rehearsal at The Lime Kiln Theater in Lexington, VA the night before we left and didn't start packing until after returning home at 1:00 a.m. We showed up at the train station all bleary eyed and tired, worried that we wouldn't be at our best when we got to NYC. We didn't realize we had booked a sleeper room until we boarded the train at 7:00 in the morning and saw the room had beds that were still made up. We were silly with excitement when we saw those beds and were in them before the conductor could come get our tickets. Robin had to get up and get dressed to give them to him. We've learned now not to wait to the last moment to pack. We're going to hang around town for a couple of extra days to do a little visiting and seek out some culture (we hear Madame Butterfly is on the docket). Then we'll ride the "Crescent" back home.

This next month is going to be one of the busiest of an already bustling year and we'll head up and down the right and the left coast for shows. We're particularly excited about a series of three shows in New England that will be fund raisers for the Connecticut River Watershed Council. In the past few months there has been one disaster after another concerning the contamination of water and we all need to support groups who are looking out for our most valuable and essential resource.

Bumper Sticker Of The Month: I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.

Okay, then. As we like to say, onward and upward. Everybody take care of each other and we hope to see you somewhere along the way.

Your pals,
Robin and Linda