Olympia

I interrupt the photos from my current visit to northern New England to show another place visited on my recent trip from Venice to Athens.

The Olympic games began in 776 BC at a site on the western side of Peloponesse.  The Temple of Hera (above) from about 600 BC was the first permanent building.

The Phillippeion (below) was constructed to celebrate King Philip's victory at Chaeronnea in 338 BC.

42nd Street

Weston Playhouse is Vermont's oldest professional theater.  42nd Street was performed last night.  Brilliant!  I saw it on Broadway a couple of decades ago and in Hartford with a professional company more recently, but the dancing and singing last night were as good as either.  It was hard to believe that I was in a small theater in a small Vermont town and being treated to such a high quality performance.

Weston Playhouse was launched in a renovated church in 1937.  Lloyd Bridges was the leading man in the first performance of that first season.  A 1962 fire destroyed the original facility, but the current Greek Revival facility promptly replaced it.  The current facility has had to deal with floods in the 1970s and 2011, but it has survived all obstacles so far.

A cafe below the small theater serves dinner before the show and offers a cabaret after the show.  The West River flows over a dam next to a grist mill before passing behind the theater.

Northshire Bookstore

What a treat to discover a terrific independent bookstore that appears to be thriving.  Northshire Bookstore occupies an old building just beyond a traffic circle in Manchester Village, a southern Vermont town known (unfairly) for its factory outlet shopping.  The town also has numerous trails for hikers of all abilities and a gorgeous main street of stately white buildings, capped by the Equinox Golf Resort and Spa.

The photo above shows a display of Vermont-focused books.  Nearby is the Sustainability section.  For Love of Yurts.  Going Solar.  Soil and Sacrament.  Does your local bookstore have a sustainability section?

I could barely tear myself away (from the mystery and novel and nonfiction rooms, not the sustainability section).  And I won't confess how many books I bought or how much I spent.  But I will tell you there is a wonderful cafe, and I got an apricot shortcake.

Tanglewood

Tanglewood is the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home in Lenox, in the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts.  Tanglewood is a 200 acre estate with broad lawns and meadows and huge old trees.  The orchestra plays inside the austere  open-sided Koussevitzky Shed, where the most knowledgeable fans sit on uncomfortable wooden chairs.

People who enjoy the ambience as much as the music, like me, set up for picnics on the lawn beyond the shed.

Yesterday's afternoon performance was all-Beethoven.  The two principal works were the Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat, Opus 19, and Symphony No. 6 in F, Opus 68, "Pastorale."  Lovely.

Convention in the Woods

Kennedy Park in Lenox, Massachusetts, was the site of Saturday's canine conference.  Seminar topics included tolerating one's human in the time between meals and advanced techniques for feigning deafness when called.



Diving and swimming provided recreational breaks.



Dessert was twig.

This and That

It's a dog's life.

Blue hydrangea.

Butterfly.

Sometimes photos seem too small to carry a post all by themselves.

Venice VIII

Here we are back in a Venetian arcade, waiting for someone interesting to walk past the window.

Click here to see more photos with reflections on James' blog, Weekend Reflections.