Merry Christmas to all. We’re back in the Bahamas already this year, our lives governed by wind, tide, and temperature. We spent half of 2011 here on the Sea of Abaco, with Troubadour on the dock, and a parade of friends joining us for a bit of paradise.
We began the year in the Bahamas, and spent a month in a spectacular rental property overlooking the Atlantic on Elbow Cay, were we entertained my brother, Thomas and his wife Camille, raced Troubadour, made new friends and had a generally good time. We then returned to Tradewinds, our usual idyllic spot on Dickies Cay, the tiny island that protects Man O War harbor.
Thence to Annapolis for a time in April to do taxes, run a music festival, and where I served as interim organist at Calvary Methodist Church on Rowe Boulevard. We returned to the Bahamas for May and June, then back to Annapolis to get acquainted with our new boat, Iolanthe. Marcia continued her active career as a writer and lecturer—her tenth novel, A Quiet Death, appeared in August--and worked hard on her new book, The Last Refuge, where her protagonist, Hannah Ives, joins the cast of a historical reality show living in Annapolis’s historic Paca House as if it were 1774. (See earlier blog posting for details.)
The summer was spent getting acquainted with our new Chesapeake cruiser, learning the boat’s systems, and addressing the issues that always accompany the purchase of a new boat. We cruised St Michael’s and the Wye River with several sets of longtime friends but generally stayed close to home.
In early August we spent a week with Marcia’s sisters and their families at a sprawling manse on a lake near Mount Monadnock, NH. (Dutton Girls rule!—M.T.) Later in the month, Marcia flew to England for the annual St Hilda’s crime writers’ conference at Oxford, and I travelled to Chautauqua for a week of music-making with older singers at the historic center for arts and letters.
I survived my 50th high school reunion in Princeton, KY and actually had a good time. Marcia and I stayed at a lovely state park, Barkley Lodge, a magnificent design by Edward Durrell Stone. How did Kentucky come to have such a prominent architect designing state parks? Stone had married Alban Barkley’s daughter, and it was an inside job. If you ever travel through Western Kentucky, this is worth a stop. Who was Alban Barkley? That’s why we have Wikipedia. Google it up.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Annapolis with all the children and grandchildren. Marcia and I gave them the house and we stayed on the boat. This is really our favorite thing; enjoying family, making music together and eating too much. This leads to the reason we’re already in the islands—all the children are coming to visit here for Christmas and we can’t wait!
Keep in touch, and come visit if you can!!
Barry and Marcia
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