January 18, 2006
welcome to ridgeland (elevation: 11 thousand inches)
I've spent the last five days house-sitting on a mountain overlooking Frederick, MD. It's a house called "Ridgeland," and it's where a tribe of us gather four or more times a year to drum and run around n the woods. It's where I first put my hand to a drum--a momentous moment. I cherish the place for all that, and quickly said "yes" when Patti (doyenne of the place, along with David, the doyen) asked me to house-sit. Dog-sit really, since they have four dogs who need to be fed a couple times a day and let out. I did a lot of that.
It's a big, though drafty, house on quite a few wooded acres. It has some nice paths through the woods, with some nice views of the wooded hills and pastures (mostly undeveloped, so far). It was especially lovely when it snowed last Saturday. But then that made it too risky, too long a drive in bad road conditions, for me to drive to DC for an event. Oh well, that's the trade-off when you're out in the country: you get peace and quiet, but then you also get peace and quiet (when you'd rather be riotous).
Last night David and Patti came back from their trip to Amsterdam. We had a almost-19th century evening: building a fire in the living room (closing off the other sections of the house), talking, having tea, having dinner (risotto--thanks Patti!), playing my dulcimer, singing, drumming (to David's flute), reading--even spinning some alpaca by the fire with my drop spindle.
But, as I said, it was an almost 19th century evening. David did play a little bit on his computer, there in the living-room (he has it set up there so he can record music-jams), downloading and showing their pictures from Amsterdam. And I realize that not many people, or very Europeans or North Americans anyway, spun alpaca int he 19th century.
It was a nice little retreat for me, though I only cracked a couple of the 15-or-so books I carted with me to Ridgeland. I spent a lot more time trying to figure out a way to read my email and FTP on one of Patti's computers. So even being out in the woods, with snow on the trees and baying hounds and the whole catastrophe, I was still wrestling with machines...
I sure did enjoy being with those dogs, though, maybe because they got me out of my desk chair and got me to open the door, where I could breathe the chill air...