Snow castles, gum trees, Bach, a Tolstoy movie premiere, and other favorite things

Seasons of Community Living enters its second year

Welcome back readers, and welcome, new readers –

For anyone living in the northeastern United States (as Trudi and Marianne do), Winter Weather has been a major theme of the past few days. Norann, in southeastern Australia, is meanwhile in high summer. In this post we’ll give a window into some of our activities in the first weeks of the new year.

If you’re making plans for things to do in 2024, consider a visit to a Bruderhof community. We welcome visitors at all our locations, whether for a few hours, a weekend, or a few weeks as part of the Resident Volunteer program. If you come to Spring Valley, Woodcrest, or Danthonia, we may even get a chance to meet!

Trudi – in Spring Valley, southwest Pennsylvania

I don’t know what kind of weather is outside your window as you read this. For some in the southern hemisphere you might be unconfined by walls and windows, enjoying a summer evening. Others (the English sort) are probably counting snowdrops and aconites. Many others may glance out the window to see snow falling gently or flinging itself wildly off the edges of roofs.

We’ve had some boots-only days in Pennsylvania—the kind where shoes quickly prove to be a mistaken choice of footwear. We’ve had days of sleet, and days of snow. Sometimes accompanied by wind whipping up hard crystals of snow, and sending them stinging against cheeks and noses.

My kindergarten students, like me, seem to embrace and relish the elements. One said of falling snow, “It makes me feel beautiful!” There’s also something exhilarating about bundling up warmly and going outdoors: sledding, snow fights, snowmen, snow castles, snow dragons, and more sledding.

However, I can’t help but acknowledge that for many people, winter is just a long, bleak season to be survived: the elderly, commuters, truckdrivers, occupants of poorly heated houses, homeless. . . . Winter certainly takes its toll. Even a winter-lover like me can understand how “winter of the soul” best describes those seasons of the heart that drag on in dreary, frozen nothingness. That kind of inner “winter” can happen any time of year and span months if not years. There’s a reason people love the coming of spring.

So I’ve been thinking about “favorite things”. As I pulled on some hockey skates and sailed out onto ice for the first time in a few years, I jubilated. Skating is certainly one of my favorite things. But it’s dependent on many circumstances and I knew that an evening of skating was a privilege, a passing highlight.

The natural world, though, is a gift basket of “favorite things” just waiting for us to find them.

I looked up at the half-moon slipping in and out of heavy cloud layers. The moon is one of my favorite things. Bright blue winter sky is another, sunlight highlights on distant hills, windy days, sunsets, snow-covered pines, falling snow lit by a street lamp, constellations, walks in the rain, still-water reflections, waterfall spray on my face, the sound of a river, butterflies, and more. . . .

I know you must have favorite things too: things you can’t buy, things of nature. Expand those things, discover more, and your world will brighten forever.

Some recent sketches depicting winter in Korea. The dog’s name is 코코, Cocoa.(Top right, Korean “ice sled”).

Snowy stream, two weeks ago.

Marianne – in Woodcrest, upstate New York

An exciting event last week in Woodcrest was the premiere of a movie written, directed, and acted by students of the Woodcrest School (grades four to eight were represented). The movie is a dramatization of Tolstoy’s short story “A Spark Neglected Burns the House” in which a minor incident (the theft of an egg) kicks off a bitter feud between two families which ends with arson, and ultimately reconciliation. Here’s the trailer for this masterpiece: A Spark Neglected Burns the House.

This wasn’t a school-sponsored project though: Ethan (a fifth grader) had the idea and wrote the script with the help of his dad, who was also the camera-man. Our son Malcolm, a year older than Ethan, was enthusiastic about participating, especially once he found out there would be pyrotechnics and hand-to-hand combat. Then a couple seventh grade girls got involved, and photocopied cast lists, rehearsal schedules, and costuming instructions in bubbly seventh grade girl handwriting started showing up in the pile of books and other detritus by Malcolm’s bed. A Russian peasant costume appeared next for his role as Ivan, the aggressive younger son of one of the families.

The movie was filmed over several weeks last fall on evenings and weekends, and Ethan and his dad did production over Christmas. Last week an audience of over 100 gathered with popcorn and soda for the long-awaited premiere; although Tolstoy’s story is serious in nature, it must be reported that there was a lot of appreciative and rowdy laughter at the screening, which concluded with the cast taking a bow to thunderous applause.

Preparing to capture a dramatic fight scene at a wedding. The tablecloth did not stay on the table for long.

Filming on the dacha, usually known as the sheep pasture

Various sheds served as interiors, in this case for an affecting final reconciliation between an errant son and tubercular father

In the end of the story Tolstoy writes of the previously feuding families: “They lived as good neighbours should. Iván Stcherbakóf remembered his old father’s command to obey God’s law, and quench a fire at the first spark; and if any one does him an injury he now does not try to revenge himself, but rather to set matters right again.” May the same be said of all of us in 2024.

Norann – in Danthonia, New South Wales, Australia

We’re only into the third week of this new year and it seems like several months have passed, but in a good way. Of course for us, January means a full launch into summer, so here are some highlights from the last twenty days in the form of a photo essay:

7 January – With watermelon and mint growing in tandem, and olives and feta handy, it’s time to make my favorite summer salad that I learned during my first Australian summer 21 years ago: watermelon, kalamata olives, feta (or in this case, halloumi), and mint all married together with a little salt and white wine before serving.

An unusual but totally memorable combination of ingredients.

9 January – It’s been a tumultuous January, weatherwise, which translates into amazing skies. This means our eyes and hearts are constantly drawn heavenwards. So often, when I contemplate a cloud that lingers, angel-winged and feather-like, I pray for dear friends who are beginning this year in grief, loss, confusion, or difficult diagnosis.

11 January – On this day, our dog, Bear, turned 5. A few days later, Bernie, the dear friend in Tingha who gifted us Bear, turned 90. When Bernie gave us Bear in 2019 he said, “You don’t choose your dog. The right dog finds you.”

We celebrated Bernie’s birthday together with many other close friends, family, grandchildren…and dogs:

Here’s a video of what Bear teaches us about how to live:

15 January – Last week, my neighbors watched this tree get blown apart by lightning, catch fire, and then be extinguished by incoming rain. I walked into the valley to find it, and was amazed to find pieces of wood thrown 50 metres away from the tree.

I shared this photo on social media, and inadvertently started a war about whether or not trees that are stuck by lightning can be used as firewood. Many people said a lightning-struck tree will never burn, and others dismissed this as mumbo-jumbo. Can anyone with authority/experience/or both wade in?

18 January – Our (former) house pig, Rebel, is expecting piglets.

Rebel – her sweet, blond eyelashes earned her the name – arrived into our household in May of 2023 as a tiny, orphaned, piglet:

She settled in right away and became a much-loved member of the household, and a wonderful companion for Bear:

Eventually, Rebel grew too large for our cottage and joined our free-range pig herd. She still rushes up to visit us whenever we walk by, kisses Bear through the fencing, and grunts her happy grunts. It’s clear that some piglets are on their way, and, much to the horror of my neighbors and mother-in-law, I have been talking about having another piglet pet. (Husband and sons are in full agreement – I think? – as pigs make the most marvelous house pets!) (Note from Marianne: can confirm, our family once had a pet piglet called Norman Pooter who was ridiculously cute.)

Here is Rebel at dawn, her eyelashes aglow:

What we’re enjoying

Marianne

Our ninth grade son is learning to play cello, and he’s started practicing the Bach C Major suite for a music competition in a few months. Cellist Stephen Isserlis wrote of this music, “One of the main glories … lies in their miraculous use of the unaccompanied instrument to create a whole world of sound.” This is amazingly true even when it’s played crudely (the way I am hearing it at home, although there is daily improvement), and breathtakingly true when it’s played skillfully, as you will surely agree when you listen to this recording by Mstislav Rostropovich.

Trudi

This book: (on the coffee table of my “golf cart Grandma”)

This book is jam-packed with observation and study-based factual knowledge about, yes, the winter world! I did not read it. (I didn’t have time.) I flipped through and learned a lot in a very short time about bears and chipmunks and more. In line with the favorite things theme, here’s a quote from Wilson Bentley, aka “Snowflake Bentley”. (It’s possible he had other favorite things but snowflakes seem to have taken precedence).

. . .and in honor of Bentley. . .I’ll share what landed on my jacket today:

Norann

Tree photography. Many of our eucalyptus trees are peeling their bark right now, which makes for some unique captures. I love to photograph them at dusk or dawn when the trunks seem to both hold and reflect the light.

In addition, the apple gums are blooming. When you stand near a blooming apple gum, you are bathed in a warm, honey scent:

That’s all folks. Enjoy the season you are in!