MASSACHISETTS, Day 6, July 18, 2012

Finally lots of rain today, but not until the afternoon. But more of that later. By 11:00, Marthe and I were getting ready to go to an Ashanti yoga class in the town of Manchester-by-the-Sea. Since I had no yoga duds with me, Marthe lent me a pair of yoga pants, and I had an appropriate shirt. We were there for about 1 1/2 hours in a progressively harder workout, and by the afternoon my ankles and calves really felt the stretches. My spine felt limber as well, so the workout did me some good. After it, we returned home, and by that time, the sky was darkening substantially. Soon, the lightning and thunder were right over the house, and a lightning streak would almost immediately be followed by an immense crash of thunder. Then the rains came, fast and steady, as well as much needed, and a breeze started to be felt. Marthe stayed in her room for a while, talking on the telephone, while I read and took care of emails. At about 3:00 we had a quick bite to eat (sausages with cole slaw), and then we decided, since the rains had stopped by then, to venture out to see some sites that we had set our mind to seeing yesterday evening, as we had talked about the next day's itinerary. We got in the car and drove to Andover, Massachusetts, site of Phillips-Andover School, a private school that is very well known and respected. I had always thought that Phillips-Exeter was the name of the school, and there is a school named that, but it is located in Exeter, NH. Our primary reason for visiting the campus was to see the Addison Gallery of Art, which had an impressive collection of 19th and 20th c. art, as well as fine holdings of photography. We were too late to visit yet another art gallery on campus, featuring a photography exhibit of Alfred Newman photographs, but at least we got to visit the Addison Gallery, and especially a Calder mobile stood out in my mind as one of the best pieces in the collection. In the library of the museum was also a Steichen photo of Greta Garbo, a welcome surprise. After visiting the Museum in Andover, we traveled further north to North Andover and saw the grounds of the Stevens-Coolidge Place--the house cannot be toured at this time. The gardens sit behind the house for privacy. The lady of the house, Helen Coolidge, had a love of French gardens, and that inspired the French garden created in 1931 by Joseph Chandler, who designed the house and gardens. There is also a serpentine wall next to the French garden modeled after ones designed by Thomas Jefferson for the U of Virginia. And just beyond the cultivated gardens and lawns are farm fields and woodlands. It was a lovely, bucolic place to be, and I enjoyed it and the walk back to the Commons, where we had parked Marthes's car, very much. On the way home, we bought some corn at a roadside stand, and then went to the store for fruit and some lemonade. At home we had homemade lentil soup, an escarole salad, corn on the cob, and cherries for dessert. A good day, as I bring my blog to a close. Two more days before I depart. Tomorrow, we are off to the MFA and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museums in Boston. Looking forward to it all, as usual! SV