King's Chapel Choir Spring Tour: Day 5

After three evensongs, two concerts, a special rehearsal with the Groton Choir and five regular rehearsals (all in four days...not to mention 15 hours of driving), choristers were beginning to wear down with oncoming colds and strained voices.
Luckily our far-seeing tour manager and choir director had anticipated this, and planned day five as a free day, in which everyone could have a bit of down time and recover. As we drove into the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusettes, the sun came out, and everyone began to exclaim at the beauty of the acres of gentle rolling hills, forested with new spring growth (someone called it Rip VanWinkle country). Enchanted, we arrived at Barnum Hill to be greeted by Ness, Paul's daughter, her husband Shay and their two year old boy, Wynn. Barnum is a 200-year old farm house that Shay and Ness have been restoring. The choir was so grateful to arrive on a sunny afternoon to a cooler full of refreshing brews from local microbreweries, fresh bread and sandwich fixings and plenty of time to stretch out on the grass and relax. After lunch and an hour or two of repose, we headed down to the local church to practice for the next day's performance.

The choir was billeted across the road with Shay's parents at the Gould Family Farm, the oldest therapeutic community in America for people with psychiatric disabilities. They have a lovely 600-acre facility, with a retreat house where the choir stayed that boasted a fully equipped kitchen and a woodstove. We sang a few songs for the residents of the farm at their communal dinner and then returned to the retreat house where we were grateful to have a bit of time to replenish our strength and to set up a home-base for a few days, as we would be returning here after New York.