Back to Capisic Pond

This year’s Spring weather hasn’t been very conducive in luring me to one of my favorite walks. But last Saturday the sun was bright and the heavy winds we’ve been having here on the coast subsided. It was just the day for a hike on the Capisic Pond Park trail. The trail extends a half-mile from the Macy Street entrance, off Capisic Street through to Lucas Street, off Brighton Avenue. The walk is paved and the views out over the pond are pleasant.

On Saturday, there weren’t even any walkers with their dogs on leashes. Soon the beautiful lupines will be appearing along the trailsides, plus several other spring wildflowers.

I hope that other hikers have discovered it. I didn’t even realize it was a public park until another walker informed me of that last year.

A lovely sight this spring is the yellow forsythia bush seen in many yards. Along Pleasant Avenue in Portland, they are numerous. One that I have to stop to admire is very wide, and close to the street. I grieve when I occasionally see forsythias which have been cut back – how unfair. These bushes are admired for their abundant and full branches. We are also pleased to see many front yard gardens full of daffodils and crocuses. Pat Leonard told me that Westbrook’s Walker Memorial Library has magnolia trees now in bloom, and pretty purple crocuses in the garden there, planted by a patron. I must stop to see them on my next drive to Westbrook.

I even welcome the dandelions, although owners who use spray on their lawns have no trace of spring wildflowers. In our yard, from spring and into summer months, we have dandelions, violets, devil’s paintbrushes, and celandine, among other wildflowers, and we welcome them all.

Listening to the Met’s “Figaro”

I’m glad that Saturday’s opera hours were free, 1:30 p.m. to 5:25 p.m., as Mozart’s opera, “Nozze di Figaro”, (“The Marriage of Figaro”) was the Metropolitan Opera’s April 22 production, broadcast on Maine Public Broadcasting.

We have heard many Mozart compositions on radio lately, as this is the 250th anniversary of his birth.

The Opera broadcast guide for 2005-2006 included a quotation about Mozart by another famous composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who wrote these words after he had heard a series of “La Nozze di Figaro” performances; “Mozart neither overwhelms nor stuns me. When I hear his music it is as though I am doing a good deed and the longer I live, the more I get to know him, the more I love him.”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a favorite composer of mine, and it was so nice on Saturday, to hear so many arias that I am familiar with.

My “Metropolitan Opera Guide,” a first edition, printed in 1939, tells of his musical genius, when he was only a little boy.

He was born in Salzburg in 1756, and died in 1791. “Though recognized as a genius by the leading spirits of his time, he never prospered,” the guide said. “Toward the end of his life, his financial situation became intolerable, and at his death, he was buried in a pauper’s grave.”

Sad, sad, sad. Today he would have a financial adviser, but so many of the early and very talented musicians were not properly compensated.

The guide tells us that Mozart was educated musically by his father, Leopold, a violinist in the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg, and showed sufficient aptitude to study the harpsichord at the age of three. The following year he started to compose, and by the time he was six, he was taken with his 11-year-old sister, Maria, on a tour of the chief European courts, where the children played duets and astonished listeners with their precocity.

“This gift of facile and yet profound musicianship was the keystone of Mozart’s later career. His German heritage impelled him toward symphonic and chamber works, while his visits to Italy quickened his interest in opera.

We all who love music recognize his genius.

RECIPE

Elaine Cross, who worked as cook and assistant at the Thomas P. Smith House in Westbrook for many years, sent me a cookbook in 1991 from Iowa, where she now lives. She wrote that she has many fond memories of Westbrook, the Smith House, and of the many parties there.

Harry and I were often guests of Isabelle LeBorgne at parties at the Smith House, where she lived. She had been our neighbor when our newspaper office was at 820 Main St. and her apartment was across the street, above Ray LeTarte’s Ski Shop. We remained good friends with Isabelle from that time on.

This is Elaine Cross’s recipe from “Heavenly Delights,” a collection of recipes by Grant Village Senior Association, in Mason City, Iowa. I made it last week and we all enjoyed it.

SUNBEAM TAPIOCA

1 cup quick-cooking tapioca

3/8 cup sugar

1/8 tsp. salt

1 cup water

1/2 cup pineapple juice

1/2 cup orange juice

1-1/2 tbls. lemon juice

1 (8-oz.) can mandarin oranges, drained

1 (5-1/2 oz.) can pineapple tidbits, drained

Combine tapioca, sugar, salt, water and pineapple juice in a saucepan, and heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add orange juice and lemon juice. Cool, stir occasionally. Add fruit and chill. You may garnish it with maraschino cherries. Serves 6.

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