I Always Wanted To

City girl gone country!  I moved to Alstead Center, NH from MA, in the fall of 1980. You have to be creative to "make it" here.  Learning to; unfreeze plumbing pipes, get out of 18 inches of mud, drive up or down an icy hill with a rear wheel drive car, get lost and then found, has kept me here, and I am happy. The natural highs are plentiful and the neighbors are terrific, they come with a tractor to pull you out of that mud.

I raised my family here, met the love of my life, finished my Art degree at Keene State College, retired from cooking at Cheshire Medical Center and am currently working to revive our old organic farm. I have always grown plants and gardened.  Scaling up to farming is not an easy progression, but I'm getting there!  

https://www.facebook.com/cookhillfarmorganic/

View photos from Cook Hill Farm

Some of Jean's favorite sites:

• www.Johnnyseeds.com
• www.JLHudsonSeeds.net
• www.nh.gov/nhnursery
• www.florediem.com
• www.gilbertwild.com

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Peter Scharf is a British pensioner living in the rural Le Marche in Italy.  He spent many years working in finance in the old City of London whilst running a sheep farm at the same time.

His interest in music was sparked late in life by a fateful visit to a NY music store and a desire to trace back to the origins of finger-picked acoustic blues of the 1920's, 30's and 40's.

The two largest download sites for musical instrument teaching material are:

• Homespun.com - run by Happy Traum, an accomplished fingerpicker who played on a few Bob Dylan tracks on the early records. The site covers all kinds of instruments including the ukulele.
• guitarvideos.com - run by Stefan Grossman who has pioneered the teaching of early blues acoustic guitar to thousands of would be fingerpickers throughout the world. The site is mostly concentrated on the guitar but also has ukulele material.

An excellent online store specializing in ukuleles is southernukulelestore.co.uk. They have a great selection of ukuleles from £40/50 to £2000+. The sweet spot in terms of ukulele beginner spending is probably around £80 to £120.

They also write a blog and a good one for beginners is southernukulelestore.co.uk/blog/best-10-ukulele-sites-beginners/ YouTube is a vast ukulele source with hundreds of sites dedicated to teaching the ukulele.

Other internet sites are: ukulele underground

• ukulele hunt
• got a ukulele, and there are many, many more which a google search will reveal.

Check out The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain on https://www.ukuleleorchestra.com/ (and also on YouTube) if you look for inspiration and an idea of what the ukulele can do.

 

 

 

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Carrie Kidd

I am a theatre artist in practice.  Lots of folks may know me from local theatre productions.  I've lived in Keene for close to twenty years now and love it.  I was born in New Jersey, but have always been drawn to New England.  So Keene is really my home.  

I played violin as a kid, but like so many of us, I stopped because... well that's a mystery.  I love music but don't have any particular talents. My sister began playing the banjo awhile ago and I decided to take up the viola because bluegrass music uses a lot of strings.  I wanted to play with her.  

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Restrictions have been imposed to slow the contagion. Some of us are fortunate enough to simply accept the new rules with only mild inconvenience-- or at least we have times during the day when we aren't feeling afraid or angry or sorry for ourselves.

In my work as a coach I help people with big responsibilities find time for their own pursuits. Now suddenly many of us have a LOT more time than we expected.

What have you always wanted to learn or create or attempt? What's on your Maybe Someday list? 

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Judy Fine

With a Master of Music in Composition and a penchant for encouraging others to follow their passion, Judy Fine has been teaching and performing popular music styles for two decades, as a singer, keyboardist and sometimes trombonist. Over the years, she has performed in a variety of musical projects, from an original solo act to groups as big as a ten-piece wedding band. Formerly the owner of the Singers and Musicians Studio, a performance-based pop music school in Keene, NH, Judy now coaches aspiring singers in the Cape Coral, FL area and runs Online with Judy Fine, an online teaching and advice resource for singers.

Website:   www.OnlineWithJudyFine.com

Facebook:  @OnlineWithJudyFine (Judy Fine Vocal Coach)

Instagram: @OnlineJudyFine

YouTube: @OnlineJudyFine

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Mary Bennell and Mark White

Mary is currently the regional director of a UK framework procurement company for social housing and public construction. Mark is a retired secondary school teacher, art and art history, these days he tries unsuccessfully to do as little as possible.

Now in the South West of the UK, from 2013- 16 they lived in Gulu, Northern Uganda working as volunteers with VSO on a big vocational training program, consequently they run a small charity supporting vocational training for the disabled in Gulu, ETC of PWD, and return to the area every year.

Mary's CV is long, in the past, she was heavily involved in Woman and Manual Trades, was one of the first trained plumbers in the public sector in London. Certainly the first plumber to claim maternity leave in Hackney, East London and went from there into a range of senior posts in the social housing sector before giving up the obvious career structure and go to Uganda.

Mark trained as artist, so formed a lightly successful punk band because that's what you did then. He left the music business as the audiences became more select, there have been a sort of 40 year reunion recently: a short national tour; a festival and even a new album; the audiences remain carefully chosen. He later worked as a carpenter, set builder etc before training as a teacher. He wrote several text books for art teachers and students and paints and draws every day, landscape mostly.

Mary and Mark mention several organizations including:

 VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas)

GDPU (Gulu Disabled Persons Union)

Gulu Wheelchair Basketball Club

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Betsy Burroughs

Founder & President of, FocusCatalyst: Innovation Based On The Neuroscience Of Insight. Betsy is also the author of the upcoming book, How To Stop A Bad Habit:
Available 2019    

Website www.focuscatalsyst.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/betsyburroughs
TEDx: http://betsyburroughs.net/2013/07/11/tedxlivermore-6813-how-to-get-more-ahas/

 

 

Betsy's Before Picture

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Susanne Uhl-Vening

https://www.couchsurfing.com/

https://belfiore-italia.com/

Born 1952 in Germany, married to my Dutch husband for almost 30 years

Lived in Germany and Holland and worked in marketing and sales of fragrances for international companies

Hobbies:  ceramics, design, literature, traveling, cooking

In my leisure time I studied NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and made my NLP master coach degree after 2 years: New view of life, new convictions and knowing myself better, great experience!

15 years ago, we pushed the "reset button" in our life and decided to live in Italy.

We bought a little hamlet and with the help of a mortgage we had it restored into a small holiday resort, Borgo Belfiore, Renting holiday apartments and yet being 24 hours together and enjoying the Italian way of life.

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Isabella Celentano teaches singing at Civica Scuola di Musica Paolo Soprani in Castelfidardo, and Zona Musica and Cantieri Musicale in Ancona, Italy.  Isabella sings regularly with the Reunion Jazz Band among others. She is the vocal maestra for Fabrijazz, a weeklong summer program for singers and musicians of all ages, presented by Fabrianopromusica.it.

 

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Robin Picard is currently living in Keene, NH, enjoying the seasons, her grandchildren and a relatively quiet and uneventful life. As opposed to traveling through cultures and countries with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and the Peace Corps, Robin has been focused on traveling through life stages and noting the shifting thoughts and perspectives of aging. 

From time to time, she remembers her adventures living and traveling in various locations in the US of A, East Africa, Mozambique, Ukraine and other locations on the planet.  A recent wonderful event this past Fall, walking the Camino from Porto, Portugal to Santiago, Spain may have rekindled the wander lust that has been dormant.   Thoughts these days are of walking the Scottish Highlands, bicycling through New England towns and a motorcycle trip through Nova Scotia (which would be a repeat performance from years past).  

With so many wonderful places to visit, and options on how to do so, there is much to think about and consider.  Until then, simply awaiting the snow, the solstice and another season and year unfolding is the current focus.  And, as needed, going to work daily where combining a career in higher education and community organization occupies the remainder of available head space.

http://robinpicard.blogspot.com/2015/  Mozambique blog

 
Dress made by Boris's mother

Newspaper article about Robin's experiences in Ukraine

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