BIRDS OF PREY PROGRAM at Pennypack Trust

The Aark Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center will present a one-hour program at Pennypack Trust on Tuesday, July 15, from 7 – 8 p.m., about native raptors such as Red-tailed Hawks. Rediscover the world outside by coming face to face with birds of prey. Find out where these creatures live, what they eat and how they raise their young. Learn what to do if you find an injured animal. Pre-registration required by July 14; space is limited. Cost: Members $5 adults/$3 12 and under; non-members $10 adults/$6 12 and under.

For more information, call 215-657-0830 during business hours. Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust is located at 2955 Edge Hill Road, 1/3 mile east of Terwood Road, in Huntingdon Valley, PA.

Some Recent at Bryn Athyn activities

Borough Park Summer Concert Series  

On June 15 Borough Park Summer Concert Series is proud to present the talent of The Boatmen, and "Song Throne!"

Beginning the summer with a banjo, a fiddle, and a stand-up bass is the best way, for sure.

"Song Throne" is a coalition of local singer-songwriters, inspiring and supporting each other‘s music. Enjoy this eclectic group of artists as they share some of the new music they‘ve been writing, as well as some favorites.

Fun for the entire family! Bring a picnic, picnic blanket, and suggested donation of $5 for individuals or $10 for families to help support future events like this. Rain date following Wednesday 6/18

Upcoming Concerts:

June 29: Blane Bostock, and Jennings Durand

July 13:  ̳As You Like It‘ String Quartet, and the Pickin‘

July 27: John & Lori Odhner, and Blue Jeans rock band

August 10: Anders & Angella, and The Hillbillies of Cohesion.

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 New Church Day

The Bryn Athyn Cathedral lawn in celebration of New Church Day took place on June 19, 2014 at 6:00pm. The New Church Day Pageant was  at 7:30pm. This year’s pageant included the exciting addition of a very large dragon puppet (needing multiple puppeteers to perform) constructed of cardboard, paper and foam.

Pool season is open for swimmers

Long before suburbanites had their own pools or anyone in my neighborhood could afford to join a country club - we went to the swim club. The grand opening was always Memorial Day weekend and we lined up like birds on a wire against the fence to get in.  The pool wasn't heated and I vividly remember by skinny little brother visibly quaking, his lips and fingertips blue waiting  for the adult swim to be over so he could get back in to the frigid water. 
At the Willowdale Swim Club Pool in Cherry Hill New Jersey, Karen Carpenter's "Close to You" poured out of the speakers and flush with 15 cents and a packed lunch we spent the day without sunscreen perfecting our swimming techniques so we could capture the ever elusive green ankle band allowing you to swim in the deep end. To get that band, you had to be able to swim the width of the pool unaided and be able to tread water for 30 seconds which at the time seemed monumental. Once awarded, however you were free to spend the day sliding down the sliding board and jumping in and out of the pool as children are apt to do.

In 1971, 15 cents awarded you either a rainbow of pixies sticks or a drop down soda with crushed ice and a bag of Jax.  To this day, cheese curls do not taste the sameunless I have pruney fingers and smell like chlorine.

Memorial day

"The Settlement"...that is what they call Bryn Athyn.  It is a beautiful borough with rolling hills, private schools and of course, the Cathedral.  What folks might miss is the small Military Memorial Garden tucked quietly along side the church grounds.  There have been many soldiers and patriots in this community as evidenced by the placards displaying their names, but one stands alone, under it's own name shaded by a beautiful tree too recently planted.  I visited there yesterday, Sunday as Monday there will be a church service on the lawn in front of the fallen but I am not from here, I do not belong to their church and our Grandmother's did not attend primary school together so I would not presume to join them.

One of the most touching moments I have experienced in this community is the day they brought this soldier home,  the young man with his own memorial.  I was driving in from my day and along every street into Bryn Athyn were her citizenry.  Young, old - on shoulders, in lawn chairs, sprawled out on blankets, each with an American flag.  I thought certain it was a children's parade, or a tribute to our local fire and police department but it was not. It was a homecoming. Every person waiting patiently to stand as the hearse went by on it's way to the service for their young hero. I don't know him, but am told he was a wonderful man, loved serving his country and was a volunteer fireman and that on the turnpike bridges from Maryland to Pennsylvania where he maid his last journey home, there was Fire Company honoring his way.  I wish I had a photo of that day, but I have the picture in my head just the same and thought I would share this small story with you. 

I put two small American flags at the Memorial Garden, one for the many, and one for the boy who paid the highest price to be called American.  God Bless our troops.
Katie

The Bucks County Choral Society presents

The Bucks County Choral Society presents a concert entitled A Celebration of American Musical Theater…Past and Future on Sunday, June 1 at 4 PM in Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Doylestown PA.

Included are favorite songs from Kiss Me Kate, South Pacific, Brigadoon, Fiddler on the Roof, Oklahoma, Guys and Dolls, and more. Featured soloists are Jenny Eisenhower and Ben Dibble, both currently starring in Arsenic & Old Lace at the Walnut Street Theater. For more details look on the website

http://www.buckschoral.org/ or call Gerald Hurst at 215-947-1180.

Springtual Bryn Athyn

Having spent by formative years in the countryside of England, Great Bardfield to be exact, I am drawn to Bryn Athyn for it's non-matching houses, it's rambly community vegetable garden and the grace and stature of both the cathedral and the castles.

Bryn Athyn is ever-more beautiful in Spring, when its seems as if God himself has electrified the gardens and is the awakened the songbirds to sing..

 Each carefully laid rock wall is softened by the creeping of Mountain Pinks and Baby Tears, every bed bursting with a riot of colour, tulips and peonies, lilacs and violets, pansies, Phlox and budding roses and with it a new scent held momentarily before you, clinging to your garments and fading as you pass.

 Come to Bryn Athyn and enjoy our newly awakened gardens.

Katie Kennedy

THE BRYN ATHYN BOUNTY FARM MARKET

 2014 season started last Saturday with a great selection of plants for sale, delicious food by our local Be Well Bakery and Café, and many interesting and fun vendors!

 Same time, same place this Saturday, May 10 – 9am-12pm, Pendleton Oak Grove at 3002 Cairnwood Drive. Have fun, connect with a great community, and support our fantastic local produce, musicians, bakers, cooks and artists!

Interested in being a vendor? Email babountyfarmmarket@gmail.com Interested in volunteering? Email bounty.volunteers@gmail.com.

BOILEAU FESTIVAL

SAT., MAY 3 - BOILEAU FESTIVAL - 11 am to 3 pm

Visit Upper Moreland Township's last standing Colonial farmstead and enjoy:

Colonial-style Cooking

Live Musicians

Revolutionary War Re-Enactors Demonstration

Early American Pastimes for Children

Colonial Wool Spinning

Wood Joining Demonstration

Live Animals & Pony Ride

Barn/Farming Interpreter

Penn's Woods Puppet Theater

Colonial Ice Cream Lady

Free Food & Beverages

It's free and open to the public - Come when you can, Leave when you must Bring family, friends and the kids!

The Boileau Farmstead

Byberry & Orangemans Roads

Upper Moreland Township

Time: 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Cost: Free

Native Plant and Wildflower Sale

Those interested in planting and/or learning about native plants won’t want to miss the Native Plant and Wildflower Sale at the Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust offered by Pennypack’s Growing Native Gardeners. Native plants offer a lower maintenance and dependable alternative to labor-intensive gardening because they’re well adapted to our region. The two-day plant sale is on Friday, May 2, from 2 – 7 p.m. and Saturday, May 3, from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Admission is free.

Bryn Athyn Orchestra's spring program

The final work in Bryn Athyn Orchestra's spring program is the idyllic 6th symphony. Here is what Beethoven himself said about the work:  Pastoral Symphony, more an expression of feeling than painting.

1st piece: pleasant feelings which awaken in men on arriving in the countryside.

 2d piece: scene by the brook.

3d piece: merry gathering of country people, interrupted by 4th piece: thunder and storm, into which breaks

5th piece: salutary feelings, with thanks to the Deity.  

Either you are familiar with this enchanting work and love it already, or you should come and hear it so it can become one of your top ten!

Hope to see you ALL on May 11 at 3 pm at the Mitchell Performing Arts Center.

Neutra's Pitcairn House

Since there is a house, designed by Richard J. Neutra, listed in Bryn Athyn, we thought that it would be a good time to remember who Neutra was.

Neutra was born in Austria Hungary, on April 8, 1892. He was famous for the attention he gave to defining the real needs of his clients, regardless of the size of the project, in contrast to other architects eager to impose their artistic vision on a client. Neutra sometimes used detailed questionnaires to discover his client's needs, much to their surprise. His domestic architecture was a blend of art, landscape and practical comfort.

Neutra had a sharp sense of irony. In his autobiography, Life and Shape, he included a playful anecdote about an anonymous movie producer-client who electrified the moat around the house that Neutra designed for him and had his Persian butler fish out the bodies in the morning and dispose of them in a specially designed incinerator. This was a much-embellished account of an actual client, Josef von Sternberg, who indeed had a moated house but not an electrified one.

Neutra (1892–1970) was a prophet of clean, crisp modernism said Time Magazine and put him on the cover.

To see some of his work and check out the listed house;

http://www.everyhome.com/Home-For-Sale/2860-Paper-Mill-Road-Bryn-Athyn-PA

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/architecture/2011-04/richard_neutra_slideshow

The unique pleasure of living in Bryn Athyn by Katie Kennedy

I have had the unique pleasure of living in Bryn Athyn, in a home that I have dreamed about since I was a little girl, and  where the grounds remind me of the rolling hills of Great Bardfield, in England where we lived when Daddy was stationed at Wethersfield Air Base.

It is lovely here in all seasons, but the gardens I love best are those that appear in the spring. If you have never been to Bryn Athyn, there are two castles, a cathedral, a private school from pre-k thru college, all on and surrounded by the most wonderful spots to tuck n and read a book or watch the sun go down from the huge stone benches cut into the hill behind the sanctuary.

There is fairy magic in the spring however, when every garden begins to fill in with brilliant color and last years mountain pinks awaken and spill over the stone walls, where the white garden glows in the twilight as if it has been switched on by the ground itself. The story of the plants is my favorite, however. Every Easter, in the Asplundh field house a huge service is held to speak about not just the Christian doctrine, but the awakening of earth. Every family brings to the service a potted flower, barely in bloom but colorful enough to rival the children in their pastel frilly frocks, and bonnets and new patent leather shoes. At the end of the service, the wee ones bring the flower to the front and leave them on the make-shilft alter so that the garden keepers can plant them around the cathedral grounds, in front of the castles and around the campus. I love this small offering, it is sweet and sincere and is then placed quietly in a public place for all to enjoy.

Bryn Athyn is in Montgomery County.  The grounds are open to the public most days so I hope that after this Easter season you get a chance to visit our magical garden.

 

by Katie Kennedy

3rd Annual FeelGood 5k

3rd Annual FeelGood 5k Saturday, April 26, 8 am, Jungé Pavilion

Come to this themed event dressed as your favorite super hero!

$5 kids, $10 students, $20 adults and $18 for relay teams (3).  Race starts at 9am.

Tibetan Buddhist Sand Mandala 2014

Wednesday, April 23 through Sunday, April 27, 2014

1:00 - 4:30 PM DAILY

Free Admission April 23-26. Included in Sacred Arts Festival admission on April 27.

Witness the step-by-step creation of a traditional Sand Mandala, an ancient art form of Tibetan Buddhism. Mandalas are drawings in sand of the world in its divine form; they represent a map by which the ordinary human mind is transformed into an enlightened mind. Watch as the Venerable Losang Samten (the first Buddhist given permission by the Dalai Lama to make Mandalas in the West) completes and then ritualistically dismantles an Amitabha Mandala during our Sacred Arts Festival.

Glencairn Museum’s Medieval Summer Camp

Session I (June 16 – 20) Session II (June 23 – 27) Campers  aged 9, 10, and 11 will learn archery and swordplay. They will bake bread and create a cookie “spectacle.” The week will end on Friday morning with a battle staged for the pleasure of the King of Glencairn. Campers will enjoy these activities and many more while learning about the medieval values of virtue and honor.

Spring. Garden. Go!

We all are hoping to get some warmer weather with the start of April. It has been a long, long winter. If you need to get some mulch and for your other gardening needs Tinari Greenhouses located in Huntingdon valley is a good place to start.
They have different varieties of mulch.

SEEING IS BELIEVING MAGIC AND COMEDY SHOW

SEEING IS BELIEVING MAGIC AND COMEDY SHOW
Saturday, April 5 at 7pm

Benefiting Heal the Burn Foundation Featuring: America’s Got Talent Finalist Michael Grasso, Sideshow and Comedy of Doc Swan and others  

Saturday, April 5 at 7pm at The Mitchell Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $30 for adults and $20 for kids. They can be purchased at www.healingtheburn.org or at 215-947-7384

Famous people named with Bryn Athyn

Harold Pitcairn
He played a key role in the development of the autogyro and founded the Autogiro Company of America. He patented a number of innovations relating to rotary wing aircraft. 

Swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, theologian, revelator, and, in the eyes of some, Christian mystic. He termed himself a "Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ" in True Christian Religion, a work he published himself.

Gyllenhaals
Their First role together was in the Movie Donnie Darko 2001

Oz Family
Mehmet Cengiz Öz, also known as Dr. Oz, is a Turkish-American cardiothoracic surgeon, author, and television personality. Oz first appeared on the The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2004, and later on Larry King Live and other TV programs.

Elizabeth Pitcairn
Red Violin
Elizabeth Pitcairn is an American classical violinist. She has concertized widely as a soloist and is noted for performing on the 1721 Red Mendelssohn Antonio Stradivari violin that is said to have inspired the film The Red Violin.

The Sound of Music

The final collaboration between Rodgers & Hammerstein was destined to become the world's most beloved musical. When a postulant proves too high-spirited for the religious life, she is dispatched to serve as governess for the seven children of a widowed naval Captain. Her growing rapport with the youngsters, coupled with her generosity of spirit, gradually captures the heart of the stern Captain, and they marry. Upon returning from their honeymoon they discover that Austria has been invaded by the Nazis, who demand the Captain's immediate service in their navy. The family's narrow escape over the mountains to Switzerland on the eve of World War II provides one of the most thrilling and inspirational finales ever presented in the theatre. The whole family is invited to join us as we bring the most popular movie musical of all time to the Mitchell Performing Arts Center April 25-May 3. Tickets on sale

March 1st! For more information and to purchase tickets,

THE SOUND OF MUSIC is presented through special arrangement with R & H Theatricals: www.rnh.com.

The Bryn Athyn Orchestra presents its winter concert.

The Bryn Athyn Orchestra presents its winter concert on February 23 - and a winter it has been! (A total of four rehearsals have been missed due to weather problems).  We do want to thank the Bryn Athyn Church for letting us hold rehearsals in Heilman Hall while the Academy has been using the Fine Arts Building this winter.  Of course Maestro Dan Kujala will have the players ready for his chosen works:

Mozart‘s Overture to Idomeneo Ravel‘s Mother Goose Suite

Mendelssohn‘s Symphony No. 5 (Reformation Symphony)

Tickets at the door are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors, $5 for students (through college) and are free for children under 12 accompanied by an adult.