Garden Tours

Please join us for delightful garden views and news summer Sundays, 2:30-3:30pm at the homes of various members. And consider hosting if you have a garden to show off - perfection NOT required. Hosts, please make a bathroom available, and consider in advance if there are any "extra" plants you'd be willing to share. Visitors, please supply your own labor and equipment.  Call Kris Johnson at 508-754-5497 for further details. Here's the schedule so far - 2nd half of summer schedule pending! CARPOOLS ENCOURAGED!

Click here to sign up to host a garden tour.

Sunday, June 24: Nancy Riggs, 337 Salisbury St., Holden. From church take Salisbury St. towards Holden, past Salisbury Green on right. Approx. 2 miles later watch for #337. Nancy will not be there but says come anyway.

Sunday, July 1: Peter Haroutian, 676 Pleasant St., Worc.  From church take Highland St. across Park Ave. to Newton Square rotary, entering at 6 on a clock face and exiting at 9 onto Pleasant St., past tennis courts to house with enormous tree opposite last court.

Sunday, July 8: Kate O'Dell, 13 Montvale St., Worcester.  From church take Salisbury Street across Park Ave. Montvale will be on the right. Take Montvale to the red house at the end of the block.

Sunday, July 15: Bunny Guerrin and Shirley Paquin, 17 Yorktown Terrace, Holden. From church take Grove St. towards Holden, staying straight on 122A north after passing Indian Lake. Go several miles, passing St. Peter/Marian schools and entering Holden. Watch for newly constructed large homes on hill to right and then for Yorktown Terrace, a brick condo complex on right beside 122A sign.

Sunday, July 22: Sten and Liz Gustavson and Burncoat neighbors, 82 Uncatena Ave., Worcester.  From Church take Lincoln St. and onto Burncoat where it forks to left. Cross 290, pass Burncoat schools to light by convenience store: turn right. Uncatena will be a left a little way downhill, #82 is on left just after you turn. Directions to other neighbors from there.

CALL KRIS AT 598-754-5497 for more info. Internet is NOT a good way to reach her.

More Chefs on Board for the Winter Gala!

Jay Lavelle is returning as a chef for the 2012 Winter Gala on December 1.  Linda Carney has kindly volunteered to be one and Gini Johnson has graciously accepted my request!  Now we have six chefs.  I would like to have at least six more.

I've been asked about the responsibilities of a chef and planning a meal for about 8 to 10 people.  Well, David Spanagel and I are available to coach new chefs and anyone who wants more information.  Here's some basic responsibilities and organizational tidbits.

The chef designs a prospective menu preferably at least three months in advance and submits it to the chairperson.  The chef buys the food and prepares it as a donation to the church.  Receipts are kept for tax deduction purposes. 

The chef develops a timeline to prepare the food that best suits his/her needs.  Some food, like bread, may be made ahead and frozen.

Since we only have one stove, chefs prepare their food at home and bring it to the church the day of the event.  Other arrangements can be made, e.g., perhaps someone closer to church permits use of his/her kitchen.  (I believe in "Ask and you shall receive",  "Seek and ye shall find" ,  "Where there's a will there's a way", and "We can work it out...we can work it out...."You get the idea...

The chefs may use self-supplied or our crockpots and warming devices to keep the food warm. Chefs have room to assemble and serve their food from a nearby "food station".

Bob and Sue Shaw are assisting in the kitchen again.  They and the youth help with bringing the food in from your car, cooking, serving, etc.

The chef sits with his/her guests and should enjoy the meal with them.  The youth clears the tables.

The chefs may meet as a group once, if necessary.  Most of the communication is via email.

The 2011 Winter Gala was in the Bancroft Room.  However, if we have more attendees than last year, we may hold it in Unity Hall.  With a positive outlook, we will manage what comes our way.

So--hope this information inspires you to share your culinary talents.  Feel free to call me at 508-798-5508 or email me at speechlc@yahoo.com if you have questions or want to be a chef.

Waving to Butterflies

Remembering Barbara

            Barbara this was the fourth Easter in over fifty five years that I will not be with you. I was driving home from church a few months after you passed and I saw a monarch butterfly coming towards the car. I started to weep as I waved to the butterfly. Was it you? 

            I was teaching a class on the importance of communication and using the movie “Patch Adams” as a way to communicate with the students. A butterfly lands on him, when he asks for a sign, when he is thinking about his GESUNDEIT INSTIUTE.  

For our marriage ceremony we selected an aria from Puccini's Madama Butterfly:  Un bel di vedremo." "One fine day".  Chio Chio San is singing of her belief that Pinkerton will return for his Japanese wife after being away for three years. 

            We had been married for five or six years, and were living in our house in Harvard, Massachusetts when you had your first bout with MS. You regained most of your abilities and were able to return to work. We then moved to a two family house in Arlington, where everything you needed was on one level. Since I couldn't fix you, I wonder if I was so involved with fixing your environment that I lost track of the love I had for you. 

              I think back to when you had been confined to bed for five or six years and I wanted to learn to give you a back rub. That weekend seminar started my career as a massage therapist.  It is ironic that you were my teacher for being a care-giver and that I was never able to give you a massage because you had been immobile for too long. I do have a skill which I wish I had been able to share with you.

            In 2004 when you were in the ICU with an infection and I was in London with my chorus, I could feel you with me. "Love could I only tell thee" , "I dreamed a dream" and "Y Darlun" were especially difficult for me to sing. Washington Irving wrote:  There is sacredness in tears.

                            They are not the mark of weakness, but of power.

                            They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues.

                            They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, 

                            of deep contrition and of unspeakable love.

            Forty seven years was a long marriage and we had difficult times which we handled together. 

            BAMBISAN, I still wave to butterflies.          Rarn

Winter Gala 2012

In this picture, my brother, John Chatalian, is recommending I cook a simpler meal for the next Winter Gala.  Well, I’m already planning that next gala.  It’s Saturday, December 1, 2012, 6:00 to 11:30 p.m.  Will I cook Armenian, Italian, or Southern/Texas cuisine?  Maybe a combo?

Anyway, it’s time to plan and recruit assistance.  I would like much of the planning and major players identified by summer.  I understand people may be reluctant to commit now, but I’d rather they do, and if necessary, resign later!

This year’s fundraising gala should be easier to implement.  Its theme is Wish Upon a Star-BELIEVE. The band is Cosmic Slim and His Intergalactic Ploughboys.  I chose this band primarily because its members include First Unitarian members and friends, Sten Gustavsen, Rick McCarthy, Phil Nigro, and Bill Fischer.  Besides their energizing eclectic, rockabilly sound, I like how the band members rotate lead vocals.

Nat Needle is again playing the dinner music. We can expect an engaging repertoire.

I foresee Hogwarts Camp participants helping me make decorations.  So what more do I need?

•  Additional members to join Scott Hayman, Seth Popinchalk, and me as a steering committee
•  Chefs besides David Spanagel, Rev. Tom Schade, and me
•  Conversation Leaders for the tables
•  Decorations Committee (most work just before the event)
•  Set-up crew
•  Kitchen crew
•  Clean-up crew
•  Bartender
•  Servers
•  Who knows what else besides perseverance, enthusiasm, and flexibility!

So please consider helping me in any capacity—little or lots.  Contact me at home, 508-798-5508, by email speechlc@yahoo.com, or leave me a note at the church office.  Thanks!

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Share your Travel Experiences

You are invited to submit photos, souveniers, artwork, scrapbook pages, etc. that you have collected in your travels (local, national or international). Submit as much as you want. We have plenty of space!

  

Items submitted must meet the following requirements:

*  Able to be hung on a wall (mat or frame your contribution).

*  Have wire for hanging.

*  Have your name and telephone number on the back side.

*  Please include a description that tells something about the travel experience reflected in your contribution (Where you went, when you went, who you went with, why you went, what happened). Tell the viewer as much as you want! Stories appreciated.

If you would like to participate, please send an email to Ken Mandile (kmandile@swissturn.com) or call 774-239-9728.

Send your descriptions and stories via email. I suggest that you include a small photo of you and/or your family so that viewers will know who you are.

Please bring your exhibit contributions to the Chapel between April 15 and May 6.

Les Sampou in Concert at First Unitarian

WCUW 91.3 FM and the First Unitarian Church of Worcester present Les Sampou in concert in the legendary John Henry’s Hammer Coffeehouse located at the First Unitarian Church

Saturday April 21st 2012

7 PM Door / 7:30 Concert

90 Main Street

Worcester, MA

Opening act TBA

Advance tickets $10 at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/235919

 www.wcuw.org

www.lessampou.com

www.firstunitarian.com

Back on the roots scene after a long break, Sampou never wavers from a steady tone of genuineness as she sings sharply observant songs that she writes about disarray and failed communication in relationships. She has the ability to dramatize the sense of hurt at the heart of the characters without floundering in self-pity or weak sentiment.

Guitarists Kevin Barry and Mike Dinallo prove important to the flow of her honky-tonk music." Frank John Hadley,  DOWNBEAT

“'Lonesomeville' evokes a Tom Waits-like world…." Sing Out Magazine

"Powerfully expressive, Les Sampou has been tested in the trenches of life and survived brilliantly. Her new album, "Lonesomeville,'' is a persona lTop Ten favorite of the year. She invests many songs with the emotional honesty of Lucinda Williams, probing love in all of its complexity while belting the heck out of the music. She has a passionate, rockabilly-blues edge that lifts your spirits high, followed by ballads that dig into your soul like few artists can. She also enlists some of Boston's true all-stars to back her -- including Andy Plaisted, Kevin Barry, Michael Dinallo and Jimmy Ryan -- to make this an album you'll want to revisit eagerly and often.''

--- STEVE MORSE, longtime Boston Globe Correspondent who has also contributed to Billboard and Rolling Stone

LES SAMPOU • Lonesomeville

"Sampou’s passionate vocals are simply stunning, now ballsy and rough-edged, then purry and seductive, while the only problem with her originals songs is trying to decide which is the least sensational—there are only nine of them, but there’s absolutely no filler here...the title track is a veritable monster, but Oil & Water, Lonely Nights & Lonely Days, My My My and As I Sleep are the kind of tracks that flummox DJs when they have to choose just one. Judging by her close to home CD release‘tour,’ Sampou seems to be one of those World Famous In Boston acts we hear so little about, but if you’ve given up on Lucinda Williams.  I strongly suggest you check her out."  John Conquest, 3rd Coast Music,Austin TX