Correction. Sorry, I meant the trigger finger was on my LEFT hand.Steve.

Had “trigger finger” three weeks ago.Right hand, ring finger. Don’t shoot with that hand. Dr. gave me three options, splint w/ an ointment (antiflammatory cream), steroid shot into the tendon sheath or surgery. Splint it for 20 days. Having a hard time bending it now. Can’t play guitar, banjo and ukulele . Don’t have to bend fingers as far for guitar playing to play Mountain dulcimer. So I guess I’m meant to play the dulcimer more. Recently bought a Songbird hammered dulcimer. Have finally got the books and DVD’s I wanted. Built my own adjustable stand and made a pair of a little larger hammers. If my finger doesn’t recover to where I can play my guitar I will be playing both the Mountain and Hammered dulcimers. Steve.

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@john-w-mckinstry , that is something I can really relate to-  I have not planted morning glories by the side of our sunny garage door in about five years. Have not seen hide nor hair of them in that time.  Then, just three mornings ago, Brian and I were surprised to see two giant Heavenly Blue blooms there near the ground, looking much like your picture. It surprised us as well!  Seems like an omen of some sort?  We could all use some good omens these days i think. If i see more blooms before the frost puts an end to our brave little survivor plant, i will think of you John.  

:"Heavenly Blue Moment"

The other day I walked up the upper deck stairs in search of small tomatoes. When I turned the corner, I was given a "Heavenly Blue Moment".  Just ahead of me was a beautiful six inch blossom of this morning glory.  We have been waiting for two years to see one.  One year there was too much shade. This year I chose a sunny location. All my others morning glories have been in blossom for over a couple of months now. I had just about given up when, in this first week of October, I was given this "Heavenly Blue Moment"!  I was worth the waiting.

!

Sibelius's Finlandia , beautifully sung. 

https://youtu.be/NC-NK21d2tg?si=AeTaJiu1Fvuh7kZj

You're most welcome, @steve-c !  I just watched again and sang along-- it's uplifting to do so.  

Thanks Robin!  It blessed me!

Kurt Vonnegut in a letter to high school students:

Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow.

You can hear James Earl Jones read the entire letter here.   

You're most welcome, Dusty!  I've sung with it already this morning and it has lifted me.  Good for the spirit! 

That's quite moving, Robin.  Thanks so much for sharing.  Definitely worthy of good headphones.  And a kleenex.

Soul-stirring version of Bright Morning Star -- it's nice to sing along, too: 

https://youtu.be/ch-t8UaGMPA?si=LsXdobcdxqOk2bh3

I have always loved the bagpipes.   The sound of the drones called me as a little girl of 3 years old as I ran into the middle of the bagpipe band marching in a parade that my parents took me to.   So when I moved to Payson, Utah, there's quite a large bagpipe band there and loved that and their Scottish Festival that takes place yearly.  When we moved to Nauvoo, Illinois the summer has a big pageant and the Pipers come every year.   On this Friday last, that pipe band came to my round  house and it was such a joy to have them try my dulcimers, psalteries and other instruments.   Two of them brought their pipes and played for me two songs.   I LOVED IT and my log walls are still vibrating with those happy sounds.   I'm blessed to live here with such great music every summer.  aloha, irene

Oh please tell me they both marched away into the foggy dew............

Just had to relate a very cool thing in my little town today. I was at our knitting group at the local yarn shop on Main street, and suddenly the sound of Scottish Highland pipes drifted over the town. We rushed to look out the door and there was a fellow in full regalia and kilt just standing on the sidewalk in the middle of Main St playing the bagpipes. It wa almost 5pm, and there were few people on the street and the sun was low, which made it feel more profound in some way. After a couple of tunes, a young boy joined him, playing a traditional style drum hanging on his belt. After only 20 min or so they were gone. It was really lovely.

My guess is they were coming home after some event where they had performed, and decided to stop on our old fashioned village street and play for a bit, perhaps while picking up something to eat on the way.

John, I don't really do anything that special. I like to mix sweet fruits and berries with tart fruits and berries to balance it out to my own taste. I have a friend who collects wild honey so I use that whenever I get the chance, but usually I like brown sugar, and sometimes settle for white sugar. I leave all the pulp and skin in the mixture, then filter it out after fermentation. I use champagne yeast and a specific gravity gauge to measure the alcohol content and usually stop fermentation at 15% abv. I filter it with cheesecloth and allow the fine particulate pulp to remain, because I believe that a small amount of flesh and skin can decrease hangover symptoms.

So Nate......Care to share your small batch recipe???? I'm "re attempting" my elderberry blossom "cordial".....Last time it ended up like rocket fuel....

Ooh, that is exciting Nate, you are a winemaker now!
we have blueberries coming soon on our backyard bushes. We already put the netting over them to keep the birds from eating them. The blue jays and squirrels would eat them all otherwise. 🤷🏼

@nate That's just doggone cool.  

Very excited to see that the Oregon grape bush in front of my apartment is ripening! Oregon grape is the state flower of Oregon, but a lot of folks here don't know that it's edible and makes a delicious tart wine when fermented. The flavor is like a pomegranate flesh with a plum skin. I am stoked to be starting a gallon of wine today!

Thanks for the support, NATE

Really glad to hear you're recovering, John. I'll keep you in my prayers. Hope you're feeling well soon.

THANKS DUSTY

John, I'm so glad you're back home and healing. I hope you're feeling stronger every day and I look forward to hearing more of your music.

thanks GORDON.

John, thank goodness you are back home and on the mend please take good care of yourself and rest well. Pneumonia is nothing to sneeze at!😊

John, I hope you continue to feel better!  

Jan, that is so nice you got to meet Cynthia!  I always enjoyed her videos and her participation here. 

Jan, that is wonderful that you were able to visit Cynthia. On the way there and back you could have visited many more members of FOTMD who are not far off the route you traveled. I have not seen Cynthia participating here in a long time and must admit that I've been neglectful in contacting her.  Thank you for your report on your visit.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Thanks Ken

Hey!  Guess what?!  After 4 1/2 years of talking on the phone nearly every day, Cynthia Wigington and I finally got to meet in person and spend a week together in her Vermont community of West Fairlee.  My husband Craig and I drove up from Kentucky and got to enjoy the sights from Ohio to Mass. and up north from there.  We stayed at a nice Airbnb about a mile from her house and enjoyed many meals at local restaurants (think lobster, clams, scallops...yum!)  We even played a little music together!  We thank FOTMD for introducing us to each other so we could become friends during COVID.  

I'm happy to hear that you are back home. I pray that you recover fully and heal quickly.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

John I'm so glad you are on the mend. That sounds like it was no fun at all.
Big hugs to you...

Thanks John!

Glad to see you on the mend. Try and rest, seek some sunshine, and the opportunity you have to be "in the garden" where you're never alone....

Shalom

Hi Everyone,  A couple of days ago I just got back from a six day stay at the hospital with pneumonia.

I am glad to be in rehabilitation now at home. Thanks for your prayers and support. John McKinstry

We're proud to "have you on the bus", Nate!  You have some amazing ideas.  Thanks for sharing them with us.

With the loss of such a positive support beam in the dulcimer community, it reminds me to express my gratitude to y'all. I am very grateful to have found this community of kind, helpful, non-judgmental, encouraging, and inviting folks who I can share the dulcimer with. You have all had a tremendously positive impact on me, and I'm grateful to be able to interface with all you great folks.
I love you all,
God bless all,
Nate

Hi Ken, Your Christmas activities sound lovely.  I forgot about the film A Child's Christmas! Adding it to my list of movies to watch.  I know you're a gourmet cook so your goodies will be delicious.  I just saw a recipe for Wassail that I want to try.  Our Christmas will be quiet, too. Just the way I like it.  Merry Christmas. Nina (from the Berea meet-up)

Quiet home Christmas mostly.  Sally's daughter is coming down from Baltimore so 4 of us for the traditional English Christmas Dinner. 

Later this week we're going with some friends on a 1/8 scale mini-train Night ride around our favorite walking park -- Lakes Park -- where we volunteer with the bird patrol and trash pickup.  The train museum goes all out decorating with lights and such long the several miles of track through the park.  

We're also hosting our annual friend party to watch the classic Denholm Elliot version of Dylan Thomas'  A Child's Christmas In Wales.  I'm making mince tarts and apple biscotti for both events, with Apple Cider and non-alcoholic Wassail Punch.

I'll be donating food and warm winter clothes to the homeless.

@john-c-knopf I'm grateful for the music she left behind-- it continues to enrich my life! 

Jean Ruth Ritchie was born 101 years ago today in Viper KY.

Our Christmas will be quiet as well…well as quiet as my granddaughters can be.  We will attend Christmas Eve services and Christmas Day.  I’ll dress for my grandchildren as St. Nicholas, (the one that really lived and still lives with Jesus), this Weds. on the feast day of St. Nicholas and tell his story.  

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This will be a quiet Christmas at home. I played at our local historical society's museum for our annual Festival of Ice the first weekend of this month. I played Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday music. We will visit our daughter's family after Christmas and help them pack up the first floor of their home which will be renovated in January and February. We will attend our usual service of worship on December 24th in the morning and the evening Christmas Eve service. For the most part I'm avoiding crowds until after mid-January as I will have cataract surgery on December 14 and January 4.I don't want to catch a cold or the flue and have to reschedule.  I'll be at home most of the time playing dulcimer.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Thanks for the suggestion Strumelia. My family and I will celebrate Christmas from the perspective of the Biblical record, with praise and thanksgiving. We look forward to the Christmas fellowship at church and then the Christmas Eve candlelight service. It will be different this year as we lost my wife's dear sister passed due to cancer in September, so time will be spent to remember her.  We will share Christmas dinner with close family. Our daughter and her family will be with us for a day or two. There will be visits with family and neighbors. I will be making a homemade gift for my brother in law.  As of now I need to get started baking about 30 dozen cookies to share with many friends and some local businesses in the small town where I am. My list is growing so it may be more. I will play Christmas music most every day on the dulcimore.

Then as the Christmas Season passes into the New Year, we will continue to enjoy the birds which visit our 6 feeding stations daily. We also feed the wild deer, Canada geese, squirrels, an opossum we call Polly, a racoon we call Rocky,  and a few ducks that have taken up over the years. Some nights we listen to the call of the wild coyotes across the way.

In the Positive Thread... I'm just wondering what some of you are doing for the holiday season!  Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukka, Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa, or you just 'do cozy things'...  tell me what plans you have to make winter meaningful or enjoyable.
Are you looking forward to a family gathering or cooking a special meal?  Do you have a musical event planned or going to a cool concert?  Are you getting a new instrument to play?  Adopting a pet?  Reaching out to an estranged relative?  Traveling to a place far away?  Knitting some festive socks or making some other homemade gift?  Working a double shift so others can enjoy the holiday?  Having the neighbors over?  Honoring the memory of a loved one?  Setting up bird feeders for wildlife to enjoy?
Tell us how you add something positive to your December/January. ☃️ 🕯

Omg, this thread idea is amazing. I need positivety in my life! Hope everyone is having a fun safe Saturday! 

Best wishes to all at FOTMD.

Happy birthday, FOTMD!

Everybody is a mother and/or has a mother, so Happy Mother's Day, FOTMD!

Just saw this thread; what a great idea! In between playing dulcimer, if you have Apple TV, I can highly recommend Ted Lasso if you haven't seen it. Also, here is a photo of some happy chickens! 

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Those sound like positive developments and omens, Leo.
I was surprised to see a huge bald eagle flying over my village a few weeks ago. They sometimes hang out at the Hudson river which is near to us, but are seldom seen actually in our village. I saw one in a corn field here about 15 yrs ago while riding my bike. Snowy owls are equally majestic! I think i read there was one in NYC's Central Park last year.

I'm wishing positive new things for all FOTMD friends for this new year!

Well, Happy New Year to all!! 

I have to say, mine has had an auspicious start 'on steroids': Copies of my new album, 'Mixed Colors,' arrived 12/31 and on New Year's Day I saw the wonderful snowy owl, an arctic circle bird making the NYTimes etc for being in Southern California. Yes I am a birder too. AND, so over the top, I saw a rainbow on the way home from that. 

So, I'm either going to have a really good year, or I'm being set up by the fates for a big sucker punch! (Time will tell...)

I'm starting to put some of the tracks from the new album on YouTube, and am working on it 'streaming' and such. My YouTube channel is: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9OT1F765UQHoyaB2ChzxeQ  

I can also tell you there will be a '4-Equidistant Strings Dulcimer Day' on March 11 and 'read all about it': https://4-equidistant-dulcimer-day.simplerosites.com/     More information coming on all this.

Let's hope for another great year for mountain dulcimers!! 

Leo 

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Merry Christmas to all of our dulcimer friends.

Thankful for friends & family who survived Hurricane Ian whether they lost everything else, or nothing; thankful the dulcimer which has brought me so much joy over the years; and thankful for having been alive for nearly seventy-five years and having seen the changes, good and bad which have taken place around the world.

I'm thankful for a warm, well-lighted home to live in, family and friends, a meaningful job, the dulcimer that has brought joy and peace to thousands of folks worldwide, and like Richard, this Christmas season, I'm thankful for Christ stepping down from Heaven's splendor to be born as a baby, to show us God's love and the gift of salvation.

I am thankful for the Christ Whose birth we celebrate this time of year, for His love and peace and joy given to all who accept His gift of salvation and forgiveness of sins.

Things I am grateful for:

I am thankful for the many friends I have met through  the Friends of the Mt. Dulcimer website. They have sent me many touching messages of encouragement that I cherish.

 I am also thankful for the mountain dulcimer itself which produces such sweet, soothing music.

I am also thankful for family who take time to record my videos and encourage me to enter this larger world of sharing.

What a blessing to have found such a community that offers such peace, joy, and encouragement!

List 3-5 things you are grateful for right now. 🙌🏻  🎄  💕

You're correct John. I think it was in the $2,000 to 3,000 range, but I may not remember it all that well.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I don't remember this "Jeopardy!" episode, but I do recall the "Antiques Road Show" episode with the old Virginia dulcimore on it. The appraiser valued it way high, it seemed to me.

Good point, Dusty.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

The trick, Ken, is to record the show, memorize the answers, and then ask someone to watch it with you.  When you yell out all the answers they'll think you're so smart!

Haha, Dusty. I'm glad they repeat those old shows. Sometimes the second or third time through I can get the right question for the answer.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

If I'm only four or five months late, that's not bad.  I think of new music as anything played since the invention of the steam engine.

Jeopardy has been offering video and photo clues for years. That's nothing new. Also, this show is not new either. It was first broadcast in July of 2022.

Kwn

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Whaaaat?? I didn't think they showed picture clues on that show! Seems crazy.

As the question was asked, they showed a picture of a dulcimer, so the banjo answer was less informed than you might have thought.

That's actually pretty impressive!  Especially also considering that "mountain banjos" are actually a defined type of banjo.

On Jeopardy today:

Answer: The mountain this is the Kentucky state instrument.

Question: What is a dulcimer?

The first contestant to answer guessed a banjo, but the second one got it.

omg Dusty, too adorable! 

Do you love cats?  Do you love music?

Glad to see you active again. Looking forward to your participation.

I've been gone a long time.  Hoping to get back to trying to play again.