WhirledView

Menotti’s “The Last Savage” Revisited

By Patricia H. Kushlis

When I was Executive Director of the Hellenic American Union in Athens, Greece, I had the opportunity to arrange and moderate a talk in January 1984 – or actually a panel discussion –on opera that featured Gian Carlo Menotti, the composer himself, and his work.  I also attended a lunch in his honor shortly thereafter hosted by US Ambassador Monteagle Stearns and his wife Toni at the Ambassador’s Residence. 

Menotti was in Athens at the time directing an opera at the Εθνική Λυρική Σκηνή (the Greek National Opera).  He was just as engaging, charming and irreverent in person as was Wednesday night's performance of his 1963 work, "The Last Savage,” at The Santa Fe Opera.

When "The Last Savage" premiered at the Paris Opéra-Comique in 1963 and then at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1964 - it bombed:  despite its All Star Met cast.  The opera then lay dead and seemingly buried for years. The prolific Menotti continued to compose, write libretti for and direct many more works.  “The Last Savage” was resurrected in Honolulu in 1973 where, a decade later, it fared much better.  Then back to the drawer.  That the Santa Fe Opera included it in its current season is a tribute to General Director Charles MacKay who himself had worked on one of the productions, had known Menotti, and decided to give it another try.  (Photo left: Anna Christie as Kitty, Dan Okulitch as Abdul (in cage) and dancers. Photo by Ken Howard).

 In answer to the negative reviews in 1964 Menotti responded: “To say of a piece that it is harsh, dry, acid and unrelenting is to praise it. For better or for worse, in ‘The Last Savage’ I have dared to do away completely with fashionable dissonance, and in a modest way, I have endeavored to rediscover the nobility of gracefulness and the pleasure of sweetness.”

Well yes; and well no. 

“The Last Savage” is, for the most part wonderfully lyrical and melodic.  Its rhythms are complex and pleasing.   Atonality and dissonance are used sparingly but to great sardonic effect.  It’s not as if Menotti didn’t know how to use these twentieth century musical modalities – rather he – more than most other composers of his generation knew when to use them.  And like Bernstein, when not.

This hilarious story moves

The opera itself is in three acts and all told lasts nearly three hours but those hours fly by.  Two acts (I and III) are set somewhere in northern India where a local Maharajah and his hefty official wife – the Maharanee - reign. (The Maharajah has a total of 27 wives but the others are – he tells us - concubines.)  (Jennifer Zetlan as Sardula, Jamie Garton as the Maharanee, KEvin Burdette as Mr. Scattergood and Thomas Hammons as the Maharajah. photo by Ken Howard)

The second act takes place in the United States.  My research tells me that Menotti placed Act II in New York – but the Santa Fe Opera took liberties with the American setting and moved it –effectively – to CHICAGO (neon lights and all).  

A large banner carried by minimally clothed paper-cut-out-thin South Asian swamis clad only in stylized white turbans, loin-cloths and body tattoos whose very appearances - not to mention backbreaking “dancing” style - provided their own form of comic relief especially when they suddenly emerged as potted jungle plants later in the production. (CHICAGO and cast photo by Ken Howard)

But wait. . .  

As the first act opens, we find ourselves in Rajaputana – Menotti’s name for his mythical Indian setting. We are escorted there by the banner-carrying swamis.(Photo left: Maharajah and swamis, photo by Ken Howard)   Rajaputana is shortened to Raja in the final act.  Now this may mean nothing to most people (including critics and commentators I’ve read), but Menotti – who surely knew the meaning of the word “putana” in both Hindi and Italian – chose it carefully as a less than nice descriptor for this mythical kingdom near the Himalayas where Kitty, the blonde heroine, a Vassar anthropology major dressed - in the Santa Fe Opera production - in a pale pink cross between a safari outfit and a 1963’s pants suit had come to find "The Last Savage."A project for her senior thesis.

Kitty is accompanied in this questionable adventure by Mr. Scattergood, her indulgent wealthy, businessman father clad in gray suit and white pith helmet – who in his own day, we learn near the end, had had a secret youthful foreign adventure of his own. 

 (Photo left Anna Christie as Kitty and photo right Anna Christie as Kitty and Kevin Burdette as Mr. Scattergood by Ken Howard)

 

Educational credentials are worth a lot - just read the stats

By Patricia H. Kushlis

Why should anyone in this country even consider questioning the conventional wisdom about the value of higher education?  No I don’t mean education for the sake of knowledge – as high minded as that is – but the value of a college degree – or higher – in dollars and cents terms - simply for the sake of staying off the dole and, oh my gosh, making a wage that leads to a pleasant style of life.

Yet the suggestion – that a university degree is worthless for young people wishing to pursue any one of a variety of professions beyond apparently bricklayer - seems to be making the rounds of the so-called “advice” givers over the past several months.  I’ve seen it recommended for young people aspiring to enter the high tech community to – the latest - wanna-be musicians. 

Wrong, educational credentials are worth a lot - read the stats and think again

Please.  Let’s get it straight.  Extremely few people are likely to become the next Bill Gates – with or without a university degree for a myriad of reasons.  They are also equally unlikely to become the next Amy Winehouse - dead this week at the age of 27 in London.

Like it or not, educational credentials mean a lot in this country and abroad and anyone who tries to tell you otherwise should have his or her head examined.  Furthermore, anyone who claims that there is only one way (the most expensive) to a higher degree and therefore unattainable without going into hock for the rest of one’s life is likewise off-the-wall and out-to-lunch. 

The higher the degree, the larger the salary and smaller chance of being unemployed

In a July 24, 2011 article in the Sunday New York Times by Cecilia Capuzzi Simon, there’s a very simple graphic which demonstrates in colored ink the relative worth of various educational levels and degrees in terms of an individual’s annual median salary and employment potential using official 2010 data for Americans between the ages of 25 to 64.  The unmistakable bottom line:  the higher the degree, the larger the salary and the smaller chance of those who hold it being among the ranks of the unemployed. 

Only 2% of holders of doctorates, for instance, are unemployed. Only 1.8% of holders of professional degrees are unemployed and even the unemployment rate for those with only B.A.s is only 4.9%.  In comparison, the overall US unemployment rate in 2010 was 9.2%.  So where are the unemployed in terms of educational attainment?  At the bottom of the educational heap.  Americans with only high school diplomas have an unemployment rate of 9.6% and high school dropouts have a whopping 14.2% unemployment rate.  These numbers alone speak volumes.

Time for a new plan

By John C. Dyer, UK Correspondent

The United States today contemplates default on its debts. 

This potential default has been brought about by a game of chicken between Republicans and Democrats over raising the statutory national debt ceiling.  Republicans in particular refuse to support raising the  debt ceiling" unless the Obama Administration agrees to an approach closer to the European Plan than the Administration has been prepared to accept and despite the fact that the US Congress raised the debt ceiling eight times while George W. Bush was president. As Republicans insist upon this, darkness gathers in those European states that have adopted that Plan.

As Republicans urge austerity measures in the US, evidence mounts that austerity is failing Europe.

For a fortnight all other stories temporarily slipped beneath the waves of the UK phone hacking scandal:  Including the news that the US economy has stalled despite quantitative easing.

Meanwhile, Moody has downgraded Portuguese bonds to junk status despite Portugal's new bailout and adoption of even tougher “austerity” measures.  In the UK, both Vince Cable, the business secretary and Kenneth Clark, the Justice Secretary warned 24 July that economic figures to be released the next week will continue the persistent flat line of over nine months duration despite the UK's voluntary adoption of an “austerity programme” of public service cuts, asset sell off, and privatization.

Clark warned to expect a four to five year recovery.  The Independent Centre for Fiscal studies used the "d" word 10 July 2010. These other stories resurfaced 21 July as the Eurozone partners considered what to do about the failed Greek bailout amid shrill warnings of disaster. 

They are only the latest evidence that the West's Plan "A" is not working, but it may be destabilizing Europe.

Spreading Instability threatens the Eurozone

On 29 June 2011, the streets of Athens swirled with thousands of people of every political stripe angry about the austerity package required in exchange for a new European bailout package.  They hoped to derail the package, but the Greek Parliament calmly debated and accepted it.   Some protestors were anarchists. Some were communists.  Many were neither. They were people of every political stripe and not confined to the poor.  Commentators suggested the middle class organized the protests, fed up with austerity.  It appears some in the middle class had concluded they would be best served by Greece declaring bankruptcy and going it alone, independent of the Euro.  

In France and Germany Eurozone leadership spun the Greek implosion as the product of the Greeks' own spendthrift ways.  Polls in France and Germany showed the public unwilling to bail out the spendthrifts any longer. But by 21 July the leaders of Germany and France were actively promoting a "selective" Greek default amid shrill calls from the banking sector to "do something.”  Why the change?  German, French, and indeed UK banks stand to lose. The "contagion" of an unresolved loss of confidence in the Euro threatened the very continuation of the Eurozone, from which Germany and France in particular have greatly benefited. 

Annals of Democracy, in India: She Won the Election; How’s She Doing?

By Patricia Lee Sharpe

For some reason or another, India seldom gets credit for doing anything right or even half right.   No other “developing” country seems to suffer from the curse of such high expectations.  Imagine the chorus of negativity if the same standards were applied to China.

India was expected to fall apart shortly after Independence.  That didn’t happen.  Modern India began as a democracy and has remained a democracy, despite a short spell of authoritarianism under Indira Gandhi, who was thrown out, by popular demand, via the ballot box.  For six decades, in fact, India has achieved peaceful transfers of power through elections considered remarkably honest.  Where else, with the exception of North America, Europe, Japan and Israel has any democracy endured more than a few years, and under the same Constitution, at that?

A Newbie Wins

Speaking of peaceful transfers of power, just last fall an upstart party by the name of the Trinamul Congress managed to terminate the three decade-long rule of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in West Bengal.  It was a fiercely contested campaign in which four parties vied for control of  the State Assembly: Trinamul, CPI(M), the Indian National Congress and the Bhartiya Janata Party.  When the votes were counted, the results were accepted by all concerned, and Mamata Banerjee, the founder of the Trinamul, became Chief Minister. 

In this world of greedy entrenched elites, Mamata’s triumph underscores another characteristic of Indian democracy.  Although India has its share of political dynasties, people with no birthright political entitlement may rise to the top, sometimes from the lowest socio-economic echelons, as in the case of Mayawati, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.  What’s more, as these examples prove, there’s room at the top for ambitious women who make it on their own.

The Political Game

At any rate, having chronicled the election of Mamata two months ago, I thought it might be interesting to see what she’s done with her power. 

Still a Man’s World? Foggy Bottom’s Bohemian Grove

By Patricia H. Kushlis

Why should anyone be surprised that men still rule the upper reaches of the US foreign policy roost – as they have since the beginning of the Republic - and that the State Department is as sexist as the rest? That only the Pentagon is worse.   This according to Micah Zenko in his recent FP article entitled “City of Men.”  See also his August 8 follow-up post at the Council on Foreign Relations.

As a Foreign Service Officer with the US Information Agency from 1970-1998, before that a PHD student in political science at Syracuse’s Maxwell School and  an adjunct professor of political science at the University of New Mexico (1999-2005), I have had my own experiences as a  professional in that very man’s world.  There were men who went out of their way to help my Foreign Service career along and others who worked just as hard to thwart or undermine it.

Rather than bewail what might, or might not have been, however, I thought it might be fun, and perhaps even instructive, to compare the few State Department statistics Zenko included in his article with the situation when I was a career FSO trying to scale Jacob’s ladder.

“Wanted: Qualified White Males?” Oh, really?

In “City of Men,” Zenko quotes John Robinson, the State Department’s chief diversity officer, as having written that “twenty-two percent of senior leaders at the Department of State are women.” Zenko does not tell his readers, however, that the title of Robinson’s article is “Wanted: Qualified White Males.” This column appeared in the May 2010 State Department Magazine and its title alone speaks volumes about the Department’s attitude towards its female employees – a troubling attitude Zenko identified in his article.

Furthermore, according to Zenko, of the 171 chiefs of mission at U.S. Embassies today, 50 are women (29 percent).   This data is from the State Department’s website so it should be current.   

How does the situation described by Zenko compare with years past?  How problematic was gender equality in the Foreign Service and at State 15 or more years ago? And why has the State Department been so reticent to publish gender-related data in recent years? Or maybe it has and I just missed it. If so please let me know (Kushlis@gmail.com) and include the links.   

My husband receives a copy of State Magazine, the publication in which Robinson’s article appeared. The paucity of gender based promotion data in the magazine over the past decade has been palpable – especially once color photos and tabloid sized headlines predominated over text. I too received the magazine for a short time – but my name seems to have been stricken from the recipient list several years ago no explanations given.  Nevertheless, both of us were career officers with equally long service records and I think should be being treated equally in retirement.  Yes, even by the magazine. Dream on. 

Maybe, however, this small slight also helps to put into perspective State’s recalcitrant attitude in addressing its gaping endemic gender inequality problem especially within the Department but also in public. Meanwhile, former (especially married) female employees are apparently still considered appendages regardless of their own career achievements or longevity in the service.

Whatever happened to trickle up?

But what startles me the most is that after all these years – I left the Foreign Service 13 years ago – the percentages of women at the highest levels of the Foreign Service and at State have not increased as much as I expected they would have during those intervening years particularly given the percentages of women at the two grades beneath the top - waiting in the wings.  In 1994, for instance, 32.8 percent of FSO-1s and 38.9 percent of FSO-2s in USIA were women.  That was 17 years ago.  Whatever happened to the trickle up that was supposed to happen?  

A. Q. Khan’s Revenge: A Solution to a Pakistani Puzzle?

By Patricia Lee Sharpe

Remember the yellow cake forgery that was used by the Bush Administration to support the contention that Saddam Hussain was actively engaged in WMD development which, in turn, was used to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq?  This oh-so-convenient smoking gun letter turned out to have U.S. fingerprints all over it.

Now another very interesting letter has surfaced, and it’s not surprising that some Pakistanis and others are floating claims that it was produced by U.S. intelligence services.  Thus, memories of dirty tricks past taint everything that comes after. 

Is It or Isn't It?

Like others cited in this excellent WaPost article which reproduces the letter, I cannot pretend to know beyond a doubt whether this letter that purports to come from North Korean sources is authentic or not  Some people have dismissed it for being written on plain paper, not on official stationary with a recognizable letterhead.  Others have said that the plain paper tactic is well known as the preferred way for North Korean officials to communicate re sensitive issues and on this one they find the signature convincing.  I might point out that the yellow cake forgery included the feigning of an appropriate letterhead. 

Others have said the Khan letter is worth paying attention to because it appears to support rumors or allegations that have been circulating in clandestine circles for some time—rumors about high level Pakistani army involvement in the shopping around  ofnuclear designs and equipment.  The weakness of this argument as “proof” one way or another need not be elaborated, but it predisposes one to more serious consideration of the letter. 

I’m more interested in the arguments of those who try to dismiss the letter by saying it’s been put in circulation only because A. Q. Khan is having another hissy fit over the way he’s been treated. As well he might, it seems to me.  Nothing about the Pakistan government’s handling of the A. Q Khan affair has ever made much sense.  The notion  of “revenge” for selective punishment crops up here, and how natural and appropriate that would be. Khan has always seemed like a scapegoat to me, not an innocent by any means, but a plausible morsel provided with a gilded cage to keep him comfortably alive—and quiet.

A Call to Investigate News Corp Practices in America, an American Problem of Uncharted Scope

By John C. Dyer, UK Correspondent

It has been days since I raised the question, how did The NY Post obtain all that information about the complaining victim/witness in the Strauss Kahn criminal case. The Post itself describes the sources as anonymous, unattributed, or close to the prosecution.

A Post spokeswoman, commenting for The Post on a libel suit brought by the victim/witness, said that The Post stands by its story. Neither The Post’s description of its sources nor the spokeswoman’s comment clarify how The Post induced such a potential breach of professional ethics. That how is the question.

In the intervening days Attorney General Eric Holder announced an investigation into allegations News Corp hacked the phones of 911 victims.  The emphasis on the allegations pertaining to the 911 victims is understandable.  911 is a major American trauma. 

But the source of The Post's allegations concerning Strauss Kahn’s accuser, and indeed, general practices of News Corp, beg investigation.  In a recent article, Adweek alleges that The Post and Fox News routinely engage in practices at best described as sleazy. 

The alleged sources, anonymous Post reporters, assert that the conduct of The Post and Fox is sleazy but not criminal.  But so did Rebekah Brooks and Neil Wallis. 

One might argue that they are isolated cases and/or there was a legitimate public purpose in exposing Strauss Kahn’s accuser.  But so did the police in the initial Scotland Yard investigation of the News of the World’s phone hacking.   Scotland Yard arrested Rebekah Brooks the morning of 17 July.   Brooks and Les Hinton, Dow Jones' now former CEO, were not just any old rogue reporters.  They both oversaw News of the World and were intimates of Rupert and James Murdoch.  What are the chances they do not reflect the organization generally, including in the US and Australia?

In fact, it took years of persistence by The Guardian and the victims to unlock the serious investigation that has turned up so many OMG revelations and rocked Murdoch world this past 10 days.   In those cases the trigger for the victims' alarm did not come with a label, “hello, look at me, I’m a crook.”   The trigger was the presence in the article of information that could only have come from private or confidential sources not disclosed to have consented to the release.

A cynic might argue that the Adweek article was a plant by Post reporters seeking to head off investigation by disclosing some sleaze to lend credibility to an assertion that The Post and Fox had not engaged in criminal conduct.  I don’t know.  I don’t know if The Post or Fox actually did engage in criminal conduct. These are all allegations.

Innocent until proven guilty. Etc.  But as the adage goes, where there is smoke ....

The smoke requires clearing. Only an independent investigation from a credible agency will do the trick.  I nominate the FBI.

 

 

In search of memories in Somerset

By John C. Dyer, UK correspondent

Part 1.   Wells and Glastonbury

I used to understand the Liverpool accent.   That was 1987. Today it is "Scouse."  Sounds like a cross between Norse and Welsh.  But not English.   A year later, I still scratch my head trying to listen and understand.   Local idioms are among the most fascinating aspects of the adventure saga into which I have made the last "age" of my life.   Then there is the Lancashire "Are you OK?"  Asked with such a concerned expression one is dead sure that, undisclosed by telltale pain or weariness, there is a great fissure working its way down one's now ashen face.  It just means, "Hi, how are you?"  Not to worry. (Photo Farmscape right by JCDyer, summer 2011)

In between acclimating myself to my new world of fascinating North West UK smells, sounds, idioms, I have managed a trip or two, like my recent one to Edinburgh.

Another is a trip to Somerset I will share in three installments, Wells and Glastonbury, Bath, and Bristol.

We chose Bath Travel Lodge as “base camp” for our Somerset trip, preparing to take in Bath, Wells, Glastonbury, and Bristol. Each held significance for us. My partner grew up not far to the south of Wells in Dorset.  She began teaching in Bristol. Her daughter was born there.  For me, it was a major site in the legends of my childhood hero, Arthur, and potentially the home of my Dyer ancestors. 

It also has great hand crafted wedding bands, definitely field for the two intrepid partners.

The morning of the first full day, my partner drove the 22 miles from Bath to Wells through the “warm apple pie and mulled cider” farmscape of Somerset’s Mendip Hills. Glastonbury Tor floated in the distance like a green island on a dark blue green lake. Glastonbury was indeed an island in a marshy lake into historic times.  As befits one of the most legendary mystic sites recorded in the English language, it evokes Wagner and Mussorgsky in one breath.   

Wells

Some sights stay with you, sometimes because magnificent, sometimes because atmospheric, sometimes because of associations, sometimes for very personal reasons.  Wells Cathedral ticks all these boxes for me.  Although the town of Wells itself was always relatively small, still little over 10,000 in 2001, Wells Cathedral was once the administrative center for one of the United Kingdom’s most influential and important Bishops, the Bishop of Wells.   The King of Wessex constructed a church on this site in 705 A.D.  Construction on the current cathedral began in the 10th century, but began in earnest in or around 1175 AD. It was completed in 1239 AD.  A 1,000 year old font remains from the Saxon era .  (Photo right by JC Dyer summer 2011)

The Cathedral’s massive exterior is breath taking enough as it is today.  But consider its details and the statues which line its exterior walls (Photo left detail, Well Cathedral by JC Dyer summer 2011) were once brightly painted, visible at great distances in the medieval landscape.    Something of the colour scheme can be glimpsed from its currently painted interior It is magnificent, graceful, and intimate all at the same time. Wells is sometimes called the poem among England's Cathedrals.  

(Photos of Wells Cathedral by JC Dyer summer 2011)

But there were more personal reasons for me.  What is it about in old age some of us become endlessly fascinated by our genealogies? Famously leading to that noble or famous forebear, perhaps a King.   My inquiries, which have included genetic testing, have brought me to redefine the question, but a part always seems to be the line of our fathers and of our mothers. Perhaps it is motivated by the same impulses behind ancestor worship.  

That was the inquiry that brought me to Wells Cathedral.  The earliest record of a Dyer to whom I can prove some sort of a connection is found in the records of this Cathedral, a Henry Dyer appointed in 1329 to a Benefice by the then Bishop of Wells during his first year as Bishop.   The Bishop involved was Bishop Ralph of Salpino (Shrewsbury).  Not long into my visit to the Cathedral I found his burial (Photo right above, Bishop Ralph’s burial by JC Dyer summer 2011).    Another to whom I have some proven relationship administered the Chartulary in the last quarter of the 15th Century.  As I stood on the steps leading to the administrative complex high in the Cathedral I wondered that I stood where another John Dyer had daily hiked to work in the 15th century.  (Photo right above: Steps leading to the Administrative complex, Photo left above:  Wells Administrative Meeting Room by JC Dyer, summer 2011). 

Outside the Cathedral lies the Bishop's Palace (Photos far left by JC Dyer, summer 2011), which can be viewed from the Cathedral's lovely tea room (Photo near right by JC Dyer summer 2011).

    Also outside lies the Music School, the student housing so charming I drifted into imagining student life (Photo far left by JC Dyer summer 2011), interrupted by a street musician playing a Mandolin (Photo near left by JC Dyer summer 2011). 

I could go on endlessly about Wells, the Bishop’s Palace, the Wells Music School, its ancient history.   It is a remarkable place to visit.  I can see myself living there.  But a day is short.  It was time to boogie on down the road to Glastonbury.

Glastonbury:  the Legendary Avalon

Glastonbury is, as I am sure every reader knows, world famous for its music festival, its ruins, and its associations with Arthur.   Glastonbury is the legendary Avalon, site of Arthur's burial.  A medieval story has monks at the Abbey digging up the remains of Arthur and his Queen.  Of course, you will get a fist fight from a Cornishman over wrongly locating Arthur outside of Cornwall.  Every good Cornishman knows Tintagel is at least Arthur's "Keliwick" and lies above the Camel estuary where there is absolutely no doubt the ruins of Camelot will one day be found. No doubt. Shhhhh. (Photo left by JC Dyer summer 2o11)

 When is a rose, not a rose? When it's a Hawthorne

A possibly older legend, also in part involving Cornwall, is a little less widely known outside the UK.  It concerns Joseph of Arimithea. Joseph of Arimithea, so the story goes, came as a missionary to Britain after the Crucifixion, landing on the Fowey River in Cornwall. There may be more to this legend than meets the eye. The non-canonical literature lists Joseph as a tin merchant.  Cornwall was an ancient center of tin mining.  Joseph legendarily founded a Christian order at Glastonbury. 

At the ancient mystic Tor, Joseph allegedly transplanted a “rose” brought with him from Jerusalem.   The rose turns out to be a Hawthorne and not originally planted at the Abbey. Also consistent with modern research that suggests the crown of thorns may well have been made of a plant like Hawthorne.  The bush originally identified as Joseph's was not in fact planted on Glastonbury Tor. The current bush is a descendant of one transplanted from a nearby hill.  This bush (or perhaps more accurately its descendent) remains.  

 Britain’s Mt. Shasta?

As rich as is the history and the legends that surround Glastonbury, that is not the first impression I had as we arrived.   My first impression?   The Mount Shasta of Britain, a centre for fans of New Age culture.   (Photos left  Glastonbury store and street bagpiper by JC Dyer summer 2011).  Colourful people everywhere.  Photos right, Glastonbury Street scenes by JC Dyer summer 2011)

 First Impressions are everything, they say.  Both very English and not at all English all at the same time.

  By the time we hit the ruins, we were bushed - seeking comfort in hugging Joseph’s rose (Photo left: the author Hugging "the Rose").  We could only tour the ruins of the Abby, observing other visitors. We had to settle for seeing the Tor through the camera (Photos Glastonbury Tor, Victoria "bushed." Ruins/Visitors by JC Dyer summer 20011) rather than hiking to the top, while drinking tea from the Abbey Tea Shack (Photo right by JC Dyer summer 2011).   

After small "t" tea failed to up the energy, we bagged further exploration and schlepped down the road for evening “Tea” at Wagamams of Bath (Photo right by JC Dyer, summer 2011).   For the uninitiated, capital "T" Tea in the UK is the evening meal.  Note to Self:  in the future, reserve at least a day each for Wells and Glastonbury.  They are worth it. 

Evenings in Bath are gorgeous.  The sun moves across the local "Bath Stone" of which so many are made, etching them in shadow while turning them golden.  (See Bathstone photos right by JC Dyer summer 2011)  Particularly pretty was the Covered Bridge (Photo below left by JC Dyer summer 2011).

The entrance to the ruins of the Roman Bath beckoned, but that was for another day   Even the trees whispered of adventure, mysticism, playful light yet to come. (Photo left center of Roman Bath entrance and "Whispering Trees" right by JC Dyer summer 2011).

Next up:   On to Bath and Bristol.