Snow came blowing and blustering into our area last Thursday, finally giving us a beautiful winter day that felt like real winter — crystal clear air, sun shining on the snow, the world a cleaner and better place.
I’m sure my nostalgia for winter relates to my childhood in Maine. Whenever it snowed, it was a magical time, and we couldn’t wait to be outside doing a myriad of things — making forts and tunneling, skiing, tobogganing, sledding, skating – all that lasted for months. Outside was the eternal playground.
We’re hoping this winter weather will last until this weekend for the Ice Festival. We hope the ice will sparkle but not melt and the air will be clear but not bone-chilling. We hope there will be crowds on the sidewalk, people checking out the stores, families coming into The Gathering Place to get warm, eat, take pictures, have their faces painted, enjoy a dance demonstration and a theater experience as well as musical entertainment. Let’s celebrate gathering together!
Inside The Gathering Place you’ll have a chance to find information about this semester’s schedule. Our brochure will be available, and a few of our instructors will be there to promote their classes.
Jill and Gehred Wetzel dance the West Coast Swing at 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Michaela Moore from All About Theater presents a performance of her theater troupe of actors with special needs at 1:30 p.m. Saturday and 12:30 to 3 p.m. Sunday.
Ky Betts will be there at 11:30 a.m. Saturday morning to do caricatures, and give you an idea of his drawing style prior to his cartooning class in April.
In the spring, Dennis Martin plans a noontime lecture at The Gathering Place based on the book “Clarks Summit: A Narrative, a History of the Abingtons,” which he will have on sale during the weekend.
Here are some other spring classes you should know about:
Our first cooking class will be March 16: Vegetarian Cuisine with Donna Vannan from Terra Preta. She will prepare a vegetable curry with coconut lemongrass basmati rice that was so popular at the Holiday Marketplace in Scranton. Due to numerous requests Donna will also share her family recipe for Pavlova. Don’t miss this one!
Other March cooking classes are Culinary Basics with Sarah McCully Thursday, March 23; and Lebanese Cooking with Sonia El Chazel Monday, March 27. As usual, all cooking classes will be held at First Presbyterian Church, Clarks Summit.
Colleen Ruddy’s Instrument Petting Zoo will happen from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, March 18 at The Gathering Place. Give yourself the chance to experience the joy of music when you touch, hear and play a cello, a violin, a bass, or an electric bass and decide which instrument may be your new best friend. Colleen will give classes in all these instruments for four Wednesdays, April 12-May 3.
Days of Our Lives is the name of Anne Armezzani’s class on journals and memoirs which will encourage writers of all experience to explore and write their untold stories. This class will meet four Thursdays, March 16-April 6. Join a company of sympathetic, nonjudgmental compatriots in composing at The Gathering Place at 6:30 p.m.
Once again, we are offering an elementary class in Spanish. Sarah Martin, an experienced teacher at the college level, will offer her expertise in this introduction to spoken and written Spanish for those with little or no experience starting. This class will meet two times a week for eight weeks starting in April and for only $60 per person. That’s a real bargain and I’m tempted to try my hand at Spanish again after several years. My daughters in-law are Spanish speaking and I’ve always wanted to be able to converse in their language as well as in my own. What better time than now?
In April we will offer Yoga with Eileen Harte at two different times and days and a class in Qi Gong and the Chinese Four Elements with Martha Wells at 6 p.m. on a Tuesday.
Finally, Kari Johnson teaches a beginners class in metalsmithing from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 5. Learn about the basic tools, metals and design concepts of this art, creating a copper pendant.
More classes to come! Check out the website www.gatheringplaceCS.org
