Abingdon Episcopal Church

Last Friday, the Chesapeake Bay Children and I attended a school concert at Abingdon Episcopal Church in neighboring Gloucester County.

The church itself dates back to the 1600s but this structure was built in 1755. (She says, as if she's any sort of authority. She did, however, read these dates in a book, so provided she didn't transpose the numbers--which is highly likely--she presumes they're in a close proximity of accuracy, give or take a few centuries. Either way, that's a long time ago.)

Abingdon looks almost identical to Ware Episcopal, which dates back to approximately the same period and is the sight of another school concert the Chesapeake Bay Children and I attended.

Click here to read about that episode which basically assures my Mother of the Year Award, due to arrive in the mail any day now complete with an apology letter for taking so long.

At Friday's Abingdon concert, CB Daughter and I sat in the audience while CB Son played in the hand bell choir.

It was a long performance, especially since the choir sang four thousand songs, and the hand bells (the only reason we were there) were featured only two or one three times.

Wanting to get as far away as possible from other people to distance ourselves from the throngs of spectators and gain a better view of the hand bells, Chesapeake Bay Daughter and I sat up in the balcony like birds watching everyone else down below.

The perch gave us a unique perspective, and as luck would have it I had my camera with me.

Although the interior is beautiful, the particular photos from our balcony perch turned out rather boring except for the two below which I took by zooming in close to a window behind the pulpit.

I did this while Chesapeake Bay Son was probably doing something very important, like trying to ignore the fact that his mother was in the balcony taking pictures of windows and other things completely unrelated to the concert, as he struggled to concentrate on his music.

But he's used to that. Poor guy.

The late morning sunlight shining through the windows was exquisite. And while everyone else turned their attention to the bulletin to see how many more songs before this was over the adorable children singing and the older ones playing music, Chesapeake Bay Woman kept looking at the window in the background with laser-beam focus.

(Did you know that laser-beam focus and Chesapeake Bay Woman are antonyms except when it comes to photography and then they become Siamese twins? Also yes those are tombstones in the yard outside, probably dating back to who-knows-which-century.)

The shot above is my favorite.

Chesapeake Bay Son played a wonderful cow bell set of hand bells and later went on to play one very impressive game of lacrosse, during which his mother (who does not know the rules of the game other than it's legal to hit, clobber, push and shove and why wasn't this game available to her as a kid--and can 45-year-old women play?), hollered to her son who plays the last line of defense before the goal, "WHACK HIM!"

The spectators on either side of her laughed.

She was the only one hollering. Evidently lacrosse is a very solemn, dignified game, much like being in the sanctuary of a historic church.

What did you do this weekend?