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My View of Life on the Dock
Gloucester Community Quilts at the Cape Ann Museum
By Deborah Simmerman
Recently I took the train up to Gloucester to see the Gloucester community quilts at the Cape Ann Museum. I love the Cape Ann Museum, which so beautifully evokes the special qualities of Cape Ann, my home from 1975 to 1985 and a place I will always love deeply. The amazing Cape Ann light is the first thing I notice whenever I go back, and as soon as I got off the train, I was struck by it once again.
At the museum I had the light-filled second floor gallery all to myself as I encountered the stunning exhibition of quilts representing Gloucester’s very diverse neighborhoods, made by seniors at the Rose Baker Senior Center in Gloucester. I am lost in admiration for Juni Van Dyke, the Art Director at the senior center who led this project over the past nine years. She must be the most amazing art educator. Under her direction, these women in their later years, and a few men I gather, have created something of lasting value, thirteen quilts about their neighborhoods, which have now been donated and accepted into the permanent collection of the Cape Ann Museum. I can imagine the enormous satisfaction they must feel for having been part of the years-long effort of this collaborative creative process and now seeing the fruits of their labor of love in the museum.
Top photo courtesy the Cape Ann Museum


More Cape Ann Community News-
http://www.capeanncommunity.com

You are invited to submit photographs for the 2016 “Where Is It?” exhibition in the Matz Gallery at the Sawyer Free Library. this exhibition is about places in Gloucester that are not hard to find – just sometimes overlooked! All photos must be visible from public roadways or walkways. To enter, send up to 3 photographs in JPEG format to: cpark@pobox.com Please put Gloucester Exhibit on the subject line of your email. The deadline for submission is April 25. Applicants will be notified by May 10 if their work has been selected. The photographs will be exhibited in the Matz Gallery during the month of June.


Saturday at Virgilios and the shop is packed!

Virgilios beautiful cookie selection for your Easter table ~ Nanci Lee Virgilio Photo
The Easter Egg Basket Cookies are going fast!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BDbDZvrjyu3/
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Nanci Lee Virgilio Photo
Shop Bananas!
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Many thanks to AnnMarie! The meter maid was hot on my heels and Banana’s AnnMarie came to the rescue with a dollar of change. Love our Main Street shop keepers!
It seems like everyone I know is painting this spring and apparently the “in” color is grey. Grey seems like such an simple color to pick out right? Well it’s considerably harder than anticipated. I personally was looking for a grey that would be kind of warm and in my travels I’ve been told that what I’m looking for is a “greige”…yup that’s a word. It means a grey/beige a grey with warm tones. Last week my neighbor had this same conversation on Facebook except she was looking for a grey with blue tones. This all started because we bought a TV. Yes, we bought a TV and had to buy a new console for it, which lead to a new leather sectional, then the coffee table and now the painting of the whole first floor cause we can’t just paint the living room, we have an open concept, so we have to paint the dining room, kitchen and hallway…oh and we might as well go up the stairs and paint that hallway. My suggestion is…don’t by a TV! Anyway I have my paint samples in hand (from Ben’s Wallpaper & Paint cause we need to shop local when we can!) and the grey decision making has begun.  I also have to pick out a white for my trim….and I thought grey was tough, yikes!
Hello,
My name is Joshua Lane and I am the president of the Salem State Rugby Football Club. In the past few months we have made great strides towards our goal of playing at the Division 3 National Championship, and the time has finally come. We currently are qualified after winning the East Coast Championship on December 5th to play in the Championship game on April 23rd and 24th in Pittsburg, Pa. We have 3 athletes and starters on the team from Gloucester including myself. One of these athletes was a star athlete at GHS and continued his career as an outstanding 4 year starter and captain here at SSU, Kyle Lucido. We currently have a fundraising goal of $6,000 and only have 24 days left to raise this money. I am reaching out to you today for three reasons: To share with you what some local student-athletes have been doing after GHS, to ask for your help in promoting this page to the community and people who support athletics in Gloucester and to ask for financial support as we go forward with this amazing opportunity for the Gloucester athletes, and the other 29 students on the team. I have included a link for our crowd funder page we have set up, all donations are tax deductible and support in any way will greatly benefit us. Any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated and I would like to thank you for your time today.
https://crowdfunding.salemstate.edu/project/1686
Joshua Lane
Salem State Rugby Club President
More Cape Ann Dining News –
http://www.capeannwellness.com
Want to join a fun, energetic crew?
Latitude 43 is looking for hosts, servers, bartenders, cooks (sauté, fry & sushi) and dishwashers.
If you’re interested, please email: jennifer@serenitee.com


Always a great time: Please follow the link below
I love stopping and shopping at Alexandra’s Bread because of these two! As everyone in the community knows, their bread, scones, and cookies are beyond delicious, but it is Jon and Alexandra’s friendly smiles and congenial chatting that always make the trip a joy.
Happy Easter! Happy Spring!
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Children’s aprons
I have a thing for aprons, and Alexandra has the best!
These two Orange Beak Geese do not seem too happy about the spring snow.

The grooming must go on


With His Stripes We Are Healed (22×28 mixed media)
The physical death of Jesus was a horrific thing. The physical abuse and pain of the beatings and scourging He received, the scorn and suffering of death by suffocation on the cross is impossible to imagine. However, His physical death was not the worst that has ever been suffered by a man. What Jesus suffered, and willingly sacrificed for our sakes, was going through physical death (which He could have chosen to walk away from at any point), but so much more — separation from God. Being part of God come into flesh to walk among us and show us the way, He who was without sin took upon Himself all the sins of mankind. At that moment (when He said: “Father, why have thou forsaken me?”), He had become the thing that God cannot abide, so God had to turn away – He became separated from Himself and became selfless, so that we might be redeemed. He became the ultimate perfect sacrifice for us. Then he said: “It is finished.” He had completed his purpose in coming here. God’s perfect plan had been put into place.
His tear is not from physical pain or His own suffering, it is for us. It is that tear of love and compassion so great that it makes you cry, multiplied billions of times.
Isaiah 53:1-7
“Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
For He grew up before Him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He had no form or comeliness that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. ”
This scripture is the only place in the Bible where Jesus is physically described. Throughout time, artists who know and love God, have generally painted Jesus as this strikingly beautiful man, because through love’s eyes, that is how they see Him, just as anyone who is in love sees their beloved as beautiful. In fact he was just an average looking Jew, with no imposing physique or physical beauty that would make people want to follow him. They followed Him because of who He was, just as people do today.
I found it interesting that my assigned post time is 3:00pm, scripturally called the 9th hour, the exact time that Jesus is said to have uttered His final words and died, and so most appropriate for this post on Good Friday.
E.J. Lefavour