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Xmas cake

Seasonal delights: Frost and fruitcake

Here is all of the very most pressing seasonal news. I finished the epic task of baking a traditional, dark and fruity Christmas Cake on ‘Stir Up’ Sunday with an old friend who is luckily a much more experienced baker than I am. She put me right on several culinary details that averted small disasters. Who knew there were different ways of measuring dry and wet ingredients! I do now. The recipe is a special one, passed on to me by my dear friend Janet, who in turn received it from her Mother. Who knows how far back the recipe… Read More »Seasonal delights: Frost and fruitcake

Berries

Strawberry jam

Making strawberry jam is a ritual best performed in my mother’s kitchen: a sticky, steamy endeavour to preserve summer’s red treasure against winter’s white want. We have our moments of triumph. We embark on a quest to find fruit fresh from the field, and discover the perfect family-run berry farm in Huron County. They offer strawberries specifically suited to jam making; the berries that aren’t so pretty – irregularly shaped, ripened past their visual prime – imperfections which make them unsellable on grocery store shelves. But the taste of this smaller, uglier fruit is Ambrosia: its sultry flavour immortalizing the… Read More »Strawberry jam

work station

Nimrod, rabbit holes, and the King of the Saxons

Score study for a big work like The Apostles often leads me down research rabbit holes, and I end up in unexpected places. My workstation, as you see from the photo, includes the full score, the vocal score, Jaeger’s analysis, ‘Letters to Nimrod’ ed. Percy M. Young, the Holy Bible, and coffee. Google, YouTube and iTunes are also frequently consulted. My goal today was to study Elgar’s system of leitmotifs, which he uses to unify The Apostles but those serendipitous bunny tunnels lead from one discovery to the next, and I learned a bunch of cool stuff instead. Our performance… Read More »Nimrod, rabbit holes, and the King of the Saxons

tea cup

Tea with Milk

My friend is normally a rational, kind, reasonable sort of person. But there’s this tea thing. If you dare pour in the tea before you pour in the milk, you face a tirade of explosive accusations: ‘How could you possibly pour in the tea before pouring in the milk? How were you brought up!’ etc. Now, see, I’ve had plenty of embarrassing situations in my long life. I have forgotten names and called Bob ‘Jim’ and Sally ‘Marie.’ I have spoken audibly in sacred spaces, between ablutions and blessings. I have cheered when a goal is scored – against the… Read More »Tea with Milk

In memoriam Brian Bedford: The haymaking

Summer on the farm in my youth involved making hay. Lots and lots of hay. To city folks, that might sound delightful, pleasantly Arcadian, perhaps vaguely erotic, but I am telling you. It was plain hard work. The whole family pitched in, each with their appointed task; first cutting down the green, maiden grass, then raking and turning it toward the sun, transforming the upright crop into brittle filigree. Then binding it up with twine, forming it into square bales, transferring it to lofty red wagons, driving it steeply up to the mow, unloading the wagon-full onto an ‘elevator’ and… Read More »In memoriam Brian Bedford: The haymaking

Time

On New Year’s Eve

Stephanus:  Where do the old years go when they die? Is there a country for old years that have passed away? Are the new years waiting, cued up in the wings, waiting to hear their music and make their entrance? Maximus: Stephanus, really, I think you’ve had a bit too much of the Wassail bowl tonight. Look around. We’re the last ones left at this party. All the New Year’s revelers have gone home early to their beds! Stephanus: Nuh- no – no.  I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. They say time passes, that time can fly… Read More »On New Year’s Eve

Allan gardens

Allan Gardens

I had the great pleasure to experience a guided tour through the Allan Gardens Conservatory with my Pax Christi friends Emily and Jennifer. Our hosts Virginia, and Curtis the Foreperson of Plant Production, led us through this peaceful, indoor oasis. Right now Toronto’s “crystal palace” boasts a spectacular display of poinsettias and Christmas garlands. The soaring glass dome built in 1910 replaced the original garden pavilion built in the 19th century which was destroyed by fire. Filled with a permanent collection of tropical plants, the slightly humid atmosphere is a balm for dry lungs ravaged by dry and over heated… Read More »Allan Gardens

Christmas Cattle: A poem by Cori Martin

CHRISTMAS CATTLE by Cori Martin (2008) Could it be true, old Thomas Hardy’s tale: at midnight, Christmas Eve, the oxen kneel to Bethlehem? Our parents slept. We kept a vigil till the magic hour, then crept outside, across the glittering, frozen snow to see this vision promised long ago. And, Lo! Behold! There were the cattle in the moonlit barn, a huddled congregation mangered, softly lowing like singers choired in their stalls. Yet, I feel some cattle shared the doubts then sprouting in my childish thought. For some were kneeling there. And some were not. Cori Martin’s poem captures not… Read More »Christmas Cattle: A poem by Cori Martin

Tiny triumphs

To all my friends who are having a rough time, be comforted that you are not alone on your pilgrimage. Simply picking up and getting on with it can be the most difficult job of all, when seemingly insurmountable, daily difficulties present themselves as towering monsters of adversity. What to do when Goliath rises, fully armed and fierce, and we, only shepherds with the smallest of stones? Perhaps one way is to fully recognize our own tiny triumphs – to find a path through a whole jungle of challenges, focusing on each small step, one at a time. What I… Read More »Tiny triumphs

old city hall toronto

Voting high

I just voted in the advance poll for the Toronto municipal election 2014. You can’t see me, but I am jumping up and down just a bit. For some reason, I find the act of voting exhilarating, particularly voting in the advance poll, on the first day possible. But when I reflect upon this, I have to admit a certain character flaw – a certain predictable pattern. I also lined up with friends for the first screening of The Fellowship of the Ring in Toronto in December 2001, and all the subsequent films. I travelled to Birmingham, England to hear… Read More »Voting high