Easter Sunday

Tags

Chocolate, Easter, lunch, PEI, Roast Lamb, tulips

Well I went out early today, well early for me, 10am to do all the shopping for tomorrow because everything will be closed for the Holiday.  The stores were full and so was the Farmer’s Market but it all went well. Will cleaned around the house and the weather was lovely and warm, really Spring now.

Got the table set for lunch tomorrow, we will have a few guests in for Easter Lunch on the menu roasted Leg of Lamb, two veg, roasted potatoes with rosemary to start we will have puff pastry with asparagus. The dessert is fresh orange slices with a syrup of honey and cinnamon.  The tulips are from Vanco just down the road out of Charlottetown. Yellow, red and purple bunches.

Tomorrow the weather calls for rain in the afternoon, will see. Got some good European chocolates, not a lot just enough to say we have some. I know some parents who have been feeding their kids chocolates all week with the result that the kids are now bouncing off the walls on a sugar high.

Here is the Easter photo of Will with Nora and Nicky.

Notice Nora sniffing at the Espresso, if left unattended she will put her nose in the coffee and drink it, must be the milk and sugar she likes. Nick just lounges.

A few mornings ago,  the weather was foggy at sunrise and the air had a lot of humidity in it, it created an icy fog on the trees which only lasted as long as it takes the Sun to rise and warm up the air.

I hope you all have a fine day and enjoy yourself.

 

Easter Week

Tags

Abbasid, books, Calif, Creswell, Easter, El-Solh, Fatimid, Ibn Tulun, Islamic architecture, King Hussein, Mosque

The week has started with a decidedly Spring like atmosphere, sunny, the snow is going fast what little there is left of it, the river is ice free and the breeze is gentle again. It is March break so the city is quiet, people are away. As I clean the book shelves I am rediscovering books I had forgotten about. I read them some time ago and they have been sitting on the shelf since, we also have a lot of brochures and maps of places we visited. Some books are scholarly, some where written many decades ago, I have a few rescued from the Embassy of Canada Library in Baghdad, Iraq. The Chancery was closed a long time ago and our embassies do not have libraries anymore. The books either given away or thrown away in a clean up effort.

One book is entitled, A short account of Early Muslim Architecture by Professor Sir K.A.C. Creswell, C.B.E. (1879-1974) and published by Librairie du Liban. He went to the Levant in 1916 with the Royal Flying Corps and took an interest in Islamic architecture in what is today Syria, then British occupied territories after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, he was then transferred to Palestine. He conceived a project for a book on Muslim architecture of Egypt and King Fouad was his patron. He was appointed professor to the University of Egypt, later he became the chair of Muslim Architecture at the American University in Cairo. The book jacket has an old aerial picture probably 1920 of the Ibn Tulun Mosque in Cairo built in 876 by Ahmad Ibn Tulun, Governor of Egypt of the Abbasid Calif, it is one of my very favourite for its Samarran style architecture, quiet, austere.

Aerial view of Ibn Tulun in old Cairo.

The book is very interesting, Creswell gives a lot of details on who the architects were and the style Abbasid or Fatimid, the two great dynasties of early Islamic era, the masonry work, the plans and decorations all of it in geometric forms which the Arabs developed into an art form since the Third Commandment forbids making graven images of God (Allah) Exodus 20:4-6  Cairo has many great Mosques with intricate architecture, these Mosque were built before the era of the great Cathedrals of Europe, so it gives you an idea of their age.

Creswell belongs to that era of the erudite scholar who gave the English speaking world an introduction to various subjects, all part of the Imperial project, the French, the Germans will do the same in their respective empires.

The other book titled Uneasy lies the head by King Hussein of Jordan (1935-1999) an autobiography published by Bernard Geis Associates in 1962, this book was written when His Majesty was still young and was distributed in the case of the copy I have by the Hashemite Kingdom’s Ambassador to the UN, Abdul Monem Rifai. The book has two invitation carton glued, one to a reception at the UN and the other to another reception given by the Commissioner General of the Jordanian Pavilion to the World’s Fair in New York, May 1964. I do not know who those two cartons were intended for.

King Hussein starts by telling us about his grandfather King Abdullah I Prince of the Hejaz, King of Jordan and Protector of the Noble Sanctuary (1882-1951) who was assassinated in Jerusalem on his way to prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque a 35-acre compound referred to as al-Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, it is also known as the Temple Mount by Jews. The compound lies in the Old City of Jerusalem, which has been designated a World Heritage site by the United Nations cultural agency, UNESCO, and is important to the three Abrahamic religions. Hussein was next to his grandfather when the assassin hit. He was saved because the bullet hit one of his medals and ricochet. Just a few days prior in Amman, Riad El-Solh the first Prime minister of Lebanon after independence was assassinated. Many decades later I worked with his grand son Abdel Mawla El-Solh in Cairo and Khartoum at the UNHCR.

At the time of writing of the book Hussein was married to Toni (Muna) Gardiner of Ipswich, UK. They met on the set of Lawrence of Arabia in 1961 where she worked as a secretary and the King was visiting, his own soldiers were extras in the movie. In 1996 at the Saint Andrew’s Ball in Amman, I danced with her, she is a very nice lady.

In his book there is a photo of his young son Abdullah as a baby, Princess Muna and King Hussein had 4 children, he writes my son and heir, however when Abdullah was born in 1962 because of the difficult situation in the Middle-East the consensus in the family was for Hussein’s brother Hassan to be named Crown Prince, a role he will play until a month before King Hussein’s death in 1999, when suddenly Abdullah will be named Crown Prince by his father.

The King also writes about the numerous plots against him throughout the years, by the President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser and the President of Syria Hafez Al-Assad, the father of the current President, of the horrible murder of his relatives in Iraq in a coup, his cousin King Faisal II and the entire family where shot in the Palace court yard by agents of President Nasser of Egypt and rebel Iraqi Officers. It makes for great reading and having lived in Jordan for a few years, I got to know some of the actors.

King Hussein bin Talal of Jordan, 1935-1999

 

 

 

 

62

Tags

62, Birthday, Election, life, Oysters, PEI, winter

Age is just a number, I think so. I cannot imagine feeling different at 32, sure you look older in the mirror but otherwise all is good. Yesterday was my birthday and we went to dinner with friends at my favourite restaurant in town, Claddagh Oyster House on Sydney street about 3 blocks from where we live. The owner is Liam Dolan, Irish from Galway. Claddagh is the oldest owned restaurant in Charlottetown, it was opened 36 years ago by Dolan and his family. The food is very good, they have a great selection of oysters from various bays around the island. The chef is great and it is very good value for money. He also owns the oldest Pub in town, the Olde Dublin. Charlottetown in 1983 was not the town you see today, it was pretty dreary and on the verge of huge transformation which have only accelerated in the last 10 years.

We started with oysters, they are very good at this time of year and champagne and then a rack of lamb it was wonderful. Lots of good conversation and laughs.

We made a mistake this Winter, everyone we know goes away in Winter for a minimum of 2 weeks to up to 2 months. The worst months are February and March, we should have gone away, anywhere for at least 2 weeks. So now I have an excuse to go away on 23 April to Montreal to see friends and to also visit the Fine Arts Museum and see a show by Don Andrus at the Gallerie Vu.

I have been on the campaign trail for 2 months now and I am going to take a break, its school March break now and Easter Week so the town will be pretty quiet. Just stay home re-organize the library, we have no plans for Easter at all. Don’t know what to do really. I am also planning to go to Europe in November after the Municipal election, even if just for a week, just for a break. I know I will need it, win or loose.

Music and the Season

Tags

Birthday, Easter, French radio, Johnny Mathis, JS Bach, life, Montreal, Radio Canada

Since we do not have a TV at home we listen to a lot of radio programming. Lately I have been switching from CBC to Radio Canada, it is very interesting to observe that the same Crown Corporation has such different programming for two very different audiences, might as well live in completely different countries.

The CBC/Radio-Canada broadcast all across Canada to all regions over 6 time zones. Most of the programming comes either from Toronto for the English service and Montreal for the French service. Some of the programming is regional like here in the Maritimes to cater to local taste and offer regional news.

But the differences are deeper, discussion topics are also presented differently, in English care is given to a politically correct approach in what is said and in the presentation. Different cultures and different mentalities, the two solitudes 60 years later and despite 35 years of official multiculturalism, these differences between French and English communities remain.

This morning on Radio-Canada being 18 March and with Easter approaching, the host of the Sunday morning show was explaining how Sacred Music had little place on the radio nowadays if compared with some 40 years ago. It is true that even at Christmas time radio stations including State Broadcaster have a tendency to stick to the more secular pieces, they may do Messiah but not much else. Radio-Canada will play more French Christmas music of European and Canadian tradition and promote French culture at the same time. So the host told us that he wanted to play the work of J.S.Bach, the Saint Matthew Passion, a very reflective piece on the theme of Easter. It was a beautiful recording with great voices. We are still a few days away from Easter Week and Good Friday so in modern terms it was early for such music but on a Sunday it was the perfect moment.  The CBC will also have Sacred Music on Sunday’s like Choral Concerts but may stick to a more restricted schedule of the actual Easter Weekend.

This does not mean that French speaking Canada is more religious not at all, it is more in the remembering of old traditions and how things use to be done or this is how the host of the program presented it.

The music of JS Bach’s sent me in a reflective mood again this being my Birthday week, I get like that each year.

On the other hand, in another completely different field of music, they were playing some Johnny Mathis songs last night and of course the 1957 hit Chances are came on. I can say that this is music for my generation and grew up listening to such music which I like.

 

 

 

This was a great exhibit

Click on the link below, we saw this exhibit in Rome , it was fantastic and fascinating all at once.

 

via Throwback Thursday

Nostalgia

Tags

Birthday, CBC, Family, Montreal, Music, Peggy Lee, Radio Canada, San Francisco, Tony Bennett

The definition of the word Nostalgia is thus; a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.

I always get this at this time of the year as my birthday approaches. Lately we have been listening to Radio-Canada the French language national broadcaster whose head office in is Montreal. They have a lot more music than the English service of the CBC in Toronto who appear to be big on talk show, Radio-Canada also has a wider choice of music, I find it more agreeable.

Radio-Canada plays a broad range of classical music and popular music but will do more retro music from the 1930’s to 1970’s, Brazilian, South American, West African, Middle Eastern. I do prefer it to the mostly American/Canadian hipster music played on the CBC which is very limiting and who has developed the unfortunate habit of talking to listeners as if they were 5 years old and on the French service you do not get news every hour.

So here is this song by Tony Bennett, I left my heart in San Francisco which was a favourite of my parents, I heard it last night on the radio programme C’est si bon, I remember this song from the late 1960’s, lots of family memories.  I visited San Francisco in 1982 and stayed at the St-Francis Hotel, the have a very good memory of the city. Another song by Peggy Lee, my favourite being Is that all there is, again it brings back vivid memories of Montreal between 1966-1972 the downtown core.  All this was 50 years ago but it was a far more optimistic period than what we see today.  A lot of the people I knew then are gone now and the City has changed beyond recognition. This is not to say that we did not have a good life afterwards. Like a lot of people the past it seems was less complicated than life today one wonders about all the change and if there is just a little too much of it.

 

 

Tulip a sign of Spring

Tags

Birthday, Canada., cuisine, Election, municipal, Spring, tulips

PEI grown tulips have now appeared everywhere, they are grown here on the Island by Vanco a Dutch/Canadian family, their grow operation is just a few minutes away from Charlottetown.

On Sunday we will change the clocks to one hour forward Canada Atlantic Time. This means that days will automatically be longer with more sun light, so a strong signal that Spring is here. Someone told me today that the Cruise ships will be back in 8 weeks, we are scheduled to receive 94 cruise ships carrying on average 2000 passengers this year. Yes they all come up Prince Street and make a left turn at Water Street, they pass under my window, all of them. Walking with maps etc the way tourists do in every city in the World, oh joy!

Winter 2017-18 has been mild, no major storms and very little snow, I call it a European Winter though Europe got a lot more snow than we did. We always have very high wind storm in the 60 to 90Km range which can be spooky if you are not use to them, but living on the Island in Winter you become accustomed quickly.

Since 15 February (Canadian Flag Day) I have been busy with my municipal electoral campaign. The key is to meet everyone at least twice in my Ward, population 2300.

ward1councillor2018.wordpress.com

Given that a lot of our friends and neighbours have gone South this Winter, I was starting to think that we too should have gone away for at least one week. Now I have so many commitments that it is somewhat difficult to get away.

As a little project I decided to look at our book shelves again, in the last 40 yrs we have done this periodically. Many books have been given away to the Library or sold at the Used Book store for 0.50 cents. On our trips we often pick-up pamphlets of places we visited and will read them but after a few years they become irrelevant and sit forlorn on the shelve, time to go out.

I just discovered a Williams-Sonoma Easter Menus by Chuck Williams who died at 100 in 2015, the recipes look interesting but I know we are not going to do this for Easter this year or in years to come.

I also discovered books on Canadian Cuisine, one on Fish dishes published in 1959 and the other is the famous cookbook of Chef Jehane Benoit publishes in 1970, she compiled Canadian recipes from all 10 provinces, demonstrating that Canadian Cuisine does exist and is varied. Unfortunately nowadays you would be hard pressed to find a Canadian who knows anything about Canadian original dishes. This is why I am disappointed when people point out Poutine as a Canadian dish when in fact it’s was created in 1957 by a truck driver who had little to eat and combined a bunch of ingredients he had on hand. Later cheap eateries to make a fast buck started to feature it on menus.

And in 2 weeks another Birthday will be upon me, years roll by with alarming frequency. I calculated that if I live to be as old as my parents, I should have another 23 years to go, not bad really, but strange nonetheless.

I leave you with this beautiful photo of the driveway of the Official Residence of H.E. the Ambassador of Canada to the Empire of Japan in Tokyo. It is called Marler House after it’s builder Sir Herbert Marler who in 1931 built at his own expense this magnificent residence famed for its spectacular gold leaf ceiling in the grand dining room and its silver leaf ceiling in the morning room. The house is across the street from one of the Imperial Palaces in central Tokyo and sits in a grand park. I visited this famed residence about 10 years ago, one word comes to mind, elegance.