The last days of 2022

Tags

Canada, New Year

Well we are about 48 hours away from the end of the year, a weird one just like 2020, 2021, the new normal it’s weird all the time. War in Europe started 10 months ago with no end in sight and a possible escalation. Inflation and cost of living way out of the window. Yes there is price gouging at all levels, except for Bananas still at 0.89 a lbs, so good thing not to buy futures in bananas.

Will got sick in July and our year has been one hospital visit after another, now it looks positive and the doctors are happy with the results and we are keeping our fingers crossed that the follow ups will be good also and we can hope that the tumour was dealt with.

It has been a quiet Christmas and New Year’s Eve will be the same. In Charlottetown on New Year’s Eve around 7pm we are suppose to get fireworks across the street from us at Founder’s Hall (the old train repairhops). This means 7pm Charlottetown time it will be New Year’s or midnight in Seoul, South Korea. Maybe the City fathers are thinking of celebrating early, did anyone tell Guy Lombardo.

I was wondering tonight what life was like in 1923, just a few years previously the world had come out of the First World War with its 20 million dead and then the Influenza epidemic killing 50 million worldwide. There was also hyper inflation which causes an economic crisis.

Also in 1923

1. Egypt — King Tut Burial Chamber Opened
2. Adolf Hitler leads the Nazi Party in failed coup attempt in Germany, he goes to jail.
3. Canada, Nobel Laureate Dr Frederick Banting, discovers Insulin Used For Diabetes treatment 
4. Republic of Turkey Established

There are some similarities with today 2023 in terms of war and inflation but now we have climate change. What kind of a year will this be? I have no idea, but I think we are in for some nasty news. In the opening months we will get our fifth shot of Covid. Life goes on as they say. Maybe we will travel some, not necessarily far but there are enough places around, off Island that is, to go and explore, that however will not be before April.

Wishing you all faithful readers, the very best for the New Year 2023, may it be a healthy and happy one.

“days gone by” Aul lang syne. Scottish song with words attributed to the national poet of Scotland, Robert Burns in 1788. Canadian band Leader Guy Lombardo and his orchestra the Royal Canadian made it a popular musical theme at Midnight on New Year’s Eve starting in 1929 on the radio and then television for many decades.

The song is a question about long ago and friends., kindness and remembrance.

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And old lang syne?

(Chorus)
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup!
And surely I’ll buy mine!
And we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

We two have run about the slopes,
And picked the daisies fine;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
Since auld lang syne.

We two have paddled in the stream,
From morning sun till dine;
But seas between us broad have roared
Since auld lang syne.

And there’s a hand my trusty friend!
And give me a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll take a right good-will
For auld lang syne.

Guy Lombardo of London, Ontario, Canada, 1924-1977

Christmas Day

Tags

Christmas, Cornish Hen, Food, home, life, Plum Pudding

A quiet day it is, it started to snow around 8am this morning, no wind, just gently falling flakes of snow, sort of dancing around and covering the green fields with just enough snow to make it look like Christmas day.

My best wishes to all of you who celebrate Christmas, I hope this to be a good happy day today with your friends and family. If you are on your own, enjoy the Peace of the day.

So this Christmas meal will be very different for us this year, no one has been invited and it is only Will and I at the table. Will of course is restricted to his special hospital diet, he insisted in preparing a festive meal for me, with a Cornish Hen with an apple stuffing and a glaze. Vegetable roasted and of course the Rum butter sauce for our plum pudding from our friend in Vancouver, Ginny. We have our Christmas crackers and the festive silverware and champagne. I will start the meal with some good Smoked salmon with capers and onions.

Nicky and Nora those little sweet dachshunds have given me a gift certificate from Amazon. They are elderly now but remain the best little companions.

Watched the message from St-George’s Chapel of HM the King, what a beautiful message, so well done and addressing the King’s message of interfaith dialogue. The King wants to be the Defender of ALL Faiths not just the Anglican Faith. To do so, Parliament will have to pass a Law to allow him to do so. There is apparently no time now before Coronation Day when HM will take the Oath to change that detail, will see if the Prime Minister will move on it quickly.

This week we invited friends to visit Will for coffee, we certainly have the cakes and cookies all home made to pass around. We also have Geld which I buy for Hanukkah and give away. I always buy too much Geld.

Some pictures of Dec 25 in Charlottetown. It really taking me many days to write this one. We are now the 27 Dec.

Do you see the nose, Yes this is Nicky all wrapped up in his blanket and snoozing away on the sofa. He prefers it if I come and sit by him, then he snuggles right up to me and sleeps profoundly. Let sleeping dogs lie, goes the old saying.

A more simple table setting this Christmas for dinner, dinner for one and Will already had his special medical dinner. He made me dinner, starting with smoked Salmon and capers, then vegetables and roasted Cornish hen and of course flaming plum pudding for dessert. A beautiful brandy fuelled blue light, so festive. The best part WILL was able to eat some without difficulty, now that is a big step, a first in 6 months.

Christmas Morning finally some snow, just a bit but nice enough in the quiet streets and with some sunshine.

Now onwards to the New Year Festivities which will be calm and quiet also.

The Eve of

Tags

Canada, Christmas, life, PEI, winter

The storm announced yesterday turned out to be largely a non-event. High winds, no ferry crossings, bridge to the mainland closed, but that was it. We are without snow, all green everywhere so this is Christmas in PEI.

The city is quiet tonight, because of the storm of yesterday, no one could leave the Island, no flights and bridge closed. Moral of this story, just stay home for the holidays.

So tonight we are quiet at home, the wind is still strong and it is cool. In the city there are not many displays of lights on private homes, this is more a suburb and rural area thing. We are not having company or dinner parties, but this week people will come to have coffee and cake every day starting with Boxing Day.

As for New Year’s Eve and Day, well will see, no plans yet.

I only hope that 2023 will be a better year than the past 3 years. I would love to travel a little bit even if it is not far.

Winter scene in a Quebec village by Clarence A. Gagnon.

just a few more days

Tags

aspic, Canada, Christmas, Dresden, Food, Frauenkirche, Orange chocolate

Friday night apparently we will get very high winds in the 90km range and rain, by Sunday Christmas day it will be passed.

Just listening to the concert today from the Frauenkirche in Dresden with at the organ Matthias Grunert who is playing Cesar Franck, Grand Choeur for the series of concerts given at the Frauenkirche during Advent, Klingenden Adventskalenders.

Such a magnificent baroque Lutheran church built in 1726 by George Bahr, destroyed in 1945 and rebuilt in 1993.

Today in LeDevoir from Montreal I was reading about Christmas dishes you no longer see on the table, it seems that after 1980 such dishes just fell out of favour after centuries, literally of being associated with Christmas. Reading the article I thought, yes that is true, how did that happen. It seems that fashion changed and so did how people eat and what they eat. The old Christmas of French Canada with traditions coming from France of the 17th century changed and it all became much more simple and less about traditions. Noel itself is no longer the big religious event it was once, it is now very secular and even the creche under the tree has disappeared. There is at least 2 generations who remember nothing of the old ways of French Canada because their own parents simply do not follow them anymore.

So the first dish was Aspic, my grandmother whom we called Tante Fernande because she was my maternal grandfather’s second wife made this dish every year at Christmas, usually with chicken and green peas. I loved it and there was also the other version with beef which I think was equally good. It was only in Poland in 1998 that I saw it again on the table, we had our Christmas party at the Embassy and the staff made what is called there Galaretka drobiowa, it was sooo good. You will no longer find it in Canada. It originally came from the Court at Versailles, in his old age King Louis XIV had lost his teeth and he could no longer chew food properly, so his chef had to invent new soft food dishes. In Poland Carp which is a very old fish which can grow to a large size and found in ponds of european palaces and in rivers is bought at the market live and kept in the bathtub at home. The day you need to make the dish you wack it to death and then use the meat cut in filet. Our cook would prepare this dish for us and it was wonderful.

The other dish was called Pain Sandwich and that was not a favourite of mine, it was a commercial invention in 1920 to push the sale of white bread. You sliced it on its lenght instead of the usual slices. Use spreadable cream cheese and decorate with pimentos, slices olives and roll up. You then apply mayonnaise on the outer side and roll in chopped up parsley. You can then slice it to make little wheel sandwiches. Tonight at the Club we talked about this in the lounge by the fireplace. Everyone had a story about childhood where their family and relatives would prepare dishes like green jell-o salad with corn and peas, it was so festive and the height of sophistication in the late 1950’s and 60’s. We laughed and realize that today we eat very differently and no one goes to the lenght of work preparation and trouble our mothers, aunts and grandmothers went through.

At Christmas I always look for Orange rind dipped in dark chocolate. It is easy to find in Europe but not so much here where big chocolate corp control the market of sweets. I did find dark chocolate with orange flavour, the thing is shaped like an orange and wrapped in golden paper. It is good but I prefer the taste of orange rind, more chewy, sweet and bitter all at once.

I also got my sister in NYC to get me a new hat, I have specific taste and I wanted a Drilby which is a hat that was worn by Andrei Gromyko. I had bought one in Italy around 2010 and I wore it in Winter only. Could not find anything here in PEI.

We are currently having a fierce wind storm and it is suppose to bring rain later during the night. The same storm pass over NYC earlier. Apparently it will cause some damage and after Fiona about one month ago, people are skittish about power cuts on the Eve of Christmas. The bridge to the mainland closed at 6pm tonight and there is no way to leave the island now, flights are cancelled, moral of this story, do not travel at Holiday time.

We are safe and sound at home. Hope everyone has a good Christmas with my best wishes.

Oh! Tannenbaum

Tags

hunk, muscles, XMAS

In order to attract business in the xmas tree and scotch pine business someone thought this would be a good ad.

What do you think. Only in PEI you say. It will be a green Christmas here, still no snow.

A very good day!

Tags

CANCER, Christmas, pastry, PEI, Province house, sacred music

During this Christmas period, I look for old French carols one is a Seventeen century carol by Louis Claude Daquin, it is in old French and for amusement the words are those of simple people who are so in awe in the presence of God that they stutter.

The carol speaks of the generosity of those who came to see baby Jesus, commenting that “there was no one young or old who did not offer all his riches” to Mary and Joseph. It also mentions the Three Magi who offered gold, frankincense and myrrh. The carol concludes that we must believe in God-King as our refuge. It would have been sung at the Chapelle Royale of Versailles in the presence of the King.

The other one also ancient, Ca berger assemblons-nous which was part of the Christmas Eve and Day service. This one speaks of the humble beginning of Jesus and is asking the simple shepherds to come and see him abandoning their herds which are overseen by angels during their absence. God is calling you the carol proclaims. Ah quel grand mystere is another carol which is sung scripture around the Christmas story.

There are so many beautiful old French carols, the words are poetry taken from the Scriptures. They are considered sacred music. The Adeste Fideles which is sung in Latin at a time prior to 1962 when mass was in Latin speaks of the Glory of God and the need for the faithful to come and adore the Messiah. All this music was composed for organ, with a tenor and a large choir to lend majesty to the Christmas service. There are many more but when I think of it, it is a distant past which by today’s standard belong to another time.

This music of French Canada is not well known in the rest of English Canada. The other problem today is that English culture in Canada today is dominated by USA influence which smoothers.

Today we had an appointment to see one of the doctors who is treating Will’s cancer, the news was very positive, the mood jovial. Will has gained weight and his blood work is normal. Recommendation is that he eats more to gain more weight. We were both so happy to hear this news, could not come at a better time. We are not out of the woods yet, but it is all positive. The big test is in February with the CT scan and then we will know if all these treatments were successful.

When we got home Will made some pastry and then used the mince meat to make little turnover with a Calvados glaze. They are very good. He has also invited some close friends to come for coffee in the coming days during the Holidays another good sign.

After a 5 year $100 million complete restoration of the Legislative building, Province House should reopen next year and the Members of the Assembly will return. It was built in 1834 but never well maintained. It is a beautiful Georgian Building. This is the North side, the South side is the main entrance and is identical.

From none to two, what to do.

Tags

cake, Christmas food, King, Levée, PEI

Well a few weeks back, Will said that this Christmas he would not make any Plum Pudding because he did not fell up to it, given his health. Ok no problem, we have a wonderful freshly made one year ago Christmas Fruit Cake from our friend John who for the past 40 years has sent us his home made cake which is beyond good and wonderful. I think it must be a secret recipe, the cake smells heavenly and it is so delicious it is difficult to stop yourself from going for more than 2 pieces at a time, it is very rich and soaking in Brandy.

So Will asked on FB if anyone knew of a place where you could buy a good Plum Pudding. Out of the blue came a reply from an old school friend from 70 year ago. Now that is a lifetime when you think of it, she offered to send us one, she makes them every year. It arrived my mail from Vancouver. At the same time I asked a friend here on the Island, who lives just outside of Charlottetown in Vernon Bridge if he was making any Plum Pudding, yes he said and then went on to ad that he would let me know. Heard nothing and yesterday he brought us a pudding which is quite large and in Island fashion is made in a can, the recipe is somewhat different from the traditional one but nonetheless very good. So now I have Christmas Plum Pudding and Will is going to make the hard butter sauce with brandy to go with it.

So we made shortbreads and now Will wants to make a Ginger Cake and a Gum drop cake. We will have to have a lot of people over to eat the stuff. I can’t eat it all by myself.

Last night I saw on Instagram a recipe on how to cook the perfect Prime Rib Roast Beef. I am fascinated by this recipe and how easy it is. The fellow is a chef and he cooks all manner of dishes. This one suggest cooking your Prime Rib at 500 F. 15 minutes per rib, so 2 ribs would be 30 minutes and then turn off the stove and leave your prime rib in the oven for 2 hours, do not open the door at any time. After 2 hours it will be ready to eat. He also gives a recipe on how to make a rich gravy with red wine and beef stock. I am very tempted to try it.

Winter is going to be mild, today again the weather is mild 3C and light rain. I hope that if we cannot have snow on Chritsmas day we have at least no rain and some sunshine.

The dinner Friday at the Club was a huge success about 70 people came and the food was wonderful. The entertainment was also very good and everyone had fun. The Mayor showed up and had dinner and spoke to everyone. There is a New Year’s Eve party with more entertainment and then the Levée on New Year’s day which is a very old tradition going back to the Court in France in 1563. In Canada as of 1812 we followed this tradition where people come and pay their respect to the Representative of the King, in this case the Governor of PEI at Government House. One year I worked it and 600 people showed up to shake hands and offer good wishes. The Club has a Levée so does the Mayor and the Commanders of the Army and Navy in Charlottetown. But this year I am staying home because of infections and Covid running around still. I am going to see the Governor this week privately and will offer my good wishes then.

Tomorrow Monday we have an appointment with the doctor for Will and we will get more results on his cancer etc. I hope for good news. He is looking so much better now.

Queen Charlotte’s Levée Room at St-James Palace, London. She was the wife of King George III and Charlottetown is named for her.

Minus 10 days

Tags

Christmas, Concert, Dresden, Food, Frauenkirche

This week Will cooked 60 sausage rolls. A good recipe where he will caramelize 2 big red onions and then incorporate them with sausage meat, using in this case Bangers. He also made some mince meat pies and I made more of my shortbreads pistachio, cranberry and orange zest.

The weather in the next 36 hours will be rain and sleet with high winds, no snow. Apparently the temperature will be well above average this Winter. I believe it, it’s not cold at all, but that is not good for colds

Found on YouTube a very nice concert given at the Frauen Kirche in Dresden for Advent. This wonderful 90 meter tall church in the German Baroque style was destroyed in February 1945 in the fire bombing of Dresden. It has been totally rebuilt and is spectacular. They hold regular Lutheran services, they also have concerts and recitals and most are on YouTube. The church has 4 organs and its own music school and choir.

We visited several times as it was being rebuilt. Dresden has in the last 25 years been reborn. The concert was on the 11 December with Diana Damrau (Soprano) Mauro Peter (Tenor) Nicole Chirka (Mezzo – Soprano) Martin-Jan Nijhof (Bass – Baritone) Marie Jacquot (Conductor) Staatskapelle Dresden and the choir of the FrauenKirche and the Opera House of Dresden. What is nice about such a concert it allows you to listen to Christmas music which is not the old standards and come from less heard composers. One is René Kollo, Christmas Peace or Gounod, Noel, Cesar Franck, sortie pour Noel.

Promises!

Tags

life, PEI, winter, XMAS

Living on an island in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence means that the weather can change in a blink of an eye, as they say here, if you do not like the current weather just wait 10 minutes it will change.

Today around 2pm the wind picked up and sleet and snow started falling, then the wind picked up some more and became nasty North Eastern. So it is not so much snowing now as very high winds. The streets are deserted and many businesses closed at 3pm. Schools were closed all day and tomorrow will be the same. The majority of kids live on farms on frozen mud roads and it is too dangerous to drive school buses on such roads in very high windy conditions. That is Winter in PEI, not as charming as Summer.

Had a tea and cake with friends this afternoon at the home of another friend on Sydney street just a block from where I live, the house is known as the Music Teachers House circa 1860 at one point the Presbyterian Church next door use to house its music director in that house. The church was pulled down a long time ago and moved one block to a far larger stone building. The land was bought by the Catholic Church for a community centre in that ugly 1950 architecture. The house remained on a street full of similar houses now all attached to a luxury hotel, The Great George. A beautiful house with a very nice garden. Was pushed home by the wind at my back.

Walk the dogs tonight just around the house, the wind is strong, the streets are totally deserted and the city plows have started to clean streets which they will do all night due to the drifting snow. I do like the quiet of Winter in the city, no traffic and little noise.

The rest of the week will be quiet, Friday is the Xmas party called Winter’s Light with dinner and show. Should be loads of fun. A slow end to the year. A strange year again, since March 2020 nothing has been like it has ever been before and there is no end in sight it seems. I am focusing now on Will’s health and hoping for a full recovery by end March, fingers crossed.

The Great George Hotel on Great George street.

A cold gray weekend

Tags

Christmas, Italy, PEI, Plum Pudding, Rome, Storms, turmoil, winter, World

The weather is not very nice at the moment as we approach Xmas. This morning I was listening to a very nice rendition of Black Bird by Paul McCartney on saxophone it was beautiful, modern interpretation. It is one of my favourite piece of music. The other one which makes me stop to listen is by Cesar Franck, Prélude, Fugue, et Variation. Absolutely wonderful and this is the music I love to listen before going to sleep or before I die this would be the music I would want to hear. It evoque in me many recollections. Have a listen it is well worth it.

We do live in troubled times, it seems the world is gone mad, pandemics, inflations, climate change, extinctions of species, war in Europe, failed politics and violence, threats to democracy. It has been getting worse since March 2020 when Covid became a thing. Let us hope that 2023 will bring a return to more balance and stability. Though I know that it is unlikely, possibly more horrors will come our way. But in the past there has been periods like 1929 to 1945 deep economic depression and then world war and all the horrors of it, with millions of dead. Before that 1914-1919 another great period of turmoil with a flu epidemic. I just feel strange that we will not return to a life as it was prior to 1990, it will never be the same.

I hear friends who are my age or older saying they are happy to be at the end of their lives because they lived through good times, though there was trouble but never as we see it now. From 1946 to 1990 there was stability despite some events, people remained optimistic for the future. This optimism seems to have gone out.

We have talked of travelling in 2023 but we would do close to home travel, nothing in Europe despite wanting to go. Then again at home much will depend on the recovery and good health of Will. More months to go before the final word.

Given that we are 2 weeks away from Xmas, today I decided to go and get my Xmas bird, well not a turkey but a Cornish Hen which I will cook and serve with the appropriate side dish and for dessert will have the Plum Pudding sent to us by Will’s old school friend who lives in Vancouver.

Tomorrow Tuesday the first Winter storm is coming our way with hurricane force winds which is the real concern since the clean up from Fiona continues and many trees are still to be cut down and taken away. We may get more power outages. Though I am not worried here being on the strategic power supply axis of the capital. Winds from the NW at 90Km per hour and snow accumulation of 15cm.

We have done our Christmas decorations and this year it is a small 3 foot tree, no sterling silver balls, no Wedgwood ornaments, only smaller simpler ornaments still collected over 40 years from all around the world. Maybe it is better to go for simpler, nothing says you have to over decorate or go over board with gifts or meals. I prefer to listen to music from J.S.Bach or other classical composers Praetorius, Charpentier, or old French 18th century music or some Chet Baker.

Whatever you do this year, I hope it will make you happy. By the way in and around 1100 AD you would have said Merrie Christes Maesse. The photo below by Mauro Pagliai is the centre of Rome, Piazza Venezia and the lighting of the City of Rome Christmas tree. The long straight lighted street is Via del Corso which takes you to Piazza del Popolo. This street was known in antiquity as Via Flaminia built in 220 BC. imagine walking on a street that is 2220 years old and still very much in use. If you follow it outside of Rome it would take you over the Apennine Mountains to Ariminum (Rimini) on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. How we miss Rome and living there after all these years.

Another view this time from the top of the Vittoriano dedicated to King Vittorio Emanuelle II who unified Italy in 1870 with Garibaldi.