Recipe requested

Tags

Canada., cuisine, ice cream, Irish whiskey

Well dear readers you requested the recipe of the Irish Whiskey Browned Bread Ice Cream and here it is from Glen, who is a Canadian cooking all manner of nice dishes for our pleasure. Please enjoy!  We tried it and it is really good, sorry Ben and Jerry, here is your pink slip.

For Dr. Spo,  Glen also has an Absinthe Ice Cream recipe, I know you will enjoy it.

 

Autumn is coming

Tags

Canada., Counsellor, Crown, Food, Lascelles, PEI, Wine

As if on the dot as of the 15 August the weather cooled all of a sudden, as it does every year, we went from 38C to 22C. and it is more comfortable now. The weather is still sunny and though it is nice for us in the City it is a crisis for farmers with lack of rainfall and the fire index is critically high, so no open fires are allowed anywhere. Though I noticed today that the Sun is lower in the sky and enters the house at a more horizontal angle and the days are progressively getting shorter.

Everyday we have our activities planned for the day and marked on the calendar. Now because of the pandemic most of our volunteer activities are on hold. But we still have to shop or see friends or get a haircut or simply travel on the island. This Summer we went to French River in the New London area and stayed at a nice cottage, something we are sure to repeat, we enjoyed ourselves so much. Being Summer, we drink a lot of Rosé and across the street from our house is a new wine shop with 400 labels of wines which would fall in the more notable category. The prices are from $20 to $900 a bottle depending of the wine and vintage, found some very good German white and Italian rosé from Puglia.

Lately we have been to small diner parties at friends. Now we all brace ourselves for the coming Fall Season and the return to school for so many. Fortunately our little island has been sparred the worst and we only have a handful of cases and all came from people returning from abroad. Self-isolating at home and all cases have been mild, no hospitalization, lucky indeed.

What I really like to do is to start the day with quiet music with my morning Espresso with Nicky by my side. On the Weekend, Radio-Canada has music programs with a host who talks on various topics engaging the listener, the music is soft, classical, I like piano music like Satie, Grieg, Ravel or Debussy. Every evening, we rarely go out at night, after dinner, which for us is around 08:30pm because we have dinner late by Canadian 5pm standard, I like to sit in my chair in the living room with Nicky beside me and listen to classical music, reading. Currently I am reading the letters and journals of Sir Alan Frederick Lascelles, known as Tommy, private secretary to the King and later to his daughter Elizabeth II, fascinating behind the scene stuff, so well written a real page turner, the documents were edited by Duff Hart-Davis, who did all the necessary work to put the book together and sought all necessary permissions. A difficult task because the Courtiers are protective of such documents seen as State Papers, in the end the Queen agreed and gave permission for publication.

We did not have the annual parade on 15 August due to Covid 19 but our neighbour will have a lunch outdoor on Friday as she does every year. A simple get together. A week from now we invited 20 friends (this is the legal limit) to have dinner and our good friend Pico will make his famous Seafood Paella in his metre wide dish, that alone is worth the show, quite a nice dish. We are using a friend’s secluded yard which is nice and private on a quiet street. I know that small gatherings are now allowed as long as you follow precautions.

On other news, we have a new Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, who has been Minister of Foreign Affairs and is currently Deputy Prime Minister, she will now have the Finance Portfolio as well and will present in the Fall an economic forecast. Also yesterday the Prime Minister went to see the Governor General and ask her to * Prorogue Parliament until 23 September, when the House will return and we will have a Speech from the Throne giving out the details of the Government’s new program to renew the economy after this first Covid phase. Freeland is famous for having handled the negotiations to the new Free Trade Agreement CUSMA with the Trump administration, a difficult task if there ever was one.

It looks like we may have a general election in October despite the fact that most people do not want one due to the Pandemic. But the other parties in the House appear keen, despite the fact that the Conservative will have a brand new leader and the NDP have no money for an election, the Green Party should also have a new leader by then. The Separatist Bloc Quebecois are pushing for an election but remains to be seen if they will be able to win over other MPs to vote against the Government. The test may come as soon as 23 September since a vote of confidence must take place after the Speech from the Throne.  At the moment PM Trudeau has a minority of seats in the House but the poles show him winning the next election, time will tell.

 

*Prorogue; Prorogation is a political process which marks the end of a parliamentary session, and also refers to the time between the end of one parliamentary session and the start of another.

 

 

 

 

 

Dealing with changes

Tags

Canada., Italy, museum, NGC, Ottawa, painting

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, An Offering to Pan​ (detail), c.1645–60. Photo: NGC

This painting I have seen countless times at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa on the second floor in the baroque room. It’s a very big painting and a fascinating one. The title of my post is about change, but what it refers to is the change that occurs in a painting over the years as paint ages and nature takes its toll. Like people paintings do age and decay with time and they need restoration and cleaning.

I presented this painting to school groups who come to the National gallery in Ottawa. Children and adults are fascinated by the subject and all the items shown. Doing interpretative work on paintings is to me always interesting, this is something I love doing.

This painting has changed, the colours are much darker with age. The darkening has changed the view we have of the painting.

Here is what Stephen Gritt, Director, Conservation &  Technical Research, at the National Gallery of Canada has to say about it.

When William Hogarth published his book The Analysis of Beauty in 1753, he touched upon a subject that could potentially strike fear into the heart of any art lover. “When colours change at all, it must be somewhat in the manner following, for as they are made some of metal, some of stone, and others of more perishable materials, time cannot operate on them otherwise than as daily experience we find it doth, which is, that one changes darker, another lighter, one quite to a different colour, whilst another, as ultramarine, will keep its natural brightness,” he stated. “Therefore how is it possible that such different materials, ever variously changing … should naturally coincide with the artist’s intention.” The English painter was stating, in effect, that art objects – here specifically paintings – begin changing right from day one, so what we ultimately see is not the work the artist originally intended.

These changes in a work may occur on their own, within the object’s raw materials – for example, drying oil in oil paints darkening over time. There are also changes that can be engendered by “misuse” of these materials, typically called “inherent vice”, for example when the use of too much oil produces even greater darkening. Although this term is usually thought to apply to works of art that may be experimental in nature and made in the last 50 years, artists have always pushed the limits of their craft and knowingly used materials that were going to change. One could argue that we have centuries of inherent vice with which to contend.

Typically the artworks we see today have changed in a way that stems from the interaction of these various phenomena and the environments in which they have been kept. What often has a more profound effect on the nature and appearance of these works is the way conservator-restorers have treated them, and what they may have done to correct or simply hide any changes. Today, one of the roles a conservator-restorer should play is to look at the forensics of the situation, while trying to unravel the causes and effects of the changes over time. If the conservator-restorer is able to achieve this, thoughtful treatment can mediate these effects and enable a presentation of the work that has it talking in something like its own voice once more.

Painted in the mid-17th century by the painter Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, An Offering to Pan illustrates examples of such compound effects. The painting depicts an altar-like structure, heaped with offerings and trophies to a damaged sculpture of the ancient god Pan, shown in his characteristic form as half-man, half-goat. Pan was an embodiment of wild and eruptive nature, as well as fertility. His followers were mainly people in remote and rural areas, and in this portrayal one sees hunters, shepherds and herdsmen making offerings, in the hope that he will assist them.

Unlike depictions of the Classical world by Castiglione’s contemporaries, the eclectic and exotic nature of the clothing and objects is designed to invoke Pan’s non-Olympian strangeness, and potentially his origins in the East. Castiglione is attempting to bring that world to life by making it vibrant and exotic, full of unusual beauty, which allows him to show off his ability to represent the sumptuous and glittering bounty. Castiglione was also an excellent painter of animals, and the spaniel is simply one of the best depictions of a dog in the Gallery’s collection.

The upper part of the canvas shows some of the changes that have occurred over the years. In addition to the top section of the sky looking uneven and blotchy due to cleaning damage and discoloured old restoration, a horizontal line has become very prominent. It is a seam where two sections of fabric were originally stitched together to make the large canvas, and the seam has been pushed forward by past structural treatment of the painting.

The mottled cloud-forms should actually read as a more even, luminous pale blue, set against and contrasted with the gold colour. The blue pigment used here is called “smalt”, which typically decolourizes and ultimately is more susceptible to damage during cleaning operations. In this particular instance, the combination of the colour change in smalt, an increased visual effect of the dark red-brown underlayer and the significant cleaning damage twists the painting away from Castiglione’s originally realized intention.

On the left, the same effects can be seen in the darker clouds. The black lines rising up above the ducks are actually the artist’s initial drawing in paint, which has been revealed by the changes, and it appears that Castiglione originally intended to include a tree. On the right, the foliage of the trees has also changed over time. Green tints were typically based on copper, which causes the oil medium to turn brown. Pan was associated with springtime, and this change potentially takes the viewer to a different season. Overall, the effects of restoration processes and the basic aging of the materials will have caused the painting to be generally darker, and to have lost force in the mid-tones, creating an effect of heightened tonal contrast.

So what does all this mean? How does one interpret and understand works that are far from their intentional state? Much of Castiglione’s fine-tuning in finalizing this painting has simply disappeared, although some sections have survived relatively unscathed. As Hogarth noted, the blue ultramarine, used here in the mountains and drapery, has proved resilient, and now consequently stands out as strident.

This should give us pause for thought, but it should not be critically unnerving. With the right kind of information, one can meet the work halfway and, in turn, achieve something more meaningful. Helping us do this is one of the key roles of Museums, and has been since their inception. With enough information we can retrieve more of the work’s nature and its original grandeur and, in turn, engage with it and appreciate it in a more meaningful way.

https://www.gallery.ca/magazine/in-the-spotlight/coping-with-changes-a-work-by-giovanni-benedetto-castiglione?

 

Fallacies about Art

Tags

Canada., culture, life, NGC, Ottawa

A few years ago I was a volunteer guide at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Marc Mayer was the Director of the NGC and he was a great fellow as a director and very personable. He has an interesting background in Art, as a curator and art lover. Here is a short presentation on the 5 Fallacies about Art which is helpful to those who wish to appreciate art in its various forms. I find this presentation to be enlightening. These are some points I try to impart to visitors who come to the Gallery and who may not know how or have preconceived notions about art. Mayer debunks it all for us.

Allons danser

Tags

Canada., Holiday, Summer

Allons danser sous les ormeaux, animez-vous jeunes fillettes, galants prenez vos chalumeaux! an aria of the opera by French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau composed in 1752 in Fontainbleau. Painting of the goddesses by Antoine Watteau.

Perfect music for the Summer, carefree and joyous on the Eve of Canada’s National Day 1 July. Grateful to live in such a peaceful and stable country.

94th Birthday of H.M.

Tags

Canada., Crown, life, the Queen

The Official Birthday of HM Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada and UK in the 68 year of her Reign, the longest in Canadian and British history at Windsor Castle. Very Best Wishes for a Happy 94th Birthday from Canada.

 

Happy Birthday!

Tags

Birthday, Canada., Denmark, Germany, Greece, Prince Philip, Royal Family, UK

June 10, 2020.

Today HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh celebrates his 99 Birthday.

Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark was born in the villa Mon Repos on the Greek island of Corfu on 10 June 1921, the only son and fifth and final child of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg. A member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, itself a branch of the House of Oldenburg, he was a prince of both Greece and Denmark by virtue of his patrilineal descent from King George I of Greece and King Christian IX of Denmark and he was from birth in the line of succession to both thrones;  Philip’s four elder sisters were Margarita, Theodora, Cecilie, and Sophie. He was baptised in the Greek Orthodox rite at St George’s Church in Corfu.

The Greek-Turkish War 1919-1922 went badly for Greece, and the Turks made large gains. On 22 September 1922, Philip’s uncle, King Constantine I, was forced to abdicate and the new Greek military government arrested Prince Andrew, along with others. His family were banished from Greece, the British naval vessel HMS Calypso evacuated Prince Andrew’s family, with Philip carried to safety in a cot made from a fruit box. Philip’s family went to France.

Because Philip left Greece as a baby, he does not speak Greek. In 1992, he said that he “could understand a certain amount”. Philip has stated that he thought of himself as Danish, and his family spoke English, French, and German.

In 1928, he was sent to the United Kingdom to attend school living with his maternal grandmother, Victoria Mountbatten, Dowager Marchioness of Milford-Haven, at Kensington Palace. In the next three years, his four sisters married German princes and moved to Germany, his mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia and placed in an asylum, and his father took up residence in Monte Carlo with his new mistress. Philip had little contact with his mother for the remainder of his childhood. It was his uncle Lord Louis Mountbatten who became his tutor. In March 1947, Philip had abandoned his Greek and Danish royal titles, had adopted the surname Mountbatten and became a British subject.

The day before the wedding, King George VI bestowed the style of Royal Highness on Philip and, on the morning of the wedding, 20 November 1947, he was made the Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich. Consequently, being already a Knight of the Garter, between 19 and 20 November 1947. He married Princess Elizabeth in 1947 and on her accession to the Throne in 1952 the now Queen Elizabeth announced that the Duke was to have “place, pre-eminence and precedence” next to her “on all occasions and in all meetings, except where otherwise provided by Act of Parliament”.

Philip was not crowned in the Coronation service, but knelt before Elizabeth, with her hands enclosing his, and swore to be her “liege man of life and limb”. On 22 February 1957, she granted her husband the style and title of a Prince of the United Kingdom, and it was gazetted that he was to be known as “His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh”. Philip was appointed to the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada on 14 October 1957, taking his Oath of Allegiance before the Queen in person at her Canadian residence, Rideau Hall in Ottawa.

HRH Prince Philip,  his Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Canadian Regiment

Official 99th Birthday portrait taken this week at Windsor Castle.

Coat of Arms of HRH Prince Philip

More Spring Cleaning

Tags

appliances, Canada., cleaning, clothes, Spring, Summer

This week has been busy, the 18 large windows of your home were washed by a company, we cannot do it ourselves because of the height and you need equipment for that. We did however remove all the screens and washed them one by one. Here on the Island the word WASH is pronounced WARSH. You do WARSHING, etc.

Today I decided to do my clothes closet and get rid of all the clothing I no longer wear. Some items of clothing I have not worn in 4 years, lovely as they are I thought someone else could enjoy them.

Living in Canada this is a bi-annual ritual Spring/Fall.  The weather has suddenly shot up to 20C as is typical of Canada at this time of the year, this is a clear signal that the sweaters must be put away, too hot, Summer clothing must come out. Same in the Fall but it is not as thorough of a clean-up. This means a lot of stuff to wash before it is put away, of course the washing machine died all of a sudden today. I heard a clunk and crack and suddenly nothing works. Look all over nope, it is dead. The washing machine is about 11 years old. So far in the 4 years we have been here we have replaced the microwave, the oven, the dryer. It seems that modern appliances are not made to last.

So I sorted out all the clothing and gave away pants, T-shirts, shirts, Sweaters, all in good clean conditions and all natural fibres, no synthetics. Many items are Italian fashions.

I still have a lot of clothing for the Summer. Next will be to clear all the Fall/Winter coats, pairs of boots and other accoutrement.

Values

Tags

Canada., Covid 19, economy, humanity, life, PANDEMIC

During this pandemic which is unlike anything any one living today have ever experienced, there are many discussions on life and the world and our medical authorities have tried their best with what they have on hand to inform us on how to avoid infection. Some have listened others not so much, then as we in Canada are starting to emerge slowly from the worst of this crisis, some have advocated a quick return to a normal life and a re-opening of businesses others have advocated patience and careful approach to avoid a second wave of this virus. We have to accept that there are many viewpoints on this matter and it is shaped by individual beliefs and life experience.

Re-opening to quickly to satisfy those who wish to return to what is dubbed normalcy out of frustration will create another problem. Are we not all frustrated with this unusual and abnormal situation.

Someone will have to pay the price for re-opening too quickly. Would you be willing to sacrifice your family, your children, parents, friends? It is likely many will pay with their lives having no choice but to work in unsafe conditions to satisfy this requirement and others will be infected without knowing it.

I am fascinated and horrified with the many commenters who justify the death of others by saying that it is justified by the economic benefits it brings because those who die are elderly (over 60) so a natural process. Such false equivalence arguments are often used in journalism and in politics today. A logical fallacy in which an equivalence is drawn between human life and re-starting the economy in order to save businesses and jobs based on flawed or false reasoning. We have all read or heard the arguments.

There are many such voices in Canada in the media, in politics and in the public in general. A very sad comment on our society and the mentality of the callous present amongst us.

We should never have to choose between a human life and/or the economy, there is no equivalence. Those who would have us make a choice are clearly in the wrong. We all need a strong economy so that our society prospers but not at the expense of the people in that society.

 

LOBSTERS

Tags

Canada., cooking, cuisine, PEI, Sea, Seafood

Today Saturday 16 May was the first day live lobsters were available on the market place. Yesterday was setting day and the fishers went out to sea to harvest lobsters. So today long line ups of Islanders in 45F weather, respecting the 2 metres or 6 feet apart rule of social distancing could be seen outside shops selling seafood. It is a tradition to have your first feed of lobster, it is like Beaujolais Nouveau.

Until about 1960 eating lobster was not popular, lobster was poor people food, in schools the poor kid ate lobster sandwiches while the rich kids ate baloney on white bread. I know it is laughable but that was the way back then, how things have changed.

In the maritimes lobster is fished everywhere but they do not all taste the same. Also lobster trapped in one region does not travel or is not exported to another region, this is done to protect markets and the fishers. So in Caraquet in New Brunswick the fishers will sell their lobsters in N.B. In PEI it is sold only in PEI and exported to foreign markets. We do not get lobsters from Nova Scotia though their season starts earlier than ours in PEI. No we do not have Maine lobster, considered foreign. Though on international markets PEI competes with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and the US market. Usually Canada wins because of our dollar being 0.25 to 0.30 cents cheaper than the US dollar.

Lobster is a rich meat and usually a one pound beast is enough for a satisfying meal. Many tourist will try the 2 pound lobster and some brave soul may go for a 3 pound lobster, but I cannot imagine how you do that, it is sooo rich tasting. Also the price in a restaurant can start at $30 for a one pound lobster and will go up with weight. At the fish store today the little canner sold for $6.99 and the one pound lobster sold for $9.99.  You will pay more if you want only the meat. You can buy it cooked or live. What you should look for when buying a live lobster is the long antennae, if they are intact this means that the beast is not stressed and was not involved in fights with other lobsters, it’s a sign of quality.

Cooking your lobster at home,  remember only fresh Sea water never tap water. Do follow carefully cooking time, over cook it and it’s uneatable and chewy. The meat should be like butter. Lobster is good served with lemon wedge or if  you prefer with hot melted butter but that is not necessary since the meat is rich tasting.

The claws are powerful and be careful not to put you hand or fingers near them, it can be painful and very unpleasant and they don’t let go. In 1990, The U.S. National Institutes of Health tested lobster for cholesterol content and found that it was just as low in cholesterol, fat and calories as chicken and turkey. (Just watch out for the butter!)

So tomorrow Sunday we will go get some lobsters across the street at the Water Prince restaurant for our dinner.