Great Weather

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2020, Christmas, Holidays, life, World

If 2020 for a lot of people all around our planet was a disaster year full of frustrations and disease, countless death, terrible natural disaster. This pandemic was a reminder that we are not immortal and that technology cannot solve all our consumer society problems. Many political leaders around the world have failed miserably preferring to delay and dither on what to do and focus their energy on businesses instead of public health. Now as the year ends vaccination campaigns have started and I like many others wait for my turn to get the shot.

Let us hope that 2021 will be a better year for all of us.

On CBC radio on Sunday Paolo Pietro Paolo is the host of a show devoted to classical music with a segment about forgotten composers who left beautiful compositions. Because it is the end of the year he also had his list of famous musicians and singers who died this year. He always includes artists from all around the world, from Iran, India, Poland, Italy, France, England, etc.. in the end he focuses on Canadian artists. Making us reflect on the contribution all these people made to our lives.

Today is another beautiful day, sunny and somewhat cold, no snow. Christmas day was so warm that people I know went swimming in the Ocean, it was that warm and little wind. Now that is something to talk about in future years. But with climate change I think we are in for more warmish winters. Our past Summer was hot and humid, another first for the Island and in continued into the Fall. It has been so warm, that some days we simply cut off the heat in the house and I have not brought out the big Winter wool covers. I am not complaining I much prefer a Northern European Style Winter to a Frosty Snowy Canadian one.

In our trip to Fredericton N.B. last Fall we noticed how many well stocked fine grocery stores there are. Recently I discovered that you can even get Caviar. A company called Acadian Caviar farms Sturgeons and sell the eggs and the meat, this is wonderful. WWW. ACADIAN-STURGEON.COM , this fish is quite large and given that the supply in Russia has petered out due to overfishing, other countries have developed their own. I know Iran produces very good caviar. In the Maritime Provinces several fishers have developed a market for specialty fish.

Quiet days indeed as the year ends and I really don’t mind it.

Buggy rides on Water street

A good time

Tags

Canada, Christmas, cuisine, Elizabeth II, Food, ice cream, life

We had a good Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Luncheon with friends.

The 24 Dec was a simple affair of a few friends came to say hello and exchange good wishes. We served home made sausage roll made from the meat of English Banger sausage and using a recipe of Nigel Slater we made puff pastry stuffed with British Stilton Cheese served pipping hot, with a glass of bubbles its a great little bite. He also made small pastry stars mixed with parmesan and served hot. They are very good and of course while we were not looking our Nicky managed to grab a couple. He loves cheese, so does Nora but she is not as bold as he is.

Today’s Luncheon, Will borrowed a great recipe for Tourtiere which came very close to my Mom’s, it was delicious. We also had a turkey breast, Brussel’s sprouts roasted, carrots and roasted small potatoes. We started the meal with Red Sockeyed Wild Pacific Salmon with capers and dill. Our dessert was Plum Pudding Flambé which had a good flame this year and instead of the usual hard sauce, Will made Nesselrode Chesnut Ice Cream, it was a big hit with our guests. It was the great French Chef Carême who invented this dessert in honour of the Russian/German Diplomat and Chancellor of the Russian Empire Count Karl Robert Nesselrode in 1814 after Napoleon’s final defeat.

The tradition of the Christmas day message goes back to 1928 when King George V, the grandfather of the Queen did the first broadcast. As Queen of Canada the message of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II is carried on the Nation’s airwaves of the CBC at 3pm. This year unlike any other year the Queen is in Windsor Castle due to the pandemic.

It was also very warm today in Charlottetown, 50F which is unheard of and shows how climate change is really changing the world around us, normally it should be near zero or below zero and snow should be covering the ground, not so this year.

Little things

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Christmas, cuisine, Food, Nutcracker, PEI

More often than not, our lunch is a sandwich, ham and cheese, grill cheese, tomato and bacon, egg salad or chicken salad. I also like to have several types of bread on hand. Also different types of cheese, from old cheddar, gouda, havarti, etc…

I have never one to like a ham sandwich but a few years ago in Dublin, we stayed at the Gresham Hotel on Upper O’Connell street. James Joyce mentions the hotel in his short stories, The Dead, the reference being that the good or people who had come up in life would stay there.

One night after the theatre, it was late and the dining room was closed but the Writer’s bar was open and so we came in for a drink and asked our waiter if we could get anything to eat. Kitchen is closed he said but you can get a sandwich, would ham sandwich be good, he asked. It was one of the best ham sandwich I ever had, served simply as it was, with a glass of scotch. Since then I always remember that when I have a ham sandwich.

As we prepare for a more quiet Christmas, there is still shopping to do and some baking. Will make a tourtière and we have a small turkey. For dessert there is Plum Pudding with hard sauce and Will is making Chestnut Ice Cream. Getting the chestnuts was a major undertaking, since there is no chestnuts available in ”regular” markets in town. Someone suggested I look at the Asian Markets and sure enough they had them fresh and in a paste.

This is something that is changing in PEI rapidly, food items and supplies are far more diverse than just 15 to 18 years ago, when even parsley was seen as a luxury. The influx of large contingents of Asians and middle-Eastern population has seen the opening of new food markets catering to their cuisine. We now also have many Africans and Caribbean people living here, they have their own rich cuisine. This is a blessing because now finding ingredients and spices is no longer the chore it was once.

Just to give you an idea of items still novel in PEI.

Radicchio which is often confused for red cabbage, not the same thing and not the same price.

Clementines at Christmas are popular but don’t be surprised if the cashier at the grocery store asked you if they are navel oranges and may want to charge you accordingly.

Unsalted butter, is not common, most butters either salted or double salted. If you find unsalted butter its in the frozen food section, people believe that it spoils quickly otherwise.

Chestnuts, despite the fact that chestnut trees existed on the Island until a blight some years ago wiped them out, today it is not available unless you go to an Asian market which imports them from Toronto.

Veal, almost impossible to find, only one supermarket has it but not on a regular basis. Why is it rare, because most people think it is expensive.

Lobster served other than boiled in sea water. There are many recipe for preparing lobster, however restaurants do not offer it. It should also be remembered that lobster was poor people food or food for pigs until about 40 years ago. It only became a staple with American tourists demanding it.

Goose and goose liver, not available though we have wild geese, no one actually eats them. Same with duck, it is not popular and can be found but is considered exotic.

Fresh river fish, yes we have lots of seafood but all of it is ocean caught. Fresh river fish is not available, unless you fish it yourself. This could have to do with pesticide pollution due to intensive potato farming.

But the situation is changing gradually and rapidly, it all comes down to a question of demand and changing demographics on the Island with more and more people coming from other parts of Canada and the world. Yes PEI in this year of the Pandemic has become very popular because we appear to be spared from Covid19. People want to move here, as a more sane place to live.

Our 43 year old Nutcracker made in East Germany, when such a place existed. Hand painted in mint condition, he only comes out at Christmas time. We got him when it was not yet popular to have such an item in Canada. He has travelled all around the world with us. If he could talk, he would have quite a tale to tell.

Beautiful music from Dresden

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Advent, Christmas, Concert, Dresden, Frauenkirche, Germany

Since the re-opening of the FrauenKirche in Dresden with its 90 meter dome, the church has a very active music program which they put up on YouTube. Mathias Grunert is the head of the music department of the church and its organist. For Advent they have a program each Sunday of Advent music. Grunert, a relatively young fellow is fairly well known in European musical circles.

Today we put up the Xmas tree and now tomorrow after the dentist appointment, we will start decorating. Also today I was able to secure a haircut appointment, it can be difficult my barber is very popular. I don’t have a lot to trim but I have to look good for my public.

Today Sunday 13 December is Santa Lucia’s Day in Italy, the patron of her home town the City of Siracusa, virgins and blind people. We had little Santa Lucia buns. The weather has blanketed the city in a heavy fog and again quite mild around 40F which is highly unusual.

Here is the Advent Concert inside the Frauenkirche Dresden recorded 2 weeks ago. Because of the Pandemic the church was empty. Gives a beautiful look of Dresden by night and inside this church. Well maybe this will inspire to feel more with the spirit of Christmas.

What about a Dickens Xmas

Tags

Christmas, class, Dickens, life, Royals, society, tradition, Victoria

At this time of the year there will be a lot of events mimicking what people imagine a Victorian Christmas was like and will base their view of it on Charles Dickens (1812-1870) books of life in England in the period. His life was in a period of great change in Britain, born in the Napoleonic period, grew up during the Regency under the Reign of George IV and then William IV. For the last 30 years of his life he lived in the period of Victoria and Albert from 1837 to 1870. In his lifetime the industrial revolution took old with all the horrors that entails in a age with no social policies and a society based on class in a pyramid structure.

His books are a moral tale of sorts and a critique of society where the new emerging middle-class is aping the Aristocracy and the gentry and imagining what the Royals are like in a day when the Royal Family was out of bounds for most of the population, a very remote idealized family, no Netflix back then and no social media. In fact until 1960’s one could not speculate in the media on the Royal Family, you would have been ostracized and the media were more respectful.

But to come back to the idealized view of Victorian society and Christmas, it is romanticized and made to amuse but is very far from daily reality. Mary Poppins on steroids so to speak. In Victorian times people like Ebenezer Scrooge were legion and they did not have a conversion moment like St-Paul in which they came to help the poor and provide them with the fatten goose, gifts and money. It would have been unheard of to lower oneself socially to the level of Bob Cratchit and his family. Social status and rank was everything. Dickens wrote that story in 1843 a bleak time in Britain and in other European countries for the working poor in cities, sub-standard tenement housing, debtors prison, workhouses, child labour, 18 hour days and no weekend or holidays, no rights, no unions and no voting in elections, something reserved for the powerful landowners. In fact the large proportion of people who today love this story would have found themselves in impoverished conditions on the wrong side of the tracks. Only the wealthy merchant class, the gentry, the aristocracy would have had a jolly good Christmas in their great homes while the servants toiled.

This is why I do not understand that attachment to a Dickensian/Victorian Xmas. It was only a good time for a precious few. As for our modern traditions born from commercialism and crass consumerism it’s phony as baloney. I much prefer traditions that come from either your family or traditions you developed and fashioned in your life and share with those who matter to you.

This year a more personal Christmas will probably be the rule, quiet at home. It will seem strange, yes, but maybe this is what Christmas is suppose to be and not what it has become in the age of Climate change and pandemics. Listening to Christmas music this year, I am not really in the mood. It all sounds like music of another era, a time long ago, somewhat like big band music of the 1940’s. I am so looking forward to 2021.

French Canada at Christmas

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Canada, Christmas, culture, Fir tree, French, French Canada, Latin, Music, Noel, tradition

A few days ago, a dear friend and blogger asked me to send him example of Christmas music from French Canada. The roots of French Canada goes back to 1534 and 1608 with the founding of Quebec City and then Montreal in 1642. There are also at this time the French settlements in the Maritime then known as Acadia from 1600 who have very similar tradition, in food, feasting, music and celebration.

As a child and growing up in Montreal and Quebec City and having uncles and aunts, cousins etc all close relatives numbering about 300, Christmas celebration were steeped in tradition from Old France and New France. Winter of course with lots of snow and cold weather, strong drink, lots of rich food and music surround the Christmas time. Our mother, aunts and grand parents made sure we knew well those traditions. Our schools also reinforced the cultural bond not to mention the Roman Catholic Church who saw itself in French Canada as the protector of French culture and heritage.

The Christmas tree was one tradition and when it would appear in the house. Usually in those days it was in the week after 15 December and would stay up until at least 7 January. There was always lots of stories around selecting a tree and putting it up and then the only acceptable tree was a traditional sapin (evergreen fir tree) symbol of immortality.

The food also was specific to the Holiday. There was never enough dishes it seems, and many came to celebrate en famille. There would be Ragout beef meat balls with pigs feet, a turkey with all the trimmings, tourtières (meat pies) everyone has a recipe on this pie, it was important to compliment the Chef on her tourtière and the crust. Mash potatoes and lots of gravy, peas and carrots. Then came the desserts, an incredible array, from the Bûche de Noël, to fruit cake, pastries stuffed with whipped cream, cookies, and of course chocolates. Everything was made from scratch, these were the days before supermarkets and processed foods. An enormous amount of work for the 25 December. The Eve was spent mostly at home and by 10:30pm it would be time to go to Church for the triple Xmas Mass and you got out around 1am. Usually followed by a Réveillon of rich foods and drink. When we were very young we did not go to Christmas Eve mass, but went to bed early because le Père Noël would be coming and we could not be awake. However when my mother was a child in the 1930’s, in those days the tradition was to give gifts around Epiphany 6 January and not on Christmas morning. A gift in her childhood was a book and an orange which was exotic and expensive and some clothing. How things have changed.

So when it comes to music, none of what you hear today in shopping malls or stores was known or played. Christmas music was at Church, in school concerts or at home in family dinners and gatherings. It was all traditional and we, as kids learned it by heart, you had to be able to sing with everyone else.

All this French Christmas music or most of it was composed based on text from the New Testament, Luke, 2, The birth of Jesus. The music was compose in the 17 and 18th Century to accompany the Roman Catholic Mass. It remains a staple today in a more secular world. It is part of the fundamental culture of French Canada.

You Tube has them all. Marc Hervieux, Tenor from Montreal who also has a music radio show on weekend on Radio-Canada devoted to opera and classical music is probably today one of the best singer in this category.

Here are some titles of the classics: Venez Divin Messie, Il est né le Divin Enfant, Minuit Chrétien, Ca berger assemblons-nous which was originally written in old French but modernized after 1789 with modern French and pronunciation and Les Anges dans nos campagnes which is in Latin and French since Mass was in Latin until 1964. All classics!

HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN!

Tags

Christmas, covid, life, Pfizer, the end, Vaccine

Today Health Canada has formerly approved the Pfizer vaccine and we will get 2 shipments one from Belgium and one from their lab in the USA. Inoculations will start next week and this means the end for Covid 19 and a better year for all of us. When the news was announced today around noon time, this song popped into my mind. Such a relief and the best Christmas gift.

Santa’s Parade

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Christmas, PEI, RED, Santa, Wreath

Everyone loves a good parade and here in PEI parades get a huge turn out. This year because of the Pandemic it was not possible to have the usual Santa’s Parade for obvious reasons. So the City came up with a novel idea, why not have the parade come to people at their home. So over a period of 10 days Santa’s Parade will travel to all the various neighbourhoods of the City. On Monday it all started in our Ward being the oldest part of the original City 1765. The parade is composed of several police cars with all lights flashing and 3 fire trucks covered in multicoloured lights, you cannot miss them, so much colour and noise. One truck has on top Santa’s sleigh with the reindeers, on one other truck we had our City Councillor and the third truck had frosty the snowman. It was fun and everyone from the front window or doorstep got to see it.

The Weather until at least mid-December will be very mild and there is no chance of snow, all that is fine with me. Mild Spring like weather, it’s all good.

We have a magazine called RED, it’s all about PEI and telling stories about the Island and its people. Of course the word RED refers to the soil of the Island which is red and produces a very sticky red mud. Many stories refer to the past and some to the distant past, of the old settlers and village life. To this day PEI is still mostly small settlements of a few people or small villages. People love to look at photos of yesteryear and read the stories of the Island. This magazine is the size of a tabloid newspaper and is published several times a year, it has acquired a certain aura and is the definite word on PEI Life.

I bought a wreath for our balcony and got miniature lights. Many this year started to decorate early and the stores sold out quickly in terms of Xmas decorative items. I was lucky I was looking for a small set of lights and those are not as popular as the larger sets.

With the rainy weather, today I started to write my Christmas cards and will send the first batch this week. We have weekend postal service since mid-November which is sort of a Holiday tradition. The volume of mail and packages this year is greater than in years past.

and our Xmas Dachshund doormat

St-Andrew’s Day

Tags

Berlin, Christmas, Noel, Scotland, St Andrew, winter

The 30 November was my father’s birthday and he would have been 90 this year. He died 5 years ago suddenly in July. His middle name was André though he did not like that name and never used it.

For the Scots it is their Patron Saint Day, and their Official National Day. They have been celebrating for 1000 years with various events like in Glasgow a spectacular torchlight procession through the city’s West End. Towards the north, the Oban Winter Festival is another annual community affair that celebrates Scottish culture on Saint Andrew’s feast day, with a whisky festival, haggis tastings, and performers singing traditional Gaelic and Scots tunes.

This weekend we had mild weather again and Friday was the Vendredi Fou or Black Friday, a phenomenon I still don’t understand but lots of Xmas lights and trees have gone up. Fellow blogger Dr Spo mentioned that one neighbour goes overboard with the lighting decoration each year.

I wonder if it looks like the Imperial Palace in Berlin all up in lights for the Christmas Holiday. This photo of 1905 gives an idea of what it looked like then. This year it is subdued to say the least, the opening of the new museum scheduled for 7 December has been pushed back to the Spring because of the Pandemic and lockdown in Berlin.

For our house I got a simple wreath until after the Birthday of Mr Will when we are authorized to decorate, then we surpass Macy’s. We will have photos on Instagram and on this blog. A lot of people have done early Holiday Season shopping, today I was looking for some lights to put on the wreath (see below) I found them but there was nothing else on the shelves, it sort of looked like panic buying.

Here in Charlottetown at Government House the Official Residence of the Lieutenant Governor of PEI at Fanningbank Estate (1834) the Christmas lights have been turned on. It is all very green given the very mild weather. Usually at this time of the year there would be quite a few official receptions and dinners but this year due to the pandemic everything was cancelled. The Lieutenant Governor follows carefully all the directives issued by the Provincial Chief Medical Officer.

As we enter December, our social calendar is rather quiet compared to previous years, it is to be expected. But we have to make an effort and be positive, the news of new vaccines in the New Year bodes well.

End of November

Tags

Christmas, covid, online, PEI, shopping, Weather, Xmas cards

Today it was 16C and warm here in PEI beautiful sunshine and frankly another record breaking day more like May than November. The weather person tells us that this Winter is going to be apparently wet rainy and icy but not much snow, I prefer wet to snow. We are back into a something like a lockdown but not really. The major thing is, we cannot leave the Island and frankly I would not want to, I really think it is not safe.

Today was Black Friday, I had to do some grocery shopping and buy some fish for dinner. I was looking for either Cod or Halibut filet, got Halibut which is my favourite in terms of flavour. Will made a gratin of Halibut in a cheese sauce, it was some good.

The traffic was murder and lots of little old ladies driving around at 5 MPH, it felt like I was living in a huge metropolitan area. Got it all done within 90 minutes and back home I went. Despite the traffic most people actually stayed home and shopped online, we do most of our shopping online now too.

I really have to get going on Xmas cards and I was going to do them this week but I got sidetracked with other things. Yesterday I gave a short talk on the Official Residence of the Lieutenant Governor and the architectural history of this 1834 building built in the Greek revival style or Georgian style. The Lieutenant Governor who is a Patron of our Club came to hear the talk.

This weekend will be quiet the Xmas Market has been cancelled on Richmond Street, which is unfortunate for the merchants but Public Health comes first. We also decided that we may have a very quiet Christmas Eve and Christmas day, we thought of asking a few friends over but everyone is nervous and if things don’t improve despite the fact we have only 1 case on the Island and a mild one at that, according to our Chief Medical Officer, we will re-assess.