Happy New Year!

from The New York Library Digital Collection

Alma Deutscher

Hilda brought my attention to this recent clip from 60 Minutes of this amazing talented 12-year old and I have to share it.

Alma Deutscher has been an extraordinary talent from a young age, writing and playing her own compositions on both piano and violin and even composing an opera, Cinderella at age 10.

Here she is with Ellen 4 years ago. 

Hum if You Don't Know the Words

Hum if You Don't Know the Words
Bianca Marais

One word: okay, two: READ THIS!

This wonderful novel is set in apartheid-era South Africa of the 1970's. Be very glad you did not live there at that time!  

The story centres around two main characters: Robin, a 9-year old white girl whose parents are murdered by blacks during the Soweto uprising and Beauty, a black educated woman, a teacher, who loses her 19-year old daughter to the militants' cause in the black uprising and is desperate to recover her.

The lives of these two characters merge and the story is heart-wrenching. 

The author, a South African by birth, has landed in Canada and has taken a creative writing course through the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Toronto. She has learned her lessons well because the novel is hard to put down, the emotional impact is significant. I dare you to read this novel and not be moved. 

Merry Christmas!

Waiting for Santa

To-Do List

I Am a Truck

I Am A Truck
Michelle Winters

I Am A Truck by Canadian writer Michelle Winters is a slim volume and a quick and charming read. I was drawn to both the intriguing title and the fact that I Am A Truck was short-listed for the 2017 Giller Prize, my intention being to read all 5 of the shortlisted books. 

I was drawn in from the first page and instantly fell in love with married Acadians Agathe and Réjean and car salesman Martin Bureau. Other characters are equally charming and also quirky enough to hold the reader's interest.

The author's writing is crisp, moving the story ahead briskly. She has fun with the tension between English and French, such a Canadian phenomenon, often using a fractured combination of both - Franglais - all without any translation, which in any case is not really needed for anyone with the least knowledge of French. Anyone who loves language will enjoy Winters' writing.

E.g. "C'est ben son lunch. Y'avait laissé dans son truck."

After connecting the cables to jump a battery: "Bon. Try-le."

"C'est un town full of losers."  

Another fascinating character in the novel is music: specifically Acadian folk music vs. rock and roll. 

I don't really want to give away the plot. Just know that there are a few surprises awaiting. Pick up this little book and enjoy!  

                            

Bridge Building Machine

Ingenious and everyone with specific tasks.

Curious About Throat Singing?

The Jerry Cans, a musical group from Nunavut in Canada recently released a new album. Northern Lights is one of the songs, unique since it incorporates the Inuit traditional throat singing.

In this next video Nancy Mike, the Jerry Cans' throat singer, explains to a class of elementary school kids in British Columbia how to throat sing. The kids seem really excited and interested in learning this innovative technique. Maybe it's a good Winter Solstice activity!

Late Fall in King Township

There's snow in the forecast this week but last week there were some outstanding warm sunny late fall days. Nature was in festive mode, self-decorating.

Season's Festive Greetings

It was a fine but cool day in Niagara. Here, at the Romance Estate, formerly owned by artist Trisha Romance, there was an hour and a quarter line-up to enter during the Holiday House Tour sponsored by the local Rotary Club. Yes, the wait was worth it! 

Outdoor dining room

The photos above were all from the Romance Estate.

The next 3 photos are from other places in Niagara-on-the-Lake, a pretty town at any season of the year.

Anybody know what this shrub with the clustered berries is?

Final 4 photos are from our front entrance. Very proud of these two arrangements by our 13-year old granddaughter. The first sits in front of the dining room window, the other on our porch. I probably look at them more often than anyone else :)