Happy New Year 2020!

Some interesting facts about Auld Lang Syne:

Boogie Woogie Jingle Bells

This 9-year old has talent!

Merry Christmas!

Who doesn't love Johnny Reid and Natalie McMaster! Put your dancin' shoes on!

(and if you see this in an email, click on Some Favourite Things)

Merry Christmas!

Johnny Reid - "Go Tell It on the Mountain" from Margaret Malandruccolo on Vimeo.

And for anyone with some time and a yen to hear more from Natalie MacMaster, here she is a few years ago with her family. Only some of the children are hers, the others are cousins, all talented. The first and oldest girl is 12 in this 5-year old video. In the intervening years MacMaster and her partner Donnell Leahy have added more children to their family and they all dance and fiddle expertly and with great joy.

Yule Logs

I hadn't planned to say anything more about Christmas baking, because after Beatriz Muller, what could possibly be left to enthuse about!

It turns out that professional bakers in Paris create the most unbelievably creative and wonderful Yule Logs you could imagine (see above!). L'Éxpress France featured a slideshow of 25 best Logs recently and you can see them here: Lancer le Diaporama Photos. Here are a few Logs to whet your whistle ;) but you should go to the slideshow on the website to see all the photos with full descriptions of ingredients and cost. 

    

  

  

  

L'Éxpress is a French website but my browser asked if I wanted to translate to English and when I said, "yes", it did so in mere seconds. Isn't modern technology wonderful!

Beatriz Muller

If you live in Ontario and enjoy reading the LCBO publication Food and Drink, you might have picked up this holiday season issue.

There are so many wonderful articles, entertaining ideas and attention-getting recipes (who can say 'no' to eggplant bacon for heaven's sake!) that it would be worth your while to find one of these at your local outlet if possible.

On page 36 there's a 2-page spread about Beatriz Muller's amazing gingerbread creations (CakesbyBeatriz.com) Beatriz lives and works in Innisfil, Ontario and creates traditional European cakes using only best quality ingredients. Because she is somewhat of a perfectionist, I will give you her info directly off her website:

Beatriz Muller is an award-winning Certified Master Sugar Artist and Gingerbread Architect who has been decorating and designing custom cakes professionally for over 15 years. Known internationally for her cake art and gingerbread masterpieces, you can find her work in magazines around the world and see her compete on network television.

She has achieved many outstanding awards for her gingerbread creations, including first prize at the 2016 National Gingerbread House competition held annually at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina and second place just a couple weeks ago as well as the 2018 Grand Prize Winner on Food Network's "Holiday Gingerbread Showdown".

Food Network 2018

These houses are a far cry from the Christmas houses the kids and I used to put together every year using graham crackers and candies with molten sugar (!) and royal icing. I remember how much fun and work were involved in building those tiny houses and also the immense satisfaction we had with the final products.

Dream House 2016 Grand Prize Winner Asheville, NC

Getting photos of Beatriz Muller's gingerbread houses onto a blog post is so tricky - there aren't many photos out there and then you understand that you really need to be there to walk all around peer into the windows and crannies to see the incredible detail.

The structures require intensive planning and scale drawings, then pieces of gingerbread are trimmed to the millimetre after coming out of the oven. Beatriz' daughter helps her and I believe there are other members of the team as well. Can you imagine the effort involved in transporting it to the venue?

Here's a video of one of Beatriz Muller's most recent creations, Perspective House, which came second in the 2019 National Gingerbread House Competition in Asheville. Here's what she says about it:

"The way we choose to see the world creates the world we see" Barry Kaufman

Perspective was inspired by Escher's Relativity and Cinta Vidals Gravitas surreal paintings. It is a multidimensional piece and it shows a world where people are living among each other but on different planes of existence, with different worldviews, and the illusion of separation without realizing that they are all connected, sharing the same hopes and dreams for a better future. Surreal architecture calls into question the concept of stillness and movement, rigidity and constant flux, the concrete and the abstract, and buried within the dream is reality.

I don't want to close this blog post leaving readers with the impression that Beatriz Muller is only about fantastical gingerbread houses. She also creates wedding cakes, birthday cakes, Yule Logs and cookies and even gingerbread boxes filled with cookies. Her creations all look very impressive and if you live in the area north of Toronto it might be well worth your while to seek her out if you have a special occasion in the future. 

Check these out!

  

  

  

Chocolate Chiffon or Genoise Sponge Cake

Filling Options: Dulce de Leche/Nutella/Strawberries and Cream/Raspberries and Cream/Mocha (Kahlua inside)

Vanilla Chiffon or Genoise Cake

Filling Options: Peaches and Cream/Lemon Raspberry/Strawberries and Cream/French Vanilla/Vanilla and Chocolate Milk Mousse

Follow Beatriz Muller on 
Instagram: Cakes_By_Beatriz
Facebook: @CakesByBeatriz

and visit her Website:

CakesbyBeatriz.com

Manhattan Neighbourhoods

The only time I was in NYC I was 14 years old and the only things that really caught my interest were sites like the Empire State Building, Central Park and the United Nations. I had no feel for how the streets were laid out or what the various neighbourhoods were called. But now, 60 years later, having read a lot of novels set in NYC, I'm a bit more interested in how it all intersects, so when this map popped up in my Twitter feed, I was delighted and fascinated. It will definitely enhance my reading. I have it on my phone so I can zoom in for a better view.

Update on Anna McNuff BAREFOOT through BRITAIN

You might remember that I introduced you to Anna McNuff last June just as she was starting her barefoot run, 2620 miles, 100 marathons, through Britain. Here's the link in case you haven't seen it: Anna McNuff: Barefoot through Britain.

Anna ran up and down, though fields, forests, mud and worse, along tracks and tarmac-ed roads, over foot-friendly and -unfriendly surfaces and she has completed her self-imposed challenge. Along the way she spoke to Girl Guides everywhere, inspiring girls and young women to embrace difficulty, to be courageous and adventurous. 

Here's a very short recent interview.

Anna seems like a person who doesn't sit still for long, so it will be interesting to see what her next adventure is. 

The French Brexit Song

The French want their words back!

CanLit: Globe Book Club

Canadian literature - CanLit - got a lovely boost last spring when the Globe and Mail newspaper launched the Globe Book Club. The idea is that a Canadian author suggests a Canadian-authored book for us to read and then has an in-depth discussion with the author of the suggested book in which both authors give the reasons for suggesting/writing the book as well as discussing the content of the selection. Others chip in with their view and we all benefit - books' lives are rejuvenated, authors find their way back into the spotlight and the readers are reminded not only of fiction they may have missed a few years ago but also of what great minds we have in Canada. 

Last May Margaret Atwood led the way, choosing Barbara Gowdy's 2000 novel, The White Bone for reading/study. 

The White Bone, set in Africa, is told from the perspective of elephants. We share their innermost thoughts in a really creative and unique way and are challenged with ideas about the distressing fates of elephants in the wild, the effects of climate change, the rights or wrongs of anthropomorphism and other fascinating points of discussion. Find the wrap-up with video and other links to discussion topics here: Globe Book Club Spring.

At the beginning of November, the Globe Book Club asked for Canadian author Esi Edugyan's recommendation. Her choice, Jacqueline Baker's The Broken Hours, is a 2014 novel with another unique way of telling a story, fictionalizing the end of H.P. Lovecraft's life. 

Lovecraft, a real-life US horror fiction writer, is holed up in his 1936 Rhode Island mansion, still a young-ish man, but dying of cancer. Lovecraft hires a personal assistant, Arthor Crandle, who arrives at what seems a very creepy house and ghostly weird things start occurring that send shivers up his and our backbones. 

I anticipate fascinating discussions between readers and authors, don't you?

A link: Globe Book Club Fall 


I remember reading The Broken Hours a few years ago and even posted a review. Here it is! 

Thursday, April 16, 2015

The Broken Hours

Jacqueline Baker

The horror genre is not one I'm familiar with so, before picking up this book, I'd never heard of the early 20th century American writer H.P. Lovecraft.

Jacqueline Baker's The Broken Hours mirrors Lovecraft's style while relating the story of Arthor (this is his actual first name, not a spelling mistake) Crandle, a fictional live-in personal assistant hired by Lovecraft in 1936, just a year or so before the famous author's death from cancer at age 46.

Crandle moves into the eerily dark, quiet dingy, etc. etc. mansion in Providence, Rhode Island and becomes immersed in the ghostly quality of the house: locked rooms, people appearing, disappearing, reappearing, odd lights, debris, lack of comfort or warmth and so on. He and his reclusive employer do not meet until several days later, communicating instead through letters left on a table. Creepiness abounds and discomfort crescendos. 

Good ghost stories depend on a writer setting the scene using descriptive language, innuendos, and suggestion. Characters falter, making poor decisions, becoming delusional. Crandle is no exception and his first lie leads to so many more afterwards, he cannot find his way out of them. Then the end of the story comes along and is so appropriately weird, the reader no longer understands what is a lie and who is being lied to.

I enjoyed reading The Broken Hours. It was fun to have a brief sojourn into horror. I looked up information about H.P. Lovecraft and was impressed with how well his actual life details were integrated into Baker's story. What an interesting man he was! And what an interesting way Jacqueline Baker has of bringing him to our attention.

I recommend both of these novels. Following along with the Globe Book Club will only enhance the experience.

Remembrance Day 2019

This sculpture, erected in 2018 to commemorate the end of WW1 is a tribute to not only the human loss of life but also to the over 8 million horses and donkeys that also died. The war horse was placed in the grounds of Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, a county through which many of the horses passed on their way to the continent. 

Poppy falls for Remembrance are enormously popular community projects in the UK. I've featured them on this blog before - they are masses of handmade poppies joined together and cascading down buildings, castles, towers, bridges etc., forming a magnificent display and allowing people to remember in a tangible way. 

These hand-knit poppies are joined together in a massive blanket in Hertfordshire. 

One of the issues in Canada about a project such as this is the permission needed by the Royal Canadian Legion, which keeps firm control over the poppy and how it's made, used and portrayed. A group in Winnipeg, led by Sheilah Lee Restall who was inspired by projects in the UK, managed to get the Legion's permission and has been hard at work to bring a poppy fall to Manitoba.

       

Poppies can be knit, crocheted or woven - there's even a loom which will make quick work of a little poppy, though apparently some trial and error is involved, so if you are interested in taking on a project like this, I would advise you to visit the Poppy Blanket Facebook Page for tips. Also, there are many YouTube videos on creating poppies.

  

Details of the Winnipeg Poppy Blanket project can be found at PoppyBlanket.ca, including instructions on making the poppies and getting the community involved. Working right up until the last moment, the project revealed the blanket publicly at the Winnipeg Jets Game, Nov. 10. 

8000 poppies. 

Outstanding!

In the course of preparing this post, I found that there was a similar project at Calgary's Church of the Redeemer last year. 

UPDATE: The Winnipeg Poppy Blanket made an impact in the Manitoba Legislature after Remembrance Day.

Celebrating a Life

This little guy is a Wooly Bear Caterpillar. You probably won't see many around today, but a month ago they were all over the place.

In the fall these little 13-segmented beasties are all over roads and sidewalks, from North Carolina to the Arctic, each making steady progress to a cozy spot under a piece of tree bark or in a niche in a log or rock, somewhere out of the way where they won’t be stepped on, driven over or snatched up for a bird’s meal. As temperatures start to fall, they become lethargic- sluggish 😁- and eventually, they freeze from tip to toe. How amazing is that! In another miracle of spring, they come back to life, spin themselves a cocoon and eventually emerge as Isabella Tiger Moths. 

 

According to the Farmer’s Almanac, Wooly Bear Caterpillars can be used to predict the severity of the coming winter – the longer the brownish segment, the less severe the winter.  

www.almanac.com/content/woolly-bear-caterpillars-and-weather-prediction

Another life to celebrate is this blog's. 

Today is post #1000!

Some Favourite Things started up in March of 2011 and is still puttering along thanks to the encouragement of my family and friends and in spite of minimal blog promotion since it's mainly for my own benefit that I keep it up. 

I've noticed that in the last 8+ years some of the videos have disappeared. The videos here have been shared from YouTube and if a video is deleted from there it will no longer show up on here. 

There's also the annoyance that nobody can leave a comment, something I regret but seem unable to fix, at least not in any way that lasts.  Family and friends know they can email me their comments and others can find me on Facebook or Twitter. Comments are appreciated but rare and I'm ok with that.

Facebook:facebook.com/jean.heys

Twitter: @JeanHeys

Happy Halloween!

Remember this video from Halloween 2016? Still funny!

Keep your jack-o-lanterns away from the alcohol!

Carl Bovis Nature Photography

For a few weeks now I've been thinking about birds and photography, inspired by Canadian teenagers, Yeats McNally and Liron Girtsman. 

Goldfinch
Photo by Carl Bovis

Coincidentally, since 2017 I've been following a UK photographer on Twitter: Carl Bovis. He regularly tweets the most amazing bird photos captured during his roamings in the Somerset Levels to much admiration from the Twitterverse. His prints also appear in books and he has calendars, postcards, greeting and Christmas cards as well as prints and canvas-wrapped prints for sale on his website. Prices seem really reasonable and he ships around the world. 

Kingfisher
Photo by Carl Bovis

Website: Carl Bovis Nature Photography

Facebook: Carl Bovis Nature Photography

Twitter: @CarlBovisNature

Little Egret
Photo by Carl Bovis

During the summer Carl took a trip to Pembrokeshire in Wales to visit Skomer Island, a well-known breeding site of the Atlantic Puffin and came back with stunning photos. Here's one that he uses for his Twitter account.

The Audubon Photography Award

The National Audubon Society was founded in 1896 by 2 women, Harriet Hemenway and Minna B. Hall in Boston who hosted afternoon teas for women to share their concerns over bird feathers being used in millinery. From this humble beginning has come what is now a conservation, educational and advocacy group for North American birds. Here's a short video that will give you the best information:

Their website, National Audubon Society, is a treasure trove of information - an index on all the North American birds, with calls included, and tons of information and tips re birdwatching, photography, bird-friendly plants for your garden, gear and so on. They also have a free mobile app, highly regarded by the birdwatching community.

And if it's conservation or volunteering you have in mind, that's all on the website too. 

Golden-Crowned Kinglet
Photo: Brian E. Small

And then there's the link to the Audubon Photography Awards where you can find information for entering the contest and who the judges are as well as the winning photographs from 2019 and past years too. If you have some spare time I highly recommend a visit to browse through the photos from the last few years. Each photo has accompanying technical details as well as Bird Lore and the Story Behind the Shot. It all makes interesting reading.

2019
2018
2017
2016
2015

Happy Thanksgiving!

An Autumn Day in Muskoka

It has been a spectacular week. Members of my family may recognize some of these views ;)

The leaves above were actually bright yellow. I tried taking a similar photo in a different spot but couldn't capture the colour with my iPhone. They just appear green. This is a basswood, also known as a lime tree or a linden tree. We're thinking of putting a nursery specimen or two in our backyard at home to replace the crab apple trees that fell victim to fire blight in 2017.

This enormous beech tree beside our road and near our hydro line is now felled, thanks to Ontario Hydro. It succumbed a few years ago to an insect and fungal (combined) disease that is killing beech trees in this province. A pileated woodpecker started to work on the base of the trunk and we started to fear the worst, so now it's on the ground and small pieces of it are making their way to our fireplace.

(for scale)

The deer harvested the coleus when we weren't looking.