Woodland Trust's Swatch Book

I got so happy a few days ago, when I stumbled on something I thought I had lost: rummagning through one ofmy drawers, I found this Woodland Trust's leaf identification swatch book. It was a gift from Mozart's Girl, I cannot remember why, but nevertheless it was a sweet gesture and a generous present. It is one of those little things you don't need, yet when you have them they are so darn fun to use. I used to carry it with me every time we went on a walk. I used to stop at the trees and see if I could identify them with the booklet. Then after we moved house and Wolfie came into our life, I lost sight of it. Well, not anymore. And I can't wait to learn about trees again thanks to it.

Purple Poppies

I mentioned yesterday that we took a walk in the local park, where the fences have been covered by poppies. Red poppies and blue poppies. Being a bit short on time when I wrote the post and horribly lazy, I published the picture of the wall of poppies without checking what the blue poppies meant. Rachel Lucas (AKA Mozart's Girl) commented that the blue poppies are to commemorate the work and sacrifice of the serving animals in wartime. A very kind and thoughtful gesture, as animals have been used and are still used at war and have been the victims of wars. My wife also told me that I should have asked her before posting, because she knew already. Anyway, I managed to do a bit of research after publishing the post and it appears that the colour is not blue but actually purple, it is a purple poppy. For more information on the various remembrance poppies seen on Remembrance Day and their significance, please read this article from the BBC. And I hope you will all commemorate today.

Blueberry brownies from Sugar Moon

I blogged before an enthusiastic "review" (more like a plug) about Sugar Moon's brownies, made by Mozart's Girl (well, Rachel is her real name). On Sugar Moon's Facebook page, she asked for suggestions about new brownies mixes, and I immediately came up with fresh blueberry. It was mainly out of pure regional pride: the blueberry is the emblematic berry of the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean. I also knew chocolate and blueberries make for a delicious mix. Rachel I think was skeptical at first, but she baked the blueberries brownies in the end and was generous enough to send me some complimentary samples. I was unworthy of this generosity, but here they are. I can only repay this by saying that I had my first one last night and it was even better than I thought it would be. I say it with some pride, as I came up with the idea. I just knew it. She blogged on her own blog about them. All I can say is that I hope she will make more of them.

The Brownies of Sugar Moon

Well, tonight is the full moon, and today is Saturday, and as it is a weekend tradition, I am going to plug a piece of local food from a local producer. This time it is the brownies from Sugar Moon, a new online business. It has been brought to my attention as it has been created by... Rachel Lucas, Mozart's Girl in person, who is not only as her internet name indicates a die hard admirer of my favourite composer, but also a baker. And what a baker she is! I knew already because my wife and I had tea with her and her husband three years ago and we had the chance to enjoy their hospitality and her cooking. I blogged about it of course.

So I discovered that she had changed her second blog's name  Baking Brownies for Mozart into Sugar Moon Brownies and in one post that she had this new bakery. I was intrigued, I wanted to try them, so I visited her website. I could not choose so decided for a sample menu. And the brownies arrived yesterday. Of course, Rachel does not do things in half, I mean you don't nickname yourself Mozart's Girl when you are a baker to do anything short of amazing, so the presentation was in itself worth the purchase. They were elegantly wrapped in packages, as you can see form the top picture. I almost felt guilty opening them. Then again, I could smell the fresh brownies, so my hesitation lasted about thirty seconds, but I had time to take a few snapshots. There were also a postcard with a kind word from Rachel (don't know if this comes in every package) and a piece of paper with another kind word and a tip about the brownies: try them heated in the microwave for 20 seconds, accompanied by a bit of ice cream. I just might do that. And then brownies themselves are delicious. I think my favourite is salted caramel. But it might change with my mood. So anyway, for those living in the UK, you should try it for a sugar boost.

Mozart's Birthday

It is Mozart's Girl who reminded me today on Facebook: today is the 258th birthday of Mozart. 258 years, and still the greatest. So anyway, this year I haven't missed it. But how to celebrate, this is always a bit tricky. As I came to Mozart through  his operas mainly, and since he is as far as I'm concerned the greatest opera composer, bare none, it made sense that I upload an aria from his operas. I know I already chose Una donna a quindici anni from Cosi fan tutte before, but as I talked to my godson about Danielle de Niese, this is the one that came to my mind. Happy birthday maestro. You are the best.

Mozart to commemorate Mozart

As Mozart's Girl reminded me today (I need her to remind me as I am rubbish with remembering dates), it is the 220th anniversary of Mozart's death. As I commented on her own post, it is fitting that he died in December, as he became as a composer a Christ-like figure (and to me a much worthier Christ than Jesus, but that is for another post), with the fitting middle name of Amadeus. Wolfgang was also fitting enough, has he had something of the wildness of the animal. He died at 35, which will be my age next year. I think how little I have done so far in my life and on how much he did. He composed the greatest music, my favourite opera (maybe the greatest opera ever), he did all this and he never reached 40.

So how do one commemorate Mozart? By listening to Mozart of course. Or by singing it, which I might do tonight. I decided to put here his Kyrie from his Great Mass in C Minor (which incidentally I already put on this blog years ago) I thought the Requiem would have been too obvious.That said, I will place here the version used in the soundtrack of Amadeus. I may never sing the role of Don Giovanni on stage, but I do hope that I will play the character Salieri one day.

Discovering the blogging community

It has been a week since we visited Mozart's Girl. I thought a lot about it afterwards. The cake was finished quickly (well of course). But the memory of the time stays with me. I have discovered through it something that strangely I hadn't quite grasp, or felt completely before: that there are people behind these blogs. It was a bit of an epiphany. We communicate in the virtual world, yet what feeds these blogs is the material one. And it is important to keep in touch.

So I decided that I will try to meet more of my fellow bloggers in the future. Hopefully around meal time (I am terrible aren't I? But hopefully I will cook for some of them) and feeling carefully safe that none of them is a psychopat. When Cynthia from Sur un Boeing Bleu de Mer visits London, I will try to meet up.

Oh and I will beef up the blog roll. Promise.

Tea, cake, scones and Mozart

Well, blogging certainly has its benefits, like my wife and I had the pleasure to discover recently: because we were passing by where Mozart's Girl lives we stopped there for tea. I ate among the best scones I had in life, drank lots of tea, with Mozart in the background. You cannot be better received than this and it is pretty much my idea of a great Sunday afternoon.

Since the cake was not ready when we arrived she was generous enough to give it to us. I hope she does not mind that I put the picture here. She was embarrassed by its appearance, I still haven't figured out why. Probably because she never saw any of mine. Artists are perfectionist with their work. I thought the frosting on the top was such a nice touch.

It was strange to meet for the first time in the flesh people whom I have known online for quite a while now. The idea of an online community takes its full meaning. We spend months, sometimes years in their company. Meeting them enhances the experience. It is the icing on the cake, so to speak. I cannot thank her enough for her hospitality, so this post is the least I can do to show my gratitude.

Where to write

Maybe it is because Leigh Russell will be hosting a creative writing workshop in the South of France and because Mozart's Girl blogged about Beatrix Potter and the Lake District, anyway I thought quite a lot about writing places. I mean you write in a setting, a place where you can get your mind focused on the task ahead and which hopefully gives you inspiration, whether it is to blog like I do or to write a novel or whatever. J.K. Rowling started writing Harry Potter in a train, which is a lovely place to read when the journey is long, but I never thought it was the ideal place to write. She used to write in cafés too, which again I find a lovely place to read, but too public to write. During my years as an undergraduate, some cafés in Montreal were simply overcrowded with aspiring poets and writers. I wonder if they published anything.

I always dreamed of having an attic room to work in. This would be for me the best place to write. It is usually quiet, you feel closer to the elements, far away from the busy rooms of the house, it just fits writing. And you can always look out the window when you cannot find inspiration. I sorely lack an office in an attic room in this attic flat. I guess the basement could work well for writing. A garden too, if it is quiet enough and if the weather is nice.

Now if we widen the focus and thinkof writing environment, the ideal place depends of what you are writing. For any kind of fiction, the French midi seems like a pretty good place. Since I consider crime fiction mainly an urban genre, I think I would rather write it in a city (you know which one), with just enough noise and a crime history for source material. If I ever write horror stories, I hope my attic room will be in a quiet English village. There is nothing more deliciously sinister as quiet English villages. If I wanted to write fantasy, I would probably choose an English village too. But of course, one would have to be quite wealthy to afford the luxury of writing in so many places, depending of his mood and what he is writing. I suspect this is why successful writers often owned many houses. Others have to compromise. Given the choice, I would choose an attic room, wherever it might be, to write anything.

The birthday of Mozart

I am lousy with birthday dates, I mean very lousy. So I am happy that Mozart's Girl reminded me on her food blog that today was the birthday of Mozart. I have been listening to his arias all evening. That is the best way to celebrate I think, on a week night when I was not planning anything anyway. I could sing some of them, but that might drive my wife mad.

So I was not expecting to put music on this blog so soon, but the circumstances now force me. The best way to celebrate Mozart is to listen to his music and have people listen to it. As I said before, I came to Mozart through his operas. It is logical that I put an aria here tonight. Which one is the question. I thought my readers might get a bit tired of listening to baritone singing stuff I used to sing or wished I had sung and it makes me green with envy when I listen to them, so I have decided to put an aria sung by Danielle de Niese. Sure, she is not Natalie Dessay who is my favourite soprano now, but I still feel guilty for blogging some mean things about Danielle de Niese a while back. I mean, the girl was in the Met at 19! At that age, I had barely started learning to sing. And I never master it enough, let's be honest. Anyway, she sings Una donna a quindici anni from Cosi fan tutte very nicely there, with just mischievious and bubbly enough to make us forget that we are in a concert. Singing in character, with character. And well, it's Mozart in all its simple beauty.

Mozart and a commemoration

On the 5th of December, I usually blog about The Legend of Saint Nicholas. I still might later on. But Mozart`s Girl reminded me that today is Mozart's death anniversary. And to my great shame I don't think I ever commemorated it here. So here it is.

I blogged about Mozart fairly often, especially about the special relationship I have with his operas. It is through his lyric works that I mainly know and love Mozart. Back in 1991 (I think it was in May), when I was a teenager, my family and I visited Austria, which was therefore during his 200th death anniversary. We visited Mozart's world more than Austria this year, and spent many evenings going to concert, operas, etc. I was hooked for the next Summer. A few years later I got sick of it and listened to other things, mainly XIXth century composers. I got hooked again a few years later. Now his operas are my favourite to sing. I put a lot of his music here and I wanted to put some more to commemorate his death. I thought of his Hallelujah from Exultate Jubilate, but I could not find a good enough version on Youtube to embed here. Most of them simply had an awful sound. But I found this interpretation which is very nice, although I cannot put it here you can follow the link and enjoy it there.

Hey, I won something!

Blogging can be quite rewarding sometimes. So yes, because we share similar musical interests, I got the attention of a fellow blogger who decided to reward me with a giveaway gift. Thank you to Mozart's Girl for offering me this really nice gift! I will use this leaf identification book from the Woodland Trust for my future walks in the woods. I can barely wait.

Writing from the attic room

I am one spoiled blogger, as I said recently. Today, I even think that I am spoiled rotten. As I am writing this, I am in an attic room in my in-laws's house. I say attic room and it is not quite the attic, but it is on the floor above ground and one of the walls follows the angle of the roof. I love this particular kind of rooms in a building, I feel like it is a particularly stimulating environment to live in.

So we are on holidays visiting my wife's family. usually when I use the computer, I would squat in the computer room when there is not too many people (so I won't bother anyone with my typing). But my father-in-law installed this computer in a small room next to our bedroom. It is a perfect working place. I can see the garden from the window and it is just small enough to feel like a creative nest (I often compare attics to a nest).

I discovered this recently (probably because of this post from Mozart's Girl ): in my everydaylife, in my own flat in an otherwise lovely attic (as most attics are), I lack a proper writing room. I had this when I was living in Montreal (but it was also my bedroom, so it also made me an insomniac), but not since then. Some place remote from distractions, where I can devote time and energy to writing. If I was a serious writer and not merely a blogger, I would probably want a room like this. I would probably need a library full of books next to the desk where I have the computer, I would also cover the walls with atmospheric posters and ideally I would have a cat close to me, as for some reason I think they are the perfect animal companions for this solitary creature that is the writer.