A Summer's Day in a Neighbourhood - FernFest Review

Another lovely summer’s evening in Victoria. After a very ordinary day’s housework, watering my container gardens and setting bread to rise I took a bus to the Victoria neighbourhood of Fernwood. I had learned of Fernfest, that neighbourhood’s annual celebration of their community. It was held yesterday and today, so I was getting into things rather late in the day. In the square in front of The Belfry Theatre on Fernwood Road in Victoria. Fernwood is known as a funky and artsy part of Victoria. 

When I arrived,

live and lively music was filling the square. People of all ages were spilling out into the adjacent school yard, sitting on the steps of the Belfry, originally a church but now a theatre for live plays. There was  swaying and dancing in front of the musicians at the bandstand. Tables were set farther back with people

gathered with their eats and treats. I only stayed long enough to squeeze through the midway-like crowd, eat a sausage-dog with sauerkraut and relish, and drink a glass of ginger beer. The discovery of their Wishing Tree intrigued me - tags tied ‘round the trunk, a sharpie available for people to write their wishes on a tag. Several of us read through them all. Finding a blank side, I picked up the sharpie and added my own wish, wishing for good health. Most of them were wishing for goodness, peace or kindness. One was a wish for the moon in very childlike handwriting. There were a two or three that were wishes for relief from pain. Of course, beautiful tattoos and purple hair were in abundance on the street. Not just purple, but all shades of magenta, pink and yellow. And the balloon man - a clown costume minus face paint and a red nose - was making colourful balloon poodles and puppies. I watched as he patiently made a special purple puppy and, to help a young mom out, gave it to a very unhappy little girl. I was not there long but being in that busy, happy community was a very pleasant interlude to an ordinary day. 

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand 

fibres connect us with our fellow man.”

~ Herman Melville

Author's note: Edited March 12, 2024

Dee Dee Bridgewater and the Memphis Soulphony at the Royal Theatre

I saw it on Facebook on June 21st. (that was yesterday afternoon). Dee Dee Bridgewater and the Memphis Soulphony to play at the Royal Theatre June 22nd. It sounded interesting. A quick phone call to a friend confirmed that we both wanted to attend, never having seen or heard of Dee Dee Bridgewater before. But jazz was offered on this opening night of the 35th annual Victoria JazzFest so a spur of the moment decision was made. Tickets surprisingly were still available so I booked them last evening. Dee Dee Bridgewater and the Memphis Soulphony was a sparkling discovery on this quiet Friday evening.

The Tony Genge Organ Trio, a local group, opened the evening with jazz medleys on organ, guitar and drums. They were lively and entertaining warming up the audience for the exciting performance to follow. Dee Dee Bridgewater, a three time Grammy winner and a Tony Award winner has had a colourful career including acting and directing. Born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1950 her music career began in her high school years and is still going strong. Full of energy, she shared the stage with her back up singers and her band, specifically singing and sometimes dancing with each of them. She, and the Memphis Soulphony, engaged the audience in rhythm and song. We heard some history of jazz (a babysitter of her’s was Carla Thomas, daughter of jazz legend Rufus Thomas), history of The Little Rock Nine in 1957 and just plain story telling. At the end of the performance, she insisted that we all stand up and share in the music and so we did. Clapping and responding to her music, swaying and dancing in the small spaces of this grand opera theatre. We had fun. 

“I like musicians who look at the public. You have to bring 

the music to the largest number. Otherwise, we’ll [the jazz players] 

stay in the clubs. Jazz must be accessible to everyone.”

~ Dee Dee Bridgewater

Author's note: Edited March 12, 2024

A Cat Tale - A Furry Change of Pace

In my wanders through papers and photos I discovered these two pictures. Phoebe was the last kitty I’ve had in a very long line of kitties. She was quite precious and came from an SPCA. My other discovery, a week after I had her with me, was that she was pregnant. Although the SPCA would have taken her back, I was quite enamoured with her and took her home with me. Two lovely kittens were born. One, a big fellow and the other, a bit smaller. It was four o’clock in the morning, in about 2002. I was sleeping peacefully when Miss Phoebe came up on my bed in great distress. The birthing was there and then. Phoebe had two little ones, later named Howe and Marvin. (Phoebe’s looking quite offended with the flash disturbing her.) Marvin, from the day he was born, was hungry, hungry pushing his way in to nurse. Howe, with his big eyes and large Tabby ears, was always just a lovely kitty.

A kitten is the delight of a household. All day long 

a comedy is played out by an incomparable actor.”

~ Champfleury, The Cat Past and Present

World Refugee Day

Today is World Refugee Day, a day for raising awareness about the plight of refugees and displaced persons around the world. Reports this year are that there are more refugees globally than in any year past. Images of families and whole communities moving nomadically across the globe to find safety. Emotional and physical safety, in countries where they can breathe freely and live freely.

I have moved several times in my life, but moving from one place to another, is just not even remotely like the movement of a refugee. I have been able to choose my destination, choose the work I will be doing, choose what grocery store I will shop at and rest at night in safety. A person who is a refugee is ‘a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster’. Discovering the details that each individual, family and community face are challenges that each new country must meet with compassion and concern - not just for the refugees but for their citizens. Refugees are moved involuntarily, they are turned away from borders, they are put in camps and shelters never knowing if they will have enough warmth, food or bathroom facilities. The very fabric of families and communities are torn - not just ripped a little bit in one corner, but violently ripped apart and trashed. Heart and soul. 

It is easy to think of refugees coming only from Europe, Africa or Asia. Even though we welcome refugees and immigrants into our communities, it seems somehow distant. Someone else’s problem. It’s not really that close. But here on our own continent? Unfortunately, there is similar turmoil not that far from our own borders in the past week. I have felt helpless to do anything but push a ‘share’ button hoping that many others will do the same so that the world knows that refugees are not from across the pond, but are here with us as well as the political machinations that create the walls and dams to manage those that are seen as problems rather than human beings in need.

“Taking Mom’s hand, I whispered “Are we really safe, here?””

~ Alwyn Evans, Walk in My Shoes

Movie Review - Book Club directed by Bill Holderman

Giving a serious review of this movie is rather difficult. Especially when there were some that really panned it as fluff, as a nod to the older woman, as a shameless vehicle for the book Fifty Shades of Grey - which is all true. Seriously though I and my friends laughed out loud, shed a tear or two and really rather enjoyed it. Four rather mature in age girlfriends had shared a book club for forty years, meeting once a month according to the script. Jane Fonda, as Vivian, played the role of a successful hotelier who had shied away quite dramatically from real love for her entire life - that is until Don Johnson, as Arthur came back into her life. Diane Keaton, as Diane, a widow of just a year with daughters that saw her as frail and helpless, fell reluctantly in love with Mitchell, a wealthy air line pilot played by Andy Garcia. Mary Steenburgen, as Carol, was a renowned chef and still married to the love of her life, Bruce, played by Craig T. Nelson, who had recently retired, losing interest in anything intimate, let alone sexual. Candice Bergen, as Sharon, a federal court judge, had been divorced without any relationship for eighteen years and saw no need for such nonsense. She was dared by these friends to get back in the dating game and signed herself up to a dating service. There she met George, played by Richard Dreyfuss and Derek, played by Wallace Shawn, before cancelling that account as a bad idea. 

The script was full of sexual innuendo and if I had only paid attention to that I would indeed have put my nose up in the air and agreed with Sharon (Candice Bergen) - a bad idea. To discover depth to this story made the movie something more. The four women, Vivian, Diane, Sharon and Carol, shared the worries of women growing older that still do want romance but are afraid that game is and should be over and done with. Women often do feel a shudder of invisibility that can come with the passing of time. At the same time, these girls that had become strong, but vulnerable women, still loved to share details of clothes and boyfriends. The book they chose appeared to be merely a vehicle for the story, because it was not an extensive part of their dialogue.

So, if you don’t like chick flicks - whether adolescent or very mature adolescent - please don’t go. If you like any or all of the cast, and it is a great cast, go to watch them take this story and have fun with it. I know that I certainly had fun with it. (For my tastes, there was a bit too much wine involved, however that did play well with the story. And there is a scene starring Viagra.)

“Ladies, we should not go gentle into the good night.”

~ Vivian (Jane Fonda), Book Club

Director - Bill Holderman

Cast

Jane Fonda - Vivian

Diane Keaton - Diane

Candice Bergen - Sharon

Mary Steenburgen - Carol

Andy Garcia - Mitchell

Don Johnson - Arthur

Craig T. Nelson - Bruce

Richard Dreyfuss - George

Wallace Shawn - Derek

Discovering No-Knead Bread

My first attempt at No-Knead Bread has been pretty darn successful! The crust is a little dark, but doesn’t taste burned. I had my doubts about the recipe and the dough. The recipe was far too simple - flour, water, salt and a 1/4 teaspoon of yeast. The rising time - now that was just weird. Eighteen hours for the first rise! And then punched down, let rise two or three more times! But I was determined - I wanted a bread that was similar to one I buy at the store. When I discovered this recipe online, and then the same recipe in a book I’m reading (136 Recipes that Saved My Life by Ruth Reichl) I had to try it. Strange or not. The dough was sticky and wet. I couldn’t see how it would amount to anything. Did I mention the temperature of the oven? 475 degrees. And the cast iron pot that the dough was to be cooked in was to be heated up as well as the lid. Getting the dough into this dangerously hot dutch oven was a challenge but I did it without burning myself. Baked for 30 minutes, the lid was to come off and the round loaf of bread I saw was nothing short of amazing. It was a beautiful caramel colour and I was tempted to take it out right away. But, I followed the directions and left it in without the lid for 15 more minutes. I really think it could have come out about five minutes earlier because it seems a bit too dark. It is delicious, though. Crusty, chewy and sweet although no sugar was added. Ruth Reichl says that the additional rising times make a difference to the flavour of the bread. 

“Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; 

and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.”

~ James Beard

136 Recipes that Saved My Life - My Kitchen Year

By Ruth Reichl

Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Bread Recipe at leitesculinara.com

In the Bright Sunshine

Far from the prairie fields 

where my dad spent hours on the tractor plowing, planting and harvesting

to discover that out here on the west coast

where flowers, trees and gardens flourish

it was hard to imagine

that this so very different landscape would remind me in so many ways of him ~

  Today's bright sunshine and cloudless skies

  Tall waving grasses allowed to grow and seed

  Roses in yards and gardens, wild or tended

  The deer that wander through our yards

  The work-smudged face of a young man at the bus stop

  Ice cream and little kids 

  Even rocks piled and sheltering ‘Hens and Chicks’ 

I guess that memory is not tied to a specific place

except tucked in the button down, front pocket of my heart

“Dad, wherever you are, you are gone but you will never be forgotten.”

~ Conrad Hall