Happy American Thanksgiving
by Marja-Leena
by Marja-Leena a stimulating weekend
On Friday, November 16th, our youngest grand-daugther had her second birthday. November 16th is a significant date for me and as this blog is kind of a diary as well, I enjoyed looking up past posts on this date. Two years ago I wrote about Niamh’s birth in the very early hours, then later hanging my exhibition and then having my opening that evening. As a friend commented: ‘What an Opening Act for your Show!’
Last year I revisited that time and also wrote about a big storm here that resulted in what turned out to be a very long boil water advisory.
This year there were no new births, art openings or storms. As we do on special days, we enjoyed a lovely family celebration. My husband’s sister from Vancouver Island joined in the fun and afterwards came to spend the weekend with us. It was a full weekend of endless stimulating conversation. I’m usually fairly quiet, and so is my husband to a lesser degree, but when she’s around we do talk a lot. Saturday, a very gloomy rainy day, saw us around the kitchen table ALL day with and without meals and tea. Sunday was dry and cool and we talked and walked for a couple of hours, then talked even more around that table!
A teacher and school counselor for many years, currently teaching ESL, Brigitte Rathje is a life-long student and traveller, attends numerous conferences and workshops even internationally and has an enviable network of friends and colleagues. Articulate, passionate and compassionate about connecting with and helping other people, she has recently trained in clinical hypnotherapy and facilitation with the goal of a new career in retirement. She told us she wants to facilitate a state of emotional well-being and create clarity in people’s lives so they can expand into the fullness of their being, teaching skills and strategies to overcome self-limiting beliefs, thinking and negative self-talk. She sees a huge demand for this amongst the wave of boomers looking for ways to have full and happy retirement years. What an inspiration my husband’s ‘kid’ sister is!
Well, I got pretty excited and did a lot of talking too, as I shared my passion for blogging, for the wonderful community or ‘coterie’ that it creates as Joe Hyam wrote. Brigitte, already part of many communities, was the perfect candidate for using a blog to more easily keep in touch with these connections, and she had so many resources all ready to share. And it could become part of her eventual practice. I strongly encouraged her, and knowing that she was not yet comfortable with computers, described my own slow learning curve at first. I think she’s convinced and will talk to someone she knows who may be able to help her start. I’m looking forward to seeing her blog one day and to showing her off to my readers!
By Sunday night after our goodbyes, I was pretty exhausted by all this stimulating conversation. Today was a quiet day.
by Marja-Leena Saariaho and Sibelius
This seems to be the week for music themes on my blog. First, I learned that Kaija Saariaho has been named Composer of the Year by Musical America:
Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho swore she would never write an opera and then went on to win the 2003 Grawemeyer for her first one, “L’Amour de loin,” premiered at the 2000 Salzburg Festival. Her second, “Adriana Mater,” receives its U.S. premiere at the Santa Fe Opera next summer. The beneficiary of Finland’s remarkable musical education system, Saariaho is among the few contemporary composers to achieve public acclaim as well as universal critical respect. In the last decade alone she has had commissions from the major orchestras of Cleveland, Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, and Paris.
Finnish musicians have done very well. In 2005 the Musical America Award was given to the Finnish soprano Karita Mattila, while the Conductor of the Year 2006 was the Finnish conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen.
After I wrote about Saariaho and the opening of her second opera in Paris last year, I succumbed to temptation and bought the L’Amour de Loin DVD. I meant to write about it after viewing it but never got around to it – it’s fantastic – I must view it again.
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The second musical item is also about a Finnish composer. Thanks to Jörg Colberg who wrote:
I am currently reading Alex Ross’ The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, which I couldn’t recommend more – provided you have an interest in either the (cultural) history of the 20th Century and/or “classical” music. If you want to get an idea of the style and contents of the book, check out Alex Ross’ article about Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, which also appears in the book.
I’ve read some of Alex Ross’ excellent critiques on music, so this one really piqued my interest. It’s very long and very interesting for the biographical material as well as an analysis of Sibelius’ music in the context of its time. I learned some new things about Finland’s most revered composer and the eternal struggle that many artists suffer. In fact, some years ago we saw a very moving play about Sibelius in his late years when he could no longer compose music.
Some further links for interested readers (some expired links have been removed since this posting):
Ainola, the home of Aino and Jean Sibelius is not just a rustic cottage (below, as it is today)
The Jean Sibelius website
Wikipedia on Sibelius
by Marja-Leena at the symphony
When our granddaughter Lael recently celebrated her 7th birthday, we gave her tickets to go with us to the symphony. Because Lael is taking violin lessons, we chose a Russian Classics concert by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the very talented 19 year old Vancouver born violinist Caitlin Tully.
It was the first time for us to take her out like this and we were all pretty excited as we headed over to the beautiful old Orpheum Theatre on Saturday evening. We were a little concerned about the late night, way past Lael’s bedtime! But she was attentive and interested, fortified with a few illicit snacks and cuddles on grandfather’s lap. When Caitlin Tully began to perform, Lael sat tall, watched and listened enthralled.
At intermission, we asked if she was tired and wanting to go home. But when she heard that the Cinderella Suite (by Prokofiev) would be played, though at the very end, she was eager to stay. Lael listened and watched intently right up to about five minutes before the end, fell asleep, woke to clap and fell sleep again. When time to leave, she woke up happily, skipping as we headed back to our car, to drive her home.
Such a lovely evening of wonderful music for all of us, a delight for us to see it all through her young eyes! I think this is the start of a few more dates with our granddaughter.
by Marja-Leena long weekend storm
The Remembrance Day long weekend in British Columbia turned into an unforgettable one, weather-wise. A large area of the province from the coast to the interior was hit by a powerful storm, from Sunday evening until Monday afternoon. Falling trees damaged many homes and vast areas of power lines. At its peak, 196,000 homes were without power. Ferries were not running for many hours on Monday, causing backlogs for travellers trying to return home.
In our neighbourhood, we were lightly touched this time, losing power for only about 6 hours during the day yesterday. Our home remained a reasonably comfortable 18C, with 10C outside. Power was restored at dusk, just before we were going to light candles and start a fire in the fireplace to warm up the chili and make tea. Our phone line was unaffected, though we had to dig up the old rotary dial phone to call our daughters to check on how they were faring. Elisa’s family in Vancouver and Erika and partner in Surrey were unaffected. Anita and her partner, east of Kamloops, however have been without power since Monday morning and would not have it restored until today, hopefully. They’ve had a cold night at just above freezing, and without a working fireplace. I was very surprised that the storm reached that far northeast.
Some reports say this storm was as bad as last year’s big one on December 14th. The number of homes without power was almost as high this year, but I don’t think we’ve had the devastating losses in our parks this time around. I took the above photo a few days ago in a part of Cates Park which lost a huge number of trees last year.
Everyone is wondering if this year will be another year of numerous big storms, like the past year. In the 35 years we’ve lived here, it’s never been so stormy so often. Interesting times.
by Marja-Leena PEACE
Remembrance Day makes me angry
this glorification of war
this talk of ‘heroes’
this ‘conquering of evil’
My grandfather, father and uncles
fought in wars defending their country
They never spoke of the horror
the killing of brothers
the lack of choice in not bearing arms
Remember the commandment ‘thou shalt not kill’?
Wear a white poppy
Peace not war
Imagine a world without war
Imagine
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Which reminds me, this is a good time to mention a wonderful site:
Peaceful Societies, Alternatives to Violence and War.
by Marja-Leena silhouettes
a walk in the park
chasing clouds, dancing light
light and shadow, black and white
I agree with Olivia aboout walks.
Walks clear the mind, open the heart,
offer feasts for the eyes and food for the camera.
by Marja-Leena mushrooms in grass
Abundance in our backyard. Are they edible?
Working hard in the studio, no energy left for words.
by Marja-Leena leaves on glass
stained glass of
rusty red and yellow
birch leaves on wet skylight
Will they still be there when the frost comes?