Summertime

I surely do love my days off. I wake when I want, eat what and when I want, do what I want all the day long and enjoy every minute. I have to go to town tomorrow so this was an at-home day. It was absolutely wonderful. I did a hundred chores and none of them seemed like work as I was able to putter and do everything with a devil may care attitude with deadlines but no particular timeline. I still have lots to do such as supper, folding laundry, visiting a shut-in, and preparing some artwork for the consignor. I'll do it all with love. The food will taste better, the visit will be sweeter and maybe some of my best pieces will be chosen for sale. Laundry - it will still and always be just laundry.

My summer calendar is filling up. My daughter is moving back to the Maritimes and we will see each other for a lot of the month of July. We have a trip away planned. I have another adventure planned in August. This one has been in the works for many years. Two old roommates and I from 1972 have planned to meet in the middle , Moncton, and have finally set a date. I so look forward to it. I've seen both women in the meantime but they haven't seen each other since ' 74 or '75. One is coming from Alberta.

Yesterday's post was entitled Summer Time and could be again today since it too is related to summer and the epitome of time, the calendar. I think this time we should play a couple of versions of the classic with the same name. Unless I had much more 'time' I could not count how many versions I have of this song in my record collection. Here are a couple of versions: The live version of Summertime by Nina Simone is a treat and wonderful for any jazz lover (she mentions Porgy) and Summertime by Janis Joplin is probably one of the most well known pop versions. Though I love both, neither are my favorites but I'll save those for another time this summer.

An early post today. Sometimes cooking is about timing and the cannelloni that I'm making today requires me to be stuffing tubes instead of blogging at the usual time.

My son who lives away bought a house in September with established gardens and is now experiencing all of the beds sprouting new growth. He doesn't know what everything coming up is but he does know he has a ton of rhubarb. He asked me if I had recipes and I am going to send him this one so thought I'd share. The recipe is for Rhubarb Torte, a delicious meringue topped dessert that is popular in the Maritimes. I love it and would not dare to make any as my son who lives with me does not like rhubarb and I'd eat the whole thing. I love it that much!

I have a friend who believes Canadians should celebrate a National Rhubarb Day. Rhubarb grows in all provinces and territories and is in the conscious memory of us all. He might have a good idea. There is a Dandelion Festival in this province so why not.... but across the country!

Rhubarb Torte

Base:
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. sugar
1/2 cup soft butter

Filling:
1 1/4 cup white sugar
2 tbsp. flour
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup cream or canned milk
2 1/4 cup rhubarb in 1 inch pieces

Meringue:
3 egg whites
1/4 cup white sugar

Crumble first 4 ingredients & press into an 8x8 pan.
Bake at 325* for 25 minutes.
Combine ingredients for filling and cook until thick and clear. Cool.
Pour over base and cover with meringue. Brown at 425* for 5 - 10 minutes. Serves 9.

It needs a bit of time as it is a 3 part recipe and you need time for the filling to cool before you put it together. I think it's worth it.

Because not everyone likes rhubarb and think it's strange, today's song is Strange Fruit from Nina Simone. Her version gives me shivers. Two more versions are from Billie Holiday and a Remix of the Billie version from Verve Remix.

The photo is of a rhubarb flower. I let one of my rhubarb plants flower every year and use the flower in an outdoor arrangement. It can't be brought into the house because of droppings that come off it but outside it is beautiful. I will put the photo of another rhubarb arrangement up tomorrow.

We Love Spring Rain

I had a wonderful time with my little break yesterday. I planted sweet peas in pots though I'm not finished. I took 39 photos of the cats on the garden wall. A friend dropped in for a visit and I felt satisfied with the day. I had gone to town in the morning to run errands and outdoors was such a call when I came home. It's hard to confine me for too long. I've told you that one of my favorite all time songs is Don't Fence Me In. I've got tons of versions of the song and I've linked my favorite.

We're having wonderful spring rain this afternoon. It didn't start here till right before noon but I heard all morning on the radio that it was raining in Charlottetown. It's funny how many locations have their own micro-climate. We're just across the water from Ch'town and they get so much more rain and snow. The grass has greened in the last couple of hours and the daffodils have grown higher. I have quite a few open now and some forced forsythia in bloom as well. I trimmed back a huge forsythia bush and have a huge bunch taller and bigger around than me in a florist bucket that I will give to friends when it is in bloom. The bunch I have blooming, I cut a week ago.

Had to have a little break here. Windows Media Player was stuck in Limbo somewhere, necessitating a restart of the computer. It may be complaining of too much use or something. All seems well now so I can proceed with today's music. I Think It's Gonna Rain Today is my favorite Randy Newman song. Here's a version by David Grey, one by Nina Simone, and one from the great Randy Newman himself. Didn't realize those were up already. Madeleine Peyroux's live version is here too and here's some new songs for today; Karen Dalton with one version of Little Bit of Rain and one by Fred Neil. I was reminded of Karen Dalton because in this song I think she sounds like Madeleine Peyroux.

Spring a Ling

For two days in a row we've had a large yellow thing in our sky that hasn't been seen in so long we almost forgot what it was. Sunshine!!! It is the same temperature today as yesterday - ten, but there isn't a cold north wind blowing so it is glorious. I wanted to go for a walk but have been waiting the whole day for a repairman which is one of the most frustrating things one must do.

I discovered I still had another version of A Change Is Gonna Come in the music pages. It is the Idol audition by Taylor Hicks. Randy and Paula love him but Simon says he'll never make it. Was he ever wrong!

You know I have to have spring songs for today. Spring Is Just Around the Corner by Sasha Dobson is about perfect to begin with. The John Butler Trio, the label mates of The Waifs, and Richard Shindell both have songs entitled Spring and Spring and All by Greg Brown will fit that bill. I'm feelin' so good about this weather that I want to say just that. Levon Helm will help and so will Nina Simone. They both have completely different songs with the same name - Feelin' Good.

In The Past

I've had a few disappointments lately when going to my YouTube bookmarks. Some of the performances that I watched regularly are gone. I linked Nina Simone's early version of I Loves You Porgy here a couple of times. It is gone. There is one of her performing it as an older woman that is still up but the six minute version where she's very young and so vulnerable has no comparison. I made a comment on the newer version and have had notifications from Youtube that there have been replies. It seems as though several people have been missing it. One person said that s/he watched it every day. I watched it every month or so.

Many videos of Van Morrison concerts have disappeared as well. I watched these regularly as well. The bookmarked pages say that the media has been removed due to a copyright claim by Van Morrison. I don't understand how someone can own a performance. Once the sound waves are out there and the concert has been performed in public can the person who sang a song own the performance of it? It's all very confusing to me. I just know I miss these wonderful performances and hope they come back again. I will keep checking.

I just clicked on I Loves You Porgy by Nina Simone on my music pages and discover that it's gone from there as well. Another essential song to reinstall. One of the YouTube Van videos I played a lot is This Weight from one of my favorite albums of his, The Healing Game. They're the picks for today.

Update: Ralph's suggestion in the comments helped me find a copy of the 6 minute Nina Simone. I'm so happy to share this wonderful, wonderful version of I Loves You Porgy....for the third time.

Blues In The Night

Click to Play:
Midnight At the Oasis - Renee Olstead
Midnight At the Oasis - Maria Muldaur
Mood Indigo - Nina Simone
Blues in the Night - Katie Melua
Blues in the Night - Dr. John

Good Weather For Mushrooms

Click to Play:
I Think It's Going To Rain Today - Randy Newman
I Think It's Going To Rain Today - Nina Simone
I Think It's Going To Rain Today - David Gray
Buckets of Rain - Bob Dylan
Buckets of Rain - Jimmy LaFave
Buckets of Rain - Beth Orton & M. Ward
Eighteen Inches of Rain - Ian Tyson

Wild Wind

Had a great outing today and got lots of nice shots. However, it was cold and blowing a real gale. The water has whitecaps through most of the photos. We were at the Roma Settlement in Brudenell. I've linked a Georgetown area history which includes Roma in Brudenell and the other Acadians. I had planned to go to their big Fete in September but it was the same night as my friend's 50th birthday party, where I went instead. It was also supposed to be the first day on my new job but I got the day off and started the next. My friend got a real chill today so we passed up on another site we were going to visit and will go there on Monday.

Had our staff party yesterday. We had the Christmas Buffet at the best room at the Culinary Institute. It was really fabulous with lots of superb service and special treatment because my boss is a student in the building. Oddly, there were no main entrees cooked without garlic and I am not able to have any. My first choice was poached salmon and it was in a garlic sauce so they were very soon able to get me some plain poached salmon before it touched the garlic. It was heavenly. Desserts to die for too. There was this chocolate cheesecake......

I'll put up some more missing music. Sugar by Nina Simone fits after the last paragraph and for the first paragraph her Wild Is The Wind is also a fit.

We are getting some snow. Two or three cm. over night and ten tomorrow night. It will all be accompanied by heavy winds. Yeah that I got my snow tires on yesterday. The landscape will certainly change then.

Versions and Varieties

Just had a nice little tour of a local apple orchard where the growers usually have my favorite variety, Gravensteins. The only ones they had left were in their fridge as they were small, end of season leftovers. Some other people drove in after me looking for the same thing. Luckily they had ten pounds, enough for both of us. It was a nice outing as they also grow roses and there are several still in bloom.....in mid-October. The apples above are from my trees. Lots of good ones but no Gravensteins.

My work schedule has changed to noon tomorrow rather than three. That's wonderful, as I like my dinner at home, in the evening, with good food. I was tired after work today and lied down for a half nap. The sun is not shining. I think it makes a difference in my energy level, which is normally very high.

The music today is Nina Simone. I listened to her version of yesterday's song and got playing some other songs and am, as always, enthralled by her emotion. I think she is the most emotional singer there ever was. I have a YouTube video bookmarked that I watch quite often and linked here last year. I Loves You Porgy is one of my favorite all time songs and I love her version the best. Here's the video. Nina Simone versions of almost any song are often the best versions. Yesterday? I keeping with fruit and seasonal affective disorder - here's Strange Fruit and Mood Indigo. Nina.

Three

Just signed up for a blog action day on the environment. Participants post something on the environment on Monday. My photos are primarily of our environment and I should be able to write something that fits.......if I remember.

I'm sleepy right now. I got up at three, went back to bed at four-thirty but never got back to sleep so rose again, at the usual five-thirty, to start the day. I had been on a normal schedule for about a week so am disappointed that this is starting again. I have to be to work very early tomorrow morning so will get to bed early and sleep. Even if I wake early tomorrow, I'll be well rested.

Any chance to put up Randy Newman is one I'll grab. This was already up at one time but is gone. I Think It's Going To Rain Today is a wonderful song that describes the day here and we have three versions. Randy Newman, Nina Simone and Madeleine Peyroux. Which one do you like?

Busyness

Busy, busy busy.....almost like a squirrel at a birdfeeder. Work is all consuming but I have the weekend off so I'll recouperate and relax. Much needed and much desired because I'm feeling a bit burned out. I fell on ice last night and need some body mending too. My elbow has a big egg on it, and I hurt my hip and wrists. Thank goodness for ibuprophen.

Music? A rocky Ben Harper with Burn to Shine and by the wonderful Nina Simone, Ain't Got No.

Blowin' In The Wind

The power never was out in my little part of PEI but it was nearby and in pockets all over the Atlantic Provinces. Ferries were docked and bridges were closed but I think we fared ok over all. We're used to weather like this. I would love to have a photo of the above landscape today. This one was taken on Saturday. Now there are very few leaves left on the trees; you can see their bones.

This standard time is for the birds. I'm up at 5:30 and rally don't really care what time the sun rises but right now it is almost dark at a bit after 5pm. For the birds!

Music: Today is song number 299 and 300. One will be Blowin' In the Wind by Bob Dylan, a live 1998 version, and Wild is the Wind by Nina Simone. I had to pick songs for the theme but songs by artists that I love. It was hard but these are what I've come up with...Bob and Nina, singing about the wind. I've linked directly to them for the occasion.

Link: Saw this video last year and check it out every once in a while. Sand Art is a pretty amazing show. Probably everyone has already seen it since I saw it so long ago.

Ahhhhh!

It's my first real day off. I have to work the 22nd but until then only have to accept booking phonecalls. The washer's full, the dryer's full, the sink's full and the vacuum cleaner soon will be. Then I'm going to walk....every day. That's the plan!

I was the only one from my team to show up at trivia last night so I was invited to be an honorary Brainwave. Could it be because I brought our pitcher of beer that we won last week? We came first with a perfect score the first round. We had lots of fun. A woman who for years was a regular Brainwave played her first game in five months after having had a baby. She brought photos and was feeling a little drunk part way through her second glass of wine. Things sure can change after just a few months.

Music today: On the drive home last night, I heard on the radio jazz program, After Hours, that Porgy and Bess had hit the stage seventy-one years earlier. It didn't become a hit at that time but the songs from it became American standards. I have so many versions of so many of the songs. I've always loved Gershwin and Porgy and Bess is my favorite. Listen to this live version by Nina Simone of I Loves You Porgy. She's just so soulful. You really believe she loves him through this version. I already have three versions of Summertime up. Here's one more, a short instrumental with a Latin sound by Ray Baretto.

Link: I've always had a fascination with Burning Man and would love to go some day. I visit this site in my daily blogroll. They put up a photo from a past Burning Man each day.