Singing for my supper

How I Spent My Day

Nul points for me on the blogging front this month, I think. Student juries and recitals, a delicious string of Messiah performances, Christmas preparations and a feast of food and family (groovy alliteration, huh?!) have kept me good and busy. It's been an unexpectedly joyful season this year, which was a lovely boost - good music and good people do a lot to restore one's faith in humanity, and I had ample supplies of both this month. Looking forward to adventures in January with a family trip to the UK, and a new production of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro starting rehearsals in February, giving us much to be excited about - hopefully this time I'll have enough energy at the end of the day to write about it! In the meantime, the happiest New Year to readers: 2010 has seen things start to look up again after such difficult times for so many in 2009 - keeping fingers crossed that 2011 continues the trend!

Currently, I'm prompted to reflect on the two foods which I have long considered perfect. The first is toast. Is there a more versatile food? Meal, snack, pick-me-up or just because, toast always holds its own. Toast with butter, toast with jam, toast with cheese, toast soldiers under egg, toast with cashew butter... the list goes on. Toast after a long winter's walk, providing the perfect warm pick-me-up after being out in the cold. Toast for breakfast with a cup of tea or coffee. Toast easing us back into health after a bout of illness. Toast as a meal; toast as a snack. What's more perfect than that? Well, in summer, the answer is this: In our house, blueberries take over in July. I'm the truly violet one in the family (there are rumours that I turn a delicate shade of purple some time in August), but my husband and daughter also enjoy them, if not with quite as much gluttony as I do. My mom buys them in bulk at Costco and makes care-package deliveries (sometimes ...

Well fed, well loved and deeply grateful. Happy Thanksgiving!

My good friend over at The Next 100 Pounds recently posted some thoughts about the holidays that were a more than timely reminder in these testing times. Check it out.

But, like just about everybody in the US and possibly even around the globe, this week has by necessity been about politics. It has been a whirl of election mania, activity and emotions, somewhat foreign in a country which in recent years drifted into civic apathy. Strangely, there were fewer lawn signs and stickers than I have ever seen before, but perhaps people were putting their energies into action instead of banners, or perhaps passions were running high enough that nobody wanted to risk causing problems (this community in previous elections has been almost precisely 50/50 on both sides of the party divide, so while good fences make good neighbours, perhaps quieter politics make even better ones!). But lawn propoganda aside, I have never seen this country as committed, as passionate, as attentive as I did this past week; there was nowhere to go and nobody you could speak to where The Election wasn't mentioned or didn't in some way to make its presence felt, and people...

I have decided that - this week at least- I am a diva-mommy rockstar. Following the 2008 New York-Every-Two-Days commuting marathon, we managed to host a Halloween party for 10 10-year olds. Granted, the long drives up and down highway 95 gave me lots of quiet time to come up with scavenger hunt clues, but even so - I always question my ability to "do it all" at times like this! (Happily, the auditions all went very well and for once the Travel Gods were on my side as the trains ran on time both into and in the city, which certainly decreased the stress factor!). Now, kids' parties aren't that hard, but they do take lots of planning. And plenty of space to do it in... which is where it proves tricky in our lives! We love our little house but it is, indeed "little". It is a 1920s cottage bungalow, and the rooms are small. Comfortable but.... small. So, it was with some trepidation that I anticipated keeping this thing humming along with that many girls. How...

The good: BEEEYOOOOTIFUL weather pleasant colleagues enthusiastic conductor despite having been to something like 35 of the lower 48 states, I had never before seen the Mississippi river, something I have now remedied. The hotel is practically IN the river, and I am completely seduced! I'm very sad that I didn't bring the big camera (oh, how sad!), but I'm having fun with the little point-and-shoot: The not-so-good: the hotel is comfortable, and in an area which is extremely convenient for the venue (literally yards away), but there's nothing ELSE around except some pricey restaurants. Nice for holiday-ers, but tricky when you need safety pins or a quick snack! Said hotel also does a "Sunday Jazz Brunch". In the atrium around which all rooms are situated. Which started at 10am..... Not so good for those of us who stayed up late after the concert... Still, beautiful weather, beautiful landscape to photograph and the opportunity to make good music are a lo...