Merry Christmas One and All!

Hard to believe another Christmas has come and gone! We had a great day, which began with opening presents at Mom's house...even little Holly was impressed by all the loot under the tree.

Jean and I hosted Christmas dinner this year and managed to fit eight guests in our dining room: Mom and Dad; Jim, Janice, Richard and Ian; Marna and Nin. We had a lovely evening of chatting and laughter and I don't think anyone even missed the turkey! Instead, I made a roasted vegetable gallette, spaghetti squash, brussels sprouts and beet/carrot/apple salad. The highlight of the meal, though, was Nin's hard sauce that accompanied my xmas pudding.

Richard even challenged Jean to Carcassonne and beat her twice - now that's a Christmas miracle. Anyways, a fun-filled but very busy day; Holly wasn't the only one who felt like this at 10pm!

More Bookish Thoughts...

Zoe Heller is probably best known for her novel, "What Was She Thinking? Notes On A Scandal," which became an Oscar-nominated movie. But Heller's newest book, "The Believers," certainly deserves the same attention as it paints an insightful, multi-vocalic portrait of a dysfunctional New York family.

The author describes the trials of the Litvinoffs after father Joel suffers a major stroke and ends up in a coma. A lawyer famous for his passionate defenses of political radicals, Joel leaves his caustic, disagreeable wife, Audrey, to handle his legacy. Also greatly affected by Joel's absence are his children: Karla, an overweight social worker trapped in an unhappy marriage; Rosa, a disillusioned revolutionary who finds herself strangely drawn to Orthodox Judaism; and Lenny, the adopted, heroin-addicted son.

As the story unfolds, all the characters experience revelations, forcing them to discover who they are and who they want to be. Heller's prose is astute, imaginative and humorous, all the while drawing attention to the subtleties of human behaviour, relationships and faith.

More Bookish Thoughts...

Last year, I raved about Lori Lansens' "The Girls," an amazing novel about conjoined twins living in rural Ontario. Lansens' new book, "The Wife's Tale," has a lighter tone but is no less engaging or thought-provoking. It chronicles the self-actualization of Mary Gooch, the damaged and alienated protagonist whose weight tops 300 pounds. When Mary's husband fails to return home on the night of the couple's 25th wedding anniversary, Mary embarks on a literal and symbolic journey on which she meets a cast of misfits, unlikely mentors and friends.

Mary’s mission to find her husband reveals human strengths and limitations and also foregrounds such painful issues as racism, alienation, poverty and, especially, hunger. For Mary, food makes due as a substitute for that which she can't name or define and therein lies the most powerful theme of the novel: to be stricken with hunger is more of a spiritual deprivation than a physical one.

Running in Seattle

I went down to Seattle this past weekend, both to see Emily and to run the half marathon. It was my first major race and it felt rather daunting but I really enjoyed it in the end. Apart from the tunnel of the I-90, the course featured some beautiful scenery including Lake Washington and the downtown skyline.

I finished the race in a personal best of 1:36:00, which put me 10th / 839 in my age category, 34th / 4025 women and 276th / 7067 overall. I'm definitely pleased with the result and look forward to beating my time next year!

An Afternoon At The Belfry

Life changes fast.

Life changes in the instant

You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.

The question of self-pity.

These words open Joan Didion's memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking, which chronicles the year after her husband, John, dies at home from a massive heart attack while her daughter, Quintana, is in hospital with septic shock (Q. ultimately dies as well). The Belfry Theatre is currently running Didion's stage adaptation of the book, a 90 minute monologue delivered by Seana McKenna.

The play is a lesson in survival and loss, reflections on a terrifying departure from sanity and control. Didion tells a deeply tragic story but also reveals a character so pithy and so human that one can't help but relate. She talks about her refusal to give away her husbands shoes because of his need for them "when he comes back"; she admits that her training in words, research and intellectual thought cannot conquer the void left by overwhelming grief.

McKenna does a brilliant job of portraying a refined, profound and ironically self-deprecating woman; she leaves her audience deep in thought, heartbroken and remarkably uplifted.

It's Official!

When I got accepted to do my Masters back in 2007, I felt like I was embarking on a daunting journey; I couldn't believe I'd ever come out the other end of the tunnel. But two years of course work, a thesis and an oral defense later, I can finally say: Ta-da!

More Bookish Thoughts...

Listening to CBC over Thanksgiving weekend, I heard Margaret Visser interviewed about her newest book, "The Gift of Thanks" (2008), and thought it sounded fascinating. Indeed, Visser has produced a thorough and engaging look at gratitude, embodied by the deceptively simple "thank you." These two words launch an inquiry into all aspects of thanksgiving: how and why children are taught to give thanks, the difference between speaking words and feeling them, and how different cultures (especially the Japanese) understand grace. Reflecting on North American customs, Visser argues that notions of gratitude underlie everyday conventions including wrapping gifts and exchanging compliments.

Visser provides an extremely detailed account of reciprocity and rejection in the contexts of folklore, mythology and history; this results in some ennui and makes various sections "skimable." However, the book is ultimately insightful and thought-provoking with a central theme that rings true: thankfulness is a choice and a source of happiness that can be shared and cultivated.

Autumn Colours

Despite the shorter days, the cooler air and the increasing rain, Fall boasts the prettiest foliage of the year. A few particularly spectacular neighbourhood trees:

Small Maple on Brighton Ave.

Larger Maple on Redfern St.

Also Redfern St. I'm not sure what type of tree this is but it reminds me of a 1980s tie-dye shirt...though far more tasteful!

More Bookish Thoughts...

I can't possibly do justice to Philip Pullman's epic trilogy in a short posting but I will say that The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass are all captivating and worthwhile reads. His Dark Materials, albeit fantastical and other-worldly, manages to capture the raw human emotions of innocence, guilt, love, loss, and hope.

Pullman creatively combines ideas about God, consciousness, evolution and even contemporary physics to produce a brilliant and complex narrative. Some have criticized the trilogy for its anti-Church stance but, really, the story foregrounds the values of most religious institutions: freedom, responsibility and personal sacrifice in the name of "the greater good." Regardless of political undercurrents, the story remains exciting, touching, heartbreaking and thought-provoking.

Auntie Kake Update

Auntie Kake now has her own blog! Check it out at www.auntiekakebakes.blogspot.com

Auntie Kake

I have decided to launch a dessert catering business, which I'm calling "Auntie Kake" in honour of my niece, Josephina. I will offer home-baked goods from scratch including:

- wedding cakes

- special occasion cakes

- holiday desserts

- dinner party desserts (pies, tarts, cupcakes, squares, cookies, truffles etc.)

- bread and breakfast pastries

- dairy-free, vegan, lower calorie and gluten-free options

Sample Prices:

- wedding cakes - from $300

- cakes - from $20 (6"), from $30 (8")

- cookies - from $12/dozen

- bread - from $4/loaf

- weekly/monthly orders available at special rates

I graduated from George Brown's baking and pastry arts program in Toronto and have five years of professional baking experience. I have also made numerous wedding cakes and special occasion cakes for family and friends, including my own wedding cakes. Here are a few photos of my recent work:

Almond/Apricot Pound Cake, Vegan Chocolate Cake

Vanilla Wedding Cake with jam filling, buttercream and marzipan roses

Strawberry-Banana Cake with cream cheese frosting

Feel free to leave a comment or email me at kate.soles@mail.mcgill.ca with questions or requests.

The Little Cookbook That Could

Very rarely do I find a cookbook that I think could replace all my others and, while Michael Ruhlman's Ratio doesn't quite make me want to purge my culinary reference collection, it certainly makes me consider doing so. By way of thirty-three ratios and suggestions for variations, Ruhlman teaches cooks how fundamental ingredients (water, flour, butter and oils, milk and cream, and eggs) work together. Change the ratio and bread dough becomes pasta dough, cakes become muffins and pancakes become crepes.

I think this passage sums up the essence of the entire book: "Batters are almost incestuously linked to one another and show an exceptionally delicate balance between one another. The loosest of the batters is crepe, and we move up with increasing proportions of flour to popover, pancake and fritter, muffin, cake, and so on in potentially infinite variations until you hit the point of the fulcrum and tip over into dough: pasta, pie crust, cookie, and bread...I think that people who are gifted pastry chefs have simply seen the crepe-bread continuum more clearly for longer, rather than seeing crepe equaling one set of instructions, bread another, and so have been able to improvise; they understand how small adjustments in fat, flour, egg, and sugar can result in satisfying nuances of lightness and delicacy or richness in flavor and texture. It's all one thing."

I borrowed Ratio from the library and will be making copious notes before I return it. The only reason I wouldn't purchase the book is that its large middle section provides ratios for stocks, forcemeats (sausage etc), mousselines (meat/cream/egg fillings) and fat-based sauces - nothing I'd realistically be producing in my kitchen! Really, it's the baking section that interests me but I do believe that you'll soon be able to pick out the serious cook in the crowd based on who has a stained copy of Ratio close at hand.

The REAL 29!

I had such a great birthday today! Jean had the day off so we took Holly out to Elk Lake in the afternoon, had a lovely walk and then picked 4 liters of blackberries off Sayward Rd.

This evening, we went for dinner at Cafe Brio with my parents and Nin and had an amazing meal, complete with complimentary truffles for me to take home ;) The menu features mostly local meats, fish and produce and it changes weekly; check it out at www.cafe-brio.com.

More Bookish Thoughts...

Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle combines a gripping and often humourous account of her family's year of living on their Virginia farm and eating only local food with serious reflections on conventional eating habits, the endangered status of small farms and the provenance of most North American produce.

Month by month, Kingsolver shares her knowledge of which crops to plant when, how to tend to growing vegetable plots and how to manage both abundance and dearth. Her daughter, Camille, contributes thoughtful essays from a teenaged point of view and adds simple recipes that celebrate seasonal produce. Kingsolver's husband, Steven Hopp, brings a series of scholarly snippets to the book, which discuss such heated issues as GMOs, pesticide use and farm labour.

The book is warm and witty but also thought provoking as it encourages readers to ask fundamental questions about our approach to food: Where does our food come from? How far has it traveled to reach us? How much energy has it used? Kingsolver makes us aware that, every time we eat, we make choices that effect global economics, the environment and our health.

More Bookish Thoughts...

Hundreds Hall, a once-grand estate in rural Warwickshire, frames the setting of Sarah Waters' newest novel. Post WWII, the house is declining rapidly: the masonry is crumbling, the wallpaper is peeling and weeds have entirely choked out the garden. Roderick Ayers, who has returned wounded from the War, is desperate to hold his home together for the sake of his mother and his sister, Caroline. As Dr. Faraday, the narrator who treats Roderick's injured leg, becomes entwined with the Ayeres family, disturbing occurrences within Hundreds imply that the house has taken on a life of its own. Indeed, the Hall seems possessed by something sinister, something determined to upset the lives of all the Ayeres'.

I have now read all five of Sarah Waters' novels and I maintain that she's an ingenious storyteller who never allows the reader's attention to falter. She does an especially good job of developing her characters and brilliantly takes on the point of view of an (intentionally) irritating and unreliable narrator. However, this wasn't my favourite of her books (I'd place it somewhere in the middle) mostly because it has an uncharacteristically linear plot and because it lacks the shocking twists and turns for which Waters is famous.

Summer Celebrating

Now that my thesis defense and Jean's LC exam are both behind us, we can enjoy these summer days more freely. On Tuesday, Mom and I braved the heat and went down to Cook St. Village, where we found these very funky and retro chairs for Mom's living room. They're very comfortable and I love the orange wool upholstery.

Yesterday was much more temperate (a mere 25 degrees!) and Mom and I had a lovely al fresco dinner: smoked salmon with buttermilk-dill bread and two salads. Brownies and cherries for dessert...yum! We were only sad that Jean wasn't feeling well enough to join us.

Mom surprised me with this great oil painting in honour of completing my thesis. It's by Grant Leier who, along with Nixie Barton, has an amazing gallery up in Yellow Point. The painting will make a fun addition to our office walls.

More Bookish Thoughts...

What effects do one ambivalent parent and one overly optimistic parent have on a child? Is nature or nurture to blame for creating a sociopath? What might drive a teenager to remorselessly commit murder? Lionel Shriver's We Need To Talk About Kevin poses these difficult questions and many more. The narrative, which leads with horrifying inevitability to the day when Kevin massacres seven of his schoolmates and a teacher at his upstate New York high school, is told as a series of letters from Kevin's mother, Eva, to her apparently estranged husband, Franklin. This method both affords the reader deep insight into Eva's consciousness and enables Shriver to pull off a huge and crushing shock at the end of the book. The novel is harrowing, psychologically astute and even darkly humourous; it proves the tenuousness between blame and empathy, retribution and forgiveness.

Conquering the Chilkoot

Jean and I just got home yesterday from a wonderful trip to Whitehorse. We went up for a week but I spent 2 1/2 days of that hiking the Chilkoot with Fred. The 53km Chilkoot Trail winds through the Coast Mountains, starting in Dyea, Alaska and finishing in Bennett, BC. During the Klondike Gold Rush, the trail was a major traffic route: prospectors would climb over the pass (multiple times in order to transport all their goods), build boats and float north down the Yukon River (accessible from Lake Bennett) to Dawson City. This was no mean feat and plenty of gold rushers died or turned back because of the harsh conditions. Today, the trail is a National Historic Sight and it boasts some amazing scenery. It starts out in coastal rain forest, climbs upward (about 3000 feet) into alpine terrain and ends up in boreal forest so the views and the vegetation are always changing. Of course, our experience was made even better by perfect weather and by overtaking all the groups of hikers who left camp before us. Not that we're proud or anything...

Climbing up the "golden stairs"

Pretty alpine terrain between the summit and Happy Camp

Heading towards Deep Lake

More Bookish Thoughts...

Oddly enough for an arts major, one of my favourite classes at McGill was a chemistry elective: The World of Chemistry - Food. The course focused on food science and included lectures on artificial sweeteners, chocolate, cholesterol and much more. I found it fascinating, especially since the three co-professors seemed so engaged in the material and so eager to pass on their knowledge. One such prof, Dr. Joe Schwarcz, recently gave a lecture at UVic, which Jean and I attended and thoroughly enjoyed. An Apple A Day is Dr. Schwarcz's most recent book; it aims to dispel nutrition myths, to offset fear-mongering (think BPAs, GMOs etc), and to generally preach "informed common sense."

"Eat salmon. It's full of good omega-3 fats. Don't eat salmon. It's full of PCBs and mercury. Eat more veggies. They're full of good antioxidants. Don't eat more veggies. The pesticides will give you cancer." This is the kind of contradictory information that bombards consumers/newspaper readers everyday. And it demonstrates why we need Joe Schwarcz! First describing how food affects human health, his book examines the compounds in tomatoes, soy, broccoli etc. that, though not panaceas, can help maintain health. Then Dr. Schwarcz investigates how corporations manipulate our food supply, delving into the science of food additives and exploring how we might benefit from adding bacteria to certain foods. He sheds light on contaminants, examining everything from pesticide residues to remnants of antibiotics to trans fats to toxins that may leach into food from cookware. Finally, he takes a studied look at calorie consumption and debunks the "science" behind popular diets.

This is an amazing book for anyone concerned about nutrition who feels overwhelmed by conflicting media reports and manipulated by advertising. Dr. Schwarcz presents sound evidence and facts in a scientific (but not too scientific), lighthearted manner, reminding us that "science can never guarantee safety, it can only demonstrate harm." Check out his office's website too: www.oss.mcgill.ca

More Bookish Thoughts...

  

It takes a rare and particular talent to write captivating short stories; the author must perfectly craft every word, every sentence, in order to develop character, plot and intrigue in a limited space. Jhumpa Lahiri may just be the best short story writer I've ever read.  Her first collection, Interpreter of Maladies, won the Pulitzer in 2000 but I think her newest collection, Unaccustomed Earth (2008), is even more phenomenal.  Lahiri's stories always feature characters of Bengali descent who reside in America but they are far from formulaic.  In the title story, Brooklyn-to-Seattle transplant Ruma frets about a presumed obligation to bring her widower father into her home, a stressful decision taken out of her hands by his unexpected independence. In another, the alcoholism of Rahul is described by his elder sister, Sudha, who struggles with her own disappointment, bewilderment and sense of duty.  And in the loosely linked trio of stories closing the collection, the lives of Hema and Kaushik intersect over the years, first in 1974 when she is six and he is nine; then a few years later when, at 13, she swoons at the now-handsome 16-year-old teen's reappearance; and again in Italy, when she is a 37-year-old academic about to enter an arranged marriage, and he is a 40-year-old photojournalist. Lahiri's stories are surprising, aesthetically marvelous and shaped by a sure and provocative sense of inevitability.  I can only echo what Amy Tan wrote in a review: Lahiri is “the kind of writer who makes you want to grab the next person you see and say, ‘Read this!’” 

Happy Birthday Jean!

We had great fun celebrating Jean's birthday yesterday.  The weather cooperated so we met Keely and Damon at Butchart Gardens in the afternoon and enjoyed the blossoming roses.  Then we had a lovely dinner at Mom's along with Dad, Marna, Nin and even Emily, who's up visiting all week. 

Blue Poppies en route to the Japanese Garden

This strawberry-banana cake comes from my favourite baking book, In the Sweet Kitchen; it's easy, fresh and not overly sweet.

Cake:

3/4 cup butter, room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups mashed banana (about 3)

2 cups flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup sour cream or buttermilk

Cream butter and sugar, then mix in egg, vanilla and banana.  Add half the dry ingredients, then the sour cream/buttermilk, then the rest of the dry.  Divide batter between two greased/floured 8" pans and bake at 350 for about half an hour.

Frosting:

8 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup butter

1 - 1 1/2 cups icing sugar

vanilla

1 quart strawberries

Cream butter and cream cheese, then add icing sugar to taste and vanilla.  Place one cake layer on cake plate and spread on a layer of frosting.  Cut about half the strawberries in thirds from hull to tip and arrange on top of frosting in a single layer.  Then place the second layer on top and ice entire cake.  Decorate cake with remaining strawberries as desired!

Serves 10-12

Flowering Irises

Our iris corms have now been in the ground for over a year and they just recently produced these beautiful flowers.  We got a couple of yellow blossoms last season but no purple ones so I'm thrilled that we now have more of my favourite flower in our garden.

The Racing World

I had an amazing time running the Oak Bay Kool Half Marathon yesterday; it was my first half and it felt like a great accomplishment.  I finished in 1:38:30, which placed me 95th overall out of 611 participants and 5th out of 63 in my category (women aged 25-29).  

The race organizers did a great job: we started right on time, the volunteers tirelessly cheered us on and, not surprisingly for Oak Bay, the course was as scenic as they come.  I'm thrilled with my result and will definitely be back to improve next year!

(click the map to view the race route)

Literary Humour

I loved this "Speed Bump" comic in the Globe yesterday!  Robert Frost has always been one of my favourite poets; he fits into the American Modernist category as does Marianne Moore (even though Frost is 13 years older) but his poetry is very different than Moore's both stylistically and thematically.  This comic refers, of course, to the famous "The Road Not Taken" but, thanks to both Dad and Em, "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" remains dearest to my heart:

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound’s the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

More Bookish Thoughts...

Enduring Love was my fifth Ian McEwan novel and it definitely reaffirmed the author's status as one of my favourite fiction writers. McEwan invents an engaging plot, in which a man's life changes irrevocably after he witnesses a ballooning accident, but it is the psychological and philosophical questions McEwan raises that make the book so memorable: to what extent is God a product of our evolutionary history? Is belief in a higher power based in reality or rather in a desire to fend off feelings of loneliness?  What defines "insanity?"  Which is easier: trusting yourself or trusting a loved one? Which is more reliable?

The subjectivity of revelation and interpretation becomes one of the novel's main themes; one person's insight equals another's madness. McEwan weaves sanity and insanity so tightly together that, at times, the reader can't tell them apart.  The book also turns on the pivot of coincidence, the bizarre quirks of fate that both plague and delight human life.  The story constantly asks, "what if...?", which is precisely what makes it such a haunting read.

Museum Treasures

Although living in Victoria makes it easy to take the Royal BC Museum for granted, a visit to the Treasures exhibit reminded me that we are home to a truly world-class cultural institution.  The exhibit spans the globe across hundreds of thousands of years of cultural evolution and contains more than 300 distinctive artifacts from the British Museum.  

Treasures is arranged geographically and chronologically into seven sections: Africa (ancient Egypt), the Middle East (Mesopotamia), Europe (ancient Greece and Rome), Asia, Oceania, the Americas and the Modern World.  Each room contains fascinating items from a real mummy to tablets of the earliest writing (from 3400 BCE) to cloisonne to jewelry, coins and chess pieces. The mind boggles at the antiquity of the pieces but almost more impressive is that, apart from a few chips and cracks, most everything is in remarkable condition.  

This is the North American premiere of the exhibit, which runs until the end of September.  All I can say is don't walk there - run!

Handaxe, 

Olduvai Gorge,Tanzania, 
Early Stone Age 1.6 - 1.4 million BC

Astrolabe, Egypt, 
13th – 14th century AD

Astrolabes were used to measure altitudes, determine the time, to establish the direction to Mecca and to solve astronomical problems. 

Letter from the king of Babylon 
to the king of Egypt, 
From Tell Amarna, Egypt, 
Middle Babylonian, 14th century BC

Musings on Moore

As I endeavour to finish my thesis on the poetry of Marianne Moore, I'm grappling with the question most commonly asked of me: "Why did you choose to write about Moore?" 

Moore was born in Kirkwood, Missouri (near St. Louis where, incidentally, T.S. Eliot was born) on November 15, 1887.  She never knew her father, who died of a nervous breakdown before she was born; along with her brother, she was raised by her mother in the home of her grandfather, a Presbyterian pastor. Moore attended Bryn Mawr College and received her B.A. in 1909 before teaching at the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania for four years. In 1921, she became an assistant at the New York Public Library and began both to meet other poets (William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens) and to contribute to the Dial, a prestigious literary magazine, which she edited from 1925 to 1929.  In 1921, Imagist poet H.D. published Moore's first book, Poems, without Moore's knowledge.  Moore became widely recognized for her work; among her many honors were the Bollingen prize, the National Book Award, and the Pulitzer Prize.  Moore was extremely attached to her mother, with whom she lived until Mrs. Moore's death in 1947.  Marianne Moore died in New York City in 1972 at the age of 84. 

So back to the question of what attracts me to Moore's poetry.  Firstly, to say that Moore was a character is a gross understatement; she never had a romantic relationship, she always appeared in public wearing a tri-corned hat and a cape, and she referred to her mother and brother as "Mole" and "Badger" respectively because of her fascination with Wind in the Willows.  But, moreover, the persona of Moore's poetry is an incredibly engaging and challenging puzzle.  In early work, Moore emphasized a need for discipline and heroic behavior; later, she stressed the need for spiritual grace and love.  To survive, she hinted, one must be alert, disciplined, and careful; as she put it, "What is more precise than precision?  Illusion."  Moore was extremely concerned with morality but never preached though she often questioned her role as an artist and, specifically, as a poet.  Her shortest poem, "Poetry," reads: "I, too, dislike it. / Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers in / it after all, a place for the genuine."  So was Moore modern or anachronistic, imagistic or objectivistic, lofty or realistic?  Critics continue to debate.

Unarguably, Moore's expression is characterized by deftness and sharpness of detail, linguistic experimentation, and integration of fresh observation. She teases the reader into looking at reality with keener vision, as if seeing the world for the first time.  She also challenges the reader to accept both the opposition and the unity between real and imaginary, animate and inanimate, ideal and object; she invites the reader to realize both the power and the futility of words.  As she says in my favourite quote of hers, "Psychology which explains everything explains nothing, and we are still in doubt." To those who complained that her poetry often seemed obscure, Moore once replied that something that was work to write ought to be work to read.  Why did I choose to write on Moore?  To attempt to untangle her complex network of observation and to explore an oeuvre dedicated to courage, loyalty, patience, modesty, spontaneity, and steadfastness.

More Bookish Thoughts...

  

I was super-excited to read "World Without End" but I also had my reservations.  "Pillars of the Earth" ranks as my favourite book of all time but Follett wrote it eighteen years ago and, well, we all know how anticlimactic sequels can be!  In "World Without End," Follett returns to Kingsbridge after a 200 year lapse, creating a tome that entwines the fates of four main characters with momentous 14th century events like the Black Death and the British wars with France under Edward II and III.  The book contains some fascinating history and definitely includes intrigue and suspense: Kingsbridge's monastery is falling apart, its bridge is close to collapse, and a generation of young bloods is preparing to revolutionize the town. Follett brings together people from various walks of life, reflecting a community struggling with change.  Out of this struggle come moments of tragedy and triumph, of decline and growth, of failure and success. It IS ultimately a page-turner though much of it reads a lot like "Pillars," both in characterization and plot development.  Some elements of the book also seem overdone; I could have done with about 100 fewer pages of sex and violence!  A very good read, just not as good as "Pillars." Then again, what is?

Wedding Bells

I had great fun making this wedding cake for the bridal tea at Oak Bay United Church on Saturday.  I used a fairly straightforward recipe (pound cake with vanilla icing) and it turned out very nicely; the cake was sturdy and easy to layer and I liked how pure-white the frosting became after 10 long minutes of beating with a hand mixer!  It had been a while since I put a stacked cake together so I was relieved that it didn't collapse (thanks to the miracle of plastic straws).  I was also glad to remember how to make marzipan roses - they're always well worth the time and labour.

Travels to Nippon

It's hard to believe that, after more than two years of planning, our trip to Japan has come and gone.  We had an amazing time visiting friends, eating delicious food, and touring Tokyo, Kyoto and Iberaki prefecture.  Here is a brief rendition of the good, the bad and the unexpected:  

Highlights

- unsurpassable Japanese hospitality

- excellent, healthy food (especially the traditional breakfasts and not-   too-sweet desserts)

- our whirlwind tour of Tokyo with Ayano, our fearless leader

- the beautiful sakura (cherry blossoms) everywhere

- riding the Shinkansen (bullet train) and catching a glimpse of    Fujiyama

- the history and beauty of many Kyoto temples

- staying at two lovely ryokans (Japanese inns) and sleeping on comfy    futons

- the constant juxtaposition of the ancient and the modern, the rural    and the urban

- the cleanliness and safety of Japan

Lowlights

- our inability to read/speak Japanese

- the trek to/from Narita airport before/after a long flight

- the lack of recycling

Surprises

- the lack of spoken/written English

- complicated shoe removal/slipper-wearing etiquette

- driving on the left side of the road

- the lack of ovens in homes

A small shrine in Ushiku

Lovely sakura in front of Byodoin Temple in Uji (20 mins from Kyoto). The temple was built in 1052 and is on the back of the 10-yen coin.

Gardens at Daigo-ji in Kyoto

Kiyomizu temple with Kyoto city in the background

View of Tokyo from the Imperial Palace

Cutting my first bamboo shoot!

Huge thank-you to Marna for being our chauffeuse extraordinaire and to Mom for taking such good care of Holly.  Doesn't look like she missed us much!