A few of my favourite things, part 1 – guest blog by B_Twin
Border Collies
This is fairly predictable I suppose. After all, I do have three of them^.
Border Collies are brilliant. Sometimes, a little too brilliant…
Bramble, for example, is very excitable. And at the moment she’s excited because she heard about Mongo the Border Collie who saves (probably) the whole universe as we know it.
Miss Enthusiasm
(She’s pretty handy with the sheep too when she isn’t in the computer chair! I’m training her for her next sheepdog trial which, all going well, will be in March.)
Brighid, on the other hand, is a laid back kind of farm dog. She loves nothing better than being with you 110% of the day. A bit of work on the sheep, a bit of play with her sister and then just “hanging out”. Sometimes I stop to contemplate the view^^ and a few nano-seconds later there is a head under my hand, ready and waiting for the skritch!
"Where to now, Boss?"
Belle (their mother) is highly obsessed with the toy, ball, hens, horses, sheep – WHATEVER. Obsession is definitely a Border Collie “thing”. And they have FOCUS.
Belle bringing in the hens for the evening
Being stared at with a “Border Collie stare” tends to make you uncomfortable – Belle does it to me when she is in the passenger footwell of the car. She rests her head on the seat or whatever and then just stares, unblinking, as I’m driving. Arrrgggghhhh. No wonder sheep move away!!
Belle and Bramble are also “revheads”. They think nothing of going down the highway at 100km/hr like this:
The fangirl becomes a revhead
Idiots! Which is why I end up with putting them in the front with me when I need to go down the highway. (I’m quite certain Bramble would surf on top of the cab if I let her. Craaaazy dog. LOL )
And because I might be a little strange^^^, I get a kick out of having plants with the same names as my pets. Which brings me to another favourite thing:
Roses
I don’t think I could have a garden without roses. (Note to self: never move anywhere where roses won’t grow!)
Here’s a little of my rose collection§.
'St Brigid's Rose'
'Belle Story'
I haven’t managed to get the “bramble rose” yet (it’s a species rose). Of course I could use the feral briar rose growing on the side of the road. Prickly, all over the place and “sweet as”. That’s Bramble. LOL
I do have one that is all over the place though. Literally. I had ordered a nice, tame climber to grow up near the front porch and give some summer shade. I thought the location would be reasonably challenging for a rose so when it reached around 7’ high in only three months I became … nervous. Then it flowered and I had no doubt that it was not what was ordered. I had, in fact, received the very rose I had thought about and decided against because it was a house eater.
Meet ‘Wedding Day’ at 3 months:
Not a nice tame climber. 3 months growth from bare-rooted.
12 months later she looked like this:
'Wedding Day' aka "Bridezilla"
She hasn’t the biggest thorns in the world but she has plenty of prickles and a wicked sense of humour that sees her snagging the unwary passerby. We’ve nicknamed her “Bridezilla”! And she’s doing the job admirably so she gets to stay. And the bees adore her flowers. (Robin has now suggested to me that maybe it’s ‘Kiftsgate’. She likes to torment me. ‘Kiftsgate’ would swallow a whole block of houses.)
Now, back to some more lady-like roses…
‘Chateau de clos Vougeot’ (bush version)
‘French Lace’, which has been a real stunner this year and just bloomed and bloomed despite a lot of the others feeling the heat, or Black Spot, or whatever.
'French Lace'
‘Oklahoma’ is a big bush with big flowers that have a rich, heady scent.
'Oklahoma'
One of the best performing David Austin roses at my place is ‘Tess of the D’Ubervilles’.
'Tess of the D'Ubervilles'
And, just in case I’m putting everyone to sleep with so many roses, here’s one last one. This one was mentioned a few years ago by Robin in a blog entry and it took me ages to track it down and finally get one. The name alone is enough to love her for – she also has a pretty sweet scent. She does have a reputation for being problematic. So far, so good over here. (Robin may be using the bubblewrap on her flowers though….)
'Tipsy Imperial Concubine'
Of course, I do have lots of other photos of roses, sheep, castles and some of my other favourite things. Possibly enough for another guest blog if it is required. ;) *
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^ In case anyone was wondering – my Border Collies are medium-short coated which is better for working in hot weather.
^^ The view from the back paddock:
A spring morning in the lambing paddock
^^^Please don’t answer that..!
§ Well over a hundred varieties at last count. I’ll end up having to plant them in the paddock next… haha
* Guest posts are ALWAYS required. –ed.
Patricia Briggs, guest post by Susan in Melbourne*
My reading horizons were considerably broadened a few years ago when I picked up a new (to me) Robin McKinley book in the library. Dropped it in horror when I realised it was about vampires! But it’s by Robin McKinley, so picked it up again. But …. vampires! Put it down again. I stood there picking it up and putting it down several times before the McKinley aspect won out over the vampire aspect, and I took it home to read. The rest is history – ‘Sunshine’ has become a favourite book, and one I have loaned or given to several friends.
It opened my eyes to the fact that vampire stories are just another form of fantasy, a genre I have always loved. They’re just more modern than the semi-feudal setting that is often the framework background of many fantasies. While I’ve never felt the urge to join the ‘Twilight’ army of followers, I have enjoyed books such as ‘Daylight’ by Elizabeth Knox (http://www.elizabethknox.com/daylight/) and have recently discovered the urban fantasies of Patricia Briggs.
Briggs was an established writer of fantasy of the traditional style (the Raven duology, the series of Masques, etc.) and was encouraged by her publisher to develop a new series of urban fantasy that featured vampires and a heroine who has a tricky love life.
She has taken the bit between her teeth, and developed the very engaging Mercedes (Mercy) Thompson who lives in the Colombia basin in Washington State. She’s a kick-ass kinda gal – runs her own garage specialising in VW and other European motors, studies martial arts, and, oh yes, she’s a Walker, a shape-shifter able to slip into coyote form at will. As you do.
In the first book in the series, ‘Moon Called’, we are introduced to Mercy’s story of being raised among werewolves in the Montana mountains, and now living nearby the Alpha of the local werewolf pack in the Tri-Cities. Mercy rescues a young, inexperienced werewolf from evil machinations and threat from within his own pack, tangles with the local vampire seethe, and in her role as Walker, identifies the magic used by Fae who were interfering on the wrong side.
It is lively, fast-paced writing, with robust characters and a strong sense of place in both Washington and Montana. Like all good fantasy, the world with an alternative reality is carefully constructed, but treated in such a matter-of-fact way that the reader willingly suspends disbelief and goes along for the headlong ride. This is a world where the Fae outed themselves to the human world some years ago with inevitable adjustments on both sides. The Fae, of course, have become ‘othered’ by modern America, and many now live in reservations. Over the subsequent books in the series, Briggs explores some of the issues associated with incorporating the ‘other’ into society, particularly as the werewolves also decide to out themselves.
Mercy is a determined young woman, fighting for her identity on several levels; firstly as a female mechanic in an environment usually seen as male; secondly as a coyote shape-changer associated with werewolves, as wolves generally hate coyotes and kill them on sight. She has powerful protection, but needs to use humour, negotiating skills, and when they fail, speed, to survive. The werewolf pack is inherently patriarchal and hierarchical which chafes Mercy’s free and independent spirit, and over the series, Mercy has to negotiate relationships with two dominant wolves. The vampires pose a particular challenge to Mercy throughout the series, because as a Walker, which is Native American magic, she is immune to much of the European-origin vampires’ power. Over the years, the vampires had killed off most of the Walkers, and this seethe sees Mercy as a real threat to them in the modern world. Briggs explores European and Native American magical traditions and in the series the Fae are based on well-established magical traditional tales.
I liked all the characters very much. I wanted them to succeed, to form relationships, to be happy, to solve the mysteries and challenges in each book. I liked seeing the development of fitting the Fae, the werewolves, the vampires into the modern world, and the challenges that posed. Yes, there is violence, and sometimes it’s a bit squicky, but it’s not gratuitous and the overall tone of the books has a lightness, rather than the darkness/heaviness associated with some violent books.
Briggs has written an off-shoot series, ‘Alpha and Omega’, which has a more romantic focus in the story of two werewolves. Characters and events overlap between the two series, but the Mercy Thompson series is more action-based across the various non-human types, while the Alpha and Omega series is more character and relationship-driven within the werewolf community.
I enjoyed both series so much, I am now working my way through Brigg’s backlist of more traditional fantasy books. I do love discovering a new author with a list to enjoy. http://www.patriciabriggs.com/books/
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* Yaaaay! ANOTHER GUEST POST! YAAAAAAAY! And yes, since you ask, I have spent all evening working on SHADOWS, and I’m so tired the hellhounds may have to drive home. One of them can hold the steering wheel and the other one can push the pedals. No, no, that’ll work! It’s not far! I’ll do the gear shift!
Here Kitty Kitty (guest post by Black Bear)
A while back I did a guest post for Robin about wolves—specifically, about Wolf Park, and MY wolf (Wolfgang) who I did not actually technically meet, but I met several of his friends instead and it was fabulous anyway. In the interest of equal time, I figured I should also do a post for the cat people among us—myself included, of course! So here you have it.
I used to work at my local zoo as a volunteer in animal care, and was lucky enough to spend a year or so assisting in the Lion/Baboon/Wild Dog area. Let me tell you that nothing, but nothing, is comparable to standing in a kitchen in the pre-dawn light doing food prep, and suddenly hearing a full-on male lion’s roar from 15 feet away. It was terrifying and thrilling and marvelous all at once, and I was completely smitten by these big cats. Any chance I have for further encounters, I will happily take.
So this summer I had the pleasure of making a visit to the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Center Point, Indiana. (Not to be confused with Crown Point, Indiana, where John Dillinger once broke out of prison and escaped in the sheriff’s personal car. Crown Point is also exciting, but has fewer tigers.) While Wolf Park is a research facility, breeding and managing a “working” pack of wolves, the EFRC is purely a rescue facility. All the animals are sterilized, and most come to the center as adults under unfortunate circumstances.
While I knew that some states in the US make it fairly easy to keep big cats as “pets,” I’d grossly underestimated the number of stupid people who actually attempt to do so. EFRC exists to take care of animals who have been dumped, abused, or seized by law enforcement from people who thought it would be “cool” to own a couple tigers.
I’m going to refrain from ranting about that here, because I suspect you can all fill in the blank. At any rate, the EFRC is pretty amazing. They have over 200 big cats on the premises, which is a mostly wooded property way out in the middle of rural Indiana. Since cats (unlike wolves) don’t generally form large social groups, they’re all caged separately, or in groups of 2-3 adults who get along well. The center has lions…
…cougars…
…bobcats…
…leopards…
…and tigers!
Plus a few odds and ends like servals and ocelots, but I didn’t see any of those guys on my visit. Mostly they have tigers—because, sadly, the exotic beauty of tigers means that they’re far more popular with exotic “pet” dealers, and there are a lot more of them needing rescuing. This includes white tigers
and tabby tigers, who have lighter fur and dark orange stripes instead of brown or black.
Visting the Center is a great experience; for a low admission donation, you get a tour of the facility and one-on-one chat with one of their volunteers, who can tell you all kinds of fascinating stuff about these amazing animals. There’s nothing fancy here, no state-of-the-art cages and holding pens; it’s all lumber and chain link fences and donated food, and nearly all their workers are volunteers. The place is a labor of love by humans for big cats, and is absolutely worth a visit if you’re ever in west central Indiana. But they’re hard-core about safety–lay one finger on the chain link of an enclosure, and you’ll be asked to leave. No ifs, ands, or buts, it’s a no-contact facility and they don’t mess around. But it’s still a way of getting closer to these cats than you could almost anyplace else.
If you’d like to know more about them (or would like to look at some much better pictures of their cats) their website is here: Exotic Feline Rescue Center.
World Premiere Opera, Guest Post by Diane_in_MN
The Minnesota Opera has a history of performing new operas, and this year its New Works Initiative program premiered Silent Night, composed by Kevin Puts with a libretto by Mark Campbell. The opera is based on the French film Joyeux Noel, which takes place during the Christmas truce of 1914, at the beginning of World War I. MN Opera’s artistic director Dale Johnson commissioned the work after seeing the film. The fact that two central characters are opera singers may have made the story seem even more suitable for an operatic setting.
I was entirely unfamiliar with Kevin Puts’s music*—a fairly substantial list of orchestral and chamber works; Silent Night is his first opera—and really didn’t know what to expect of this piece. The last commissioned premiere by MN Opera was Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Grapes of Wrath in 2007**. It was a good production and very well reviewed, but Gordon incorporated enough period popular styles in some scenes that it struck me as a mélange of The Met and Broadway***. Given the potential for incorporating plucky WWI –era songs, never mind Christmas carols, into the Silent Night scenario, and given the often-loose meaning of “based upon” when applied to a source, it seemed to me that this opera could go off in any of several different directions.
As it turned out, Puts features neither Christmas carols nor patriotic songs in his opera. The opera singers—a German tenor and his Danish soprano lover—are in the midst of a performance when war is declared, and the tenor is called into the army. A young Scot and his brother enlist, under the then-prevailing common impression that the war will be short, exciting, and glorious; their priest follows them as an ambulance driver. A French lieutenant is called up, leaving his pregnant wife on the verge of giving birth. Months later, their respective companies are positioned across no-man’s land from each other, following a battle near a French city. The rest of the work centers on the interaction between the three companies that leads to the Christmas truce, followed by the outraged reactions of each country’s military authorities when they learn about it later.
As one might expect, the cast is entirely male with the exception of the Danish soprano, who arranges to be with her lover for a Christmas Eve concert for the Army brass, and then accompanies him back to his company, where he has promised to sing for his fellow soldiers. (The singing, of course, is what leads to the truce.) There’s enough variation in the men’s voices, plus some good choral writing, to keep this interesting, and of course the soprano’s voice stands out entirely. The libretto is written in English, French, and German, and Puts recognizes that different rhythms and, to some extent, styles, apply when setting each of the three languages. The opera is sung through, with the relatively short arias incorporated into the dialog. This is effective dramatically, although it doesn’t necessarily make for memorable tunes. Puts and Campbell let the material speak for itself without sentimentalizing it, a plus in my book, although there’s an O. Henry twist at the end that struck me as being a little heavy-handed and that I could have done without. The libretto is said to be very close to the screenplay of the film, which I have not seen, so I won’t blame it on the librettist.
All five performances of Silent Night were sold out, and the audience at the performance I attended (the last matinee) was very appreciative of the music, the singing, and the production. Reviews have been good, and this combined with the warm reception by the audience must be encouraging to both the composer and the New Works Initiative. Opera as an art form has a four-hundred-year history, and people who love it should not want that history to stop in the mid-twentieth century.
Overall, I think this is a good opera, but not a great one. It seems to me that it works really well as staged music drama, but the music is tied closely enough to the action that it would be less rewarding as a purely listening experience.+ I hope it gets more productions, and I hope Kevin Puts sees his way to write more operas, as his first attempt came off so well.
A selection of brief scenes from Silent Night can be found here, on the Minnesota Opera web site.
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* I’ve now heard a few snippets on YouTube. Why don’t our orchestras program and our radio stations play more new classical music? It’s out there and we rarely get to hear it. Grrrr!
** I dislike Steinbeck and think that Grapes received its only necessary musical treatment in Woody Guthrie’s Ballad of Tom Joad, but I was prepared to be open-minded about it.
*** In fact, I think Gordon’s opera is a good piece of work and deserves a place on stage. I don’t know its performance history; it has a fairly large cast, which may make it less attractive to small companies.
+ I’ve noticed this about several of the new or new-ish productions I’ve seen. I wonder if this is because we’ve become such a visual culture that some opera composers think in terms of stagings rather than recordings? Opera was conceived as a form that would unify all the arts, but I think it’s fair to say that for most of its history, music was the dominant art and hearing the dominant sense in the mix.
Whether Brugge or Bruges, it’s still a pretty city (guest post by AJLR)
We were looking for something we could do for a day, back last September at the time of our wedding anniversary. Something…interesting, not too strenuous, visually appealing; I’m sure you know the sort of thing. Eventually, we decided to be lazy tourists for a day on a trip to Brugge – often known as Bruges – in Belgium.
We’re lucky, living where we do in the south east tip of England, to have very easy access to mainland Europe. In fact, we can be in France or Belgium as quickly as London, sometimes, and that’s only 90 minutes away. When my brother was living and working in Belgium, near Antwerp, for six or seven years, it was relatively easy for us to visit and we took advantage of that – and the fact that he had learned to speak Flemish meant that we were given a greater appreciation for the culture in Flanders (the northern and Flemish-speaking half of Belgium) than may otherwise have been the case. However, there was so much to explore with him in and around Antwerp and Ghent that we’d not then gone as far as Brugge (Brugge being the name used for the city in its own area of Flanders, while Bruges is the name version used by the Francophone Belgians in the south of the country). The city is currently famous for its chocolate, and lace.
So, on a Sunday morning at the end of September we found ourselves on the outskirts of Brugge, walking down from the main parking area on a broad path through a park and approaching the city proper. Brugge is an ancient but relatively small city with a recently-built and modern port some miles away at Zeebrugge (Brugge-on-Sea) and is prospering. The day we were there (which was sunny and warm) it was very busy and bustling with tourists and locals alike. The scene below was one of the first we came upon as we approached the buildings near the centre.
On the walk into the city
Over the bridge and onto paved streets, we watched the horse-drawn carriages taking people for a tour of the city – and just past there, a refreshment pool for the horses.
Slightly gruesome image but I suppose the carriage horses don't mind it when drinking
The first street we wandered down had, on one side, four chocolate shops, in a row, and on the other a patisserie – with these delectable-looking objects in the window:
Drool, drool...
Life is very difficult, sometimes, the way eatables keep bringing themselves to one’s attention…
Leaving the Street of Too Many Temptations, we decided to take a boat tour of the city canals – not for nothing is Brugge one of the cities known as the ‘Venice of the North’. It was a delightful trip, lasting about 30 minutes, and with plenty to see as you can tell from the next few photos.
Blue sky, bridge, trees - a beautiful sight from the boat
Lovely brickwork and shapes
Watchdog, keeping an eye on the city's waterways
This dog was dreamily watching the water traffic, but not really bothered by anything.
Cormorant drying its wings - not a common sight in a city
'The Venice of the North'
After the boat trip had finished we wandered off to find some lunch and then went for a walk around the giant flea market in the centre, by one of the canals. Sadly, we couldn’t bring ourselves to remove any of these stunning treasures from their home to take back with us…
Stall in Sunday's flea market
And these figures were just a tad OTT – can you imagine trying to eat your way through one of these chocolate statues? We also felt that some of the models in these shops were a little lacking in another sort of taste. I was peering in the window of one shop when I suddenly noticed that I was only the other side of the glass from a realistically-modelled and almost full-sized female bosom, complete in all details. I recoiled, slightly, I must admit. I can’t imagine the occasion for which one would take such a thing home and present it for consumption! (And no, I didn’t take a photo of it.)
Chocolate models
Moving on again we found ourselves in the main square and stopped to admire some of the stunning architecture.
A city square to be proud of
Shortly after this we found ourselves lured by the window display into a wonderful cheese shop. One of the cheeses, made locally, was about the size and shape of a 10″ round fruit cake, it was mild-tasting and had the texture of solidified cream. We bought a slice – And I Have Since Forgotten Its Name (probably just as well, really).
The lace-making industry in the region is very famous and the items made are both beautiful and (to my eyes) extremely complicated in design. I cannot imagine how long it takes to learn to produce some of these things – a lifetime, I expect.
Mind-boggling work
Lovely old photos of skilled workers in lace
Altogether it was a fascinating day and we’re going to go back in the Spring for a weekend, so that we can spend more time in the museums and exhibitions than was possible on the Sunday of this day visit. With some of the most notable collections of Flemish paintings in the world housed in the city, there’s a lot still to see.