…Cee’s black and white challenge this week is to produce any photo in sepia tones
Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge – Sepia
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Category Archives: Music
Share Your World 2015 – Week 41
….she’s finally here
I waited before posting this week’s Share Your World because I didn’t want to report that the baby still hadn’t arrived. Well on Tuesday, October 13th at 10:39 in the evening my daughter, G, gave birth to a healthy 7 lb. 15 oz. baby girl. Mother and baby are doing extremely well and Dad is over the moon.
It’s been a few days since I’ve posted anything. We’ve been a little busy driving back and forth to Hamilton. So here are my answers to Cee’s questions.
What genre of music do you like?
I like lots of different styles of music. On Thursday I went to an afternoon concert and listened to chamber music but I have to admit that I am a fan of Pop and Jazz. I don’t like heavy metal or Rap music.
What is the worst thing you ate this last week?
The worst thing that I ate was a crispy chicken sandwich from Tim Horton’s. I usually like sandwiches from this food chain but we were a little suspect on how they could make such a crispy sandwich in such a short span of time. I also had a chicken breast from Swiss Chalet which is also normally very good but this one was dry. The first meal was consumed while visiting our daughter at the hospital and the second one was at the airport where my husband and I met my sister from Calgary on a 4 hour layover.
Would you like to be famous? In what way?
I don’t want to be famous. I just want to be remembered in a good light as a kind and caring person. I used to think that fame would be fun but I do like my privacy and I think that often you lose that when you’re famous.
Complete this sentence: This sandwich could really use some …
….of my husband’s mustard pickle or tomato jam. This summer my husband has experimented with some new preserves and these two are wonderful on sandwiches.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful for a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with my family but most of all for the safe delivery of our first grandchild a couple of days later. I think she’s beautiful but I’m sure all grandmothers say that of their grand babies.
In the week coming up I’m looking forward to spending more time with the new baby but I’m also in the mood for art. I need to reorganize some of my art supplies and start framing some pieces for Christmas gifts.
Thanks to my daughter, Gaelan and her husband, Brendan for letting me share these photos with you.
Introducing
Winifred Josephine
Born October 13, 2015
Winding Down but Still So Very Busy
…..even though there are only 5 days left with students there is no slowing down
Yesterday we had our big annual outdoor extravaganza. Every class sang, danced and/or played musical instruments on an outdoor stage that the parent council rented for the day. We had a dress rehearsal in the afternoon and every class sat on the hill and watched the performances as they waited for their turn to go on stage.
In the evening the students stayed in classrooms and waited to be called to go on stage. It was very well organized and all 14 classes and two choirs completed their presentations in one hour and fifteen minutes. The weather this year cooperated. We couldn’t have asked for a better evening. The parents loved it and the students wished that it had gone on longer.
Today we started rehearsals for next week’s farewell assembly for the grade 5s. After school my friend L and I ran around to get the food organized for tomorrow’s tea with the students who bid on “High Tea with Mrs. C and Ms. C” at the silent auction a few weeks ago. I offered Tea with Mrs. C last year and it was so successful that my friend L wanted to go in on it with me. We decided to make it extra special and have the tea at L’s house where her very British mom could help us with the table setting. I just had these two photos sent to me. The table is ready for tea.
On the weekend we’re celebrating Father’s Day at our house. The ‘kids’ (my children, not the students) are coming over on Saturday for a BBQ. My husband is anxious to try out his new charcoal and propane combination grill. We’re also invited to a retirement party on the same day but it is just across the road so hopefully we can find time to drop in for a bit. On Sunday I’m hoping we can find time to visit my Dad in Oshawa.
Next week there will be more rehearsals for the farewell, the assembly itself that I’m emceeing, the grade 5 fun day and the school’s play day. On Wednesday evening we’re having our staff party (yeah!) and then on the last day of school there’s one more assembly. Somewhere in between all that we have to clean our rooms, order supplies for next year and store our computers and electronics in a safe place for the summer.
Kindergarteners Rock When Painting to Music
….painting to music is energizing and allows you to be loose and free with your lines and application of paint
Last week’s assignment for the http://www.carlasonheim.com/yearofthespark/ was presented by Lynn Whipple. We were instructed to draw and paint a floral arrangement using a variety of pens, pencils, markers and watercolour paints while listening to music. Here is my finished piece after listening to Astor Piazzola’s El Tango.
I decided to try and re-created this assignment for my kindergarten class. I chose five varied pieces of music and did up a quick sample before heading to the kindergarten class. I had a stuffed rabbit in the library so I did a quick drawing to music and left some of the painting to do later with the children. Here is my finished sample:
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In class I reminded the children how colour can affect our moods and that music does the same. I demonstrated how music can affect how you draw and make marks on paper. I told them that they could draw anything that they wanted (there were flowers in the centre of each table) or they could simply make marks and shapes to the music they heard. They were given pencils, coloured pencils, crayons, chalk pastels and markers.
They each chose one tool and when the music started they began drawing. After one minute I changed the music and told them to change their tool. We did this for five different pieces of music. When they were happy with their drawing we added watercolour to the mix. Some of the children saw shapes and animals in their pictures and added colour accordingly. I put on a quieter piece of music for this last part. It was fascinating to watch them. Some children clearly picked up on the concept and moved their brushes to the beat of the music and some actually stopped when there was a pause in the music and continued when the music started again.
There was so much joy in the room. Not one student wanted to stop early and many of them wanted to experiment with the dripping paint. I love these pieces so much that I am going to frame them and put them up in the main foyer of the school. Here is a sizeable sample of work done by four and five year olds.
I sincerely hope that some of the parents will mat and frame these pieces of art. If any piece of art work is worthy of saving this is it.
Great Weather, Great News, Great Concert
….it’s been a wonderful weekend and I can finally share my big news
1. Finally a beautiful weekend, weather-wise. Sunshine and warmer temperatures. I managed to get out on Saturday for a walk with the dog and took some photos of the neighbourhood.
2. Also on Saturday, my husband and I picked up our youngest daughter and her dog Lucy and brought them back to our house. G’s husband was on a business trip so she was looking for some company and she needed a break from packing boxes. This Friday they will be moving from their tiny apartment in uptown Toronto to a 4 bedroom Victorian semi in Hamilton. It’s a move they need to make because they needed more room to accommodate the new baby that they are expecting in October. Yeah!!!!!!!!! I’m finally going to be a grandmother. That’s my BIG news!
3. Today my friend DM invited me to a concert downtown. The Women’s Musical Club of Toronto hosted a live competition to present the Career Development Awards. The concert featured the three finalists who were chosen from a pool of 10 candidates chosen by CBC regional producers. Usually a jury of musical experts from across Canada rank all the entries based on written and audio materials and select a winner but because this was the tenth anniversary for the award (given every three years) a live competition was held. Prizes of $20 000., $10 000 and $5000 were awarded for first, second and third place.
All three competitors played magnificently. There were two pianists and one cello player. First prize went to Charles Richard-Hamelin on piano, second prize to Stéphane Tétreault on cello and third prize to Pierre-André Doucet on piano (my personal favourite).
I’ve found Pierre-André Doucet’s performance of Carl Vine’s Piano Sonata No. 1 on YouTube.
Stéphane was the youngest performer at 22 and played this beautiful arrangement of Hayden’s Divertimento in D Major.
I couldn’t find the exact piece that Charles Richard-Hamelin played today but here is a sample of Chopin.
Share Your World – Week 14
…..join the fun and Share Your World with us
What type of music relaxes you the most or do you prefer silence?
Sometimes I need complete silence. Being surrounded by children all day can take it’s toll. I do, however, love music. It can inspire me to paint and motivate me to move but if I need to relax I need, for lack of a better term, ‘spa music’. I know that there is a word for this type of music but i’m having a ‘_________’ moment. Maybe you can fill in the blank or come up with the name I’m looking for.
Show us a two of your favorites photographs? Explain why they are your favorite. If you are not a photographer, think of a two favorite scenes in your life and tell us about them.
This is hard because I’ve taken thousands of photos. I’d probably have to chose recent photos. One that stands out for me was the photo where I was able to capture a water drop coming from a faucet. It’s not a perfect shot but capturing that split second gave me quite a thrill.
Another photo that I like is one that I took yesterday. People were feeding the seagulls down by the lake and there was quite a feeding frenzy. I love being able to catch birds in flight and in this shot a seagull flew in front of my shot just at the right moment.
What is your favorite tradition? (family tradition, church tradition, whatever)
Our favourite family tradition is having everyone over on Christmas Eve. It’s a German tradition that my husband adopted when we were married and one he refuses to give up. My husband prepares food all day long. The menu varies from year to year. We often have mulled wine, a shrimp ring, and a cheese and meat platter. Those are standard items. Some years we’ve had a hearty homemade lentil soup made with a pork hock. One year my daughter brought over Chinese steamed buns and another time my husband made Jamaican roti and a Guiness punch. We nibble all night long and we slowly open gifts. Christmas Day is more low key. Some years when all our children are at the homes of their significant others we order in Chinese food and go out for a movie.
If you could go back and talk to yourself at age 18 what advice would you give yourself? Or if you are younger than 25 what words of wisdom would you like to tell yourself at age 50?
If I could go back to being 18 I would tell myself to listen to and learn from my elders and spend more time with them. I know that sometimes parents say the strangest things and I couldn’t wait to move away from home when I was 18. When I graduated from university I got married right away so I never did live at home again. I would also tell myself to put away a certain amount of money every month and never touch it until retirement. We started doing that but life doesn’t always go as planned and our nest egg disappeared. Luckily I have a very good pension fund as a teacher. I would also tell myself to pay off my credit cards in full every month. The last thing I would tell myself is to never count on an inheritance to feather your own nest. The unexpected can happen and generally people live longer.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful for the long Easter weekend and time spent with my family. My husband made a delicious pork roast and roasted vegetables and homemade cheese biscuits. My youngest daughter made a tasty Caprese salad with homemade mozzarella cheese and my oldest daughter baked a scrumptious plum cake that she served with homemade roibus tea ice-cream. I set the table and made the place setting cards.
This week I’m looking forward to lunch with friends from high school. It will the first time that we’ve all gotten together since the passing of our dear friend Marcia last July. It was because of Marcia that we all reunited in the first place and we vowed that we would continue to see each other at least once a year, if not more often.
Music in the Afternoon – Trumpet, Piano, Bass and Drum
…..a great concert featuring Jens Lindemann
On Thursday of this week I had the pleasure of attending the third concert of a series, Music in the Afternoon, put on by the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto. I didn’t know what to expect. I only knew that the featured artist, Jens Lindemann, played the trumpet. It turned out to be my favourite concert to date.
The concert started with a piano and trumpet duet. Jennifer Snow (who is also Jens’ wife) appeared on the stage and began to play. From the back of the auditorium the unmistakable sound of the trumpet joined in. Slowly Mr. Lindemann made his way to the stage while he played.
Even though the concert started on a serious note, we quickly learned of Jens Lindemann’s fun side. Born in Germany, he introduced himself with a heavy German accent. He asked the audience if there were any other Germans amongst us and I quickly raised my hand. I had no idea that I would be the only other German born person to raise her hand and he immediately asked me, in German, where I was from. I told him Frankfurt and he told us that he came from an area close by. There were two other German speaking audience members but they were from Austria and he made a joke that with one German and two Austrians we had a party. I was nervous that he would ask me more questions in German but he moved on to talking about Tim Horton’s and all of a sudden his heavy German accent disappeared and he spoke in a natural ‘Canadian’ voice. The audience loved it.
I should have known that he was putting us on because I had read that he came to Canada as a baby. He was raised in Edmonton and studied at McGill University and The Juilliard School. He’s won numerous awards as a celebrated soloist around the world and in 2014 he received The Order of Canada.
For most of the show Lindemann was accompanied with a piano, bass and drums. Apparently it was the first time in the WMCT’s history that a drum set appeared on stage. The ensemble was made up of the celebrated and talented musicians of Kristian Alexandrov, Mike Downes and Ted Warren. We were treated to a range of musical styles from classical (Bach and Debussy) to Jazz (Duke Ellington), Tango (Piazzola) and contemporary composers (Sting, Alexandrov).
The show ended softly just like it started but Lindemann featured his pianist, Kristian Alexandrov, with a number that he composed himself. Kristian’s Prayer brought tears to my eyes. At the end Jens joined in with a lovely rendition of What a Wonderful World. I bought Prayer from iTunes and I was able to find a video on YouTube of Kristian and Jens performing What a Wonderful World at McGill, four years ago. Enjoy!
A Week of Highs and Lows
….I haven’t posted in days
My lows include not posting for a number of days. I had over 500 emails that I hadn’t opened and I tried to read as many as possible. I deleted many of them without reading them so I apologize if I missed an important message or one of your better posts. If I made a comment or ‘liked’ your post you know that I read it. I actually do read your posts and I feel unusually guilty if I have to pass them over. I’m trying to read my emails daily but there are over a hundred in my inbox again.
It’s been a tough week with the kids at school. I’m sure that it’s partly due to the time change. Everyone was tired and a bit cranky and with March Break in front of them many found it difficult to focus. There was a lot of excitement and anticipation for this holiday.
I also haven’t done any art for myself. Every day this week I planned to spend some time on my art and it didn’t happen. I’m planning on fixing that during my time off.
Now that March Break is here, I’ve come down with a head cold. Wouldn’t you know it! I’m not sick all year and on the first day of the break I have a scratchy throat and runny nose. Oh well, I have 9 days to rest.
On the high side I managed to get more of the books in the library labelled and shelved and I finally put in an order for supplies and more books. I know that may not seem like a high for some of you but I always feel good when I can get something accomplished.
Last Sunday I took my family to see Ray Cattell’s art show at the Arts and Letters Club. I’ve know Ray for over 25 years. His daughter, L and I work together and have been best friends for all those years. Ray is now in his 90s and it was nice to see the range of work that he has produced from the 1960s to the present day.
The temperatures have finally warmed up and the snow has started to melt. In fact so much of the snow has melted that I’ve finally been able to go outside without my winter boots on. A few crazy people have also been seen wearing shorts in Toronto. Plus 4 is hardly warm enough to go outside without a coat never mind wearing a t-shirt and shorts.
I also went to a concert this week. It was part of the Music in the Afternoon concert series put on by the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto. The concert featured Jens Lindemann on trumpet. I had no idea what to expect but it ended up being one my most favourite concerts to date. I’ll write more about this in my next post.
I also spent time with my friend CL who I hadn’t seen since Christmas. We had lunch together and then headed downtown for the concert. Afterwards we stopped for coffee and continued to catch up on what we’ve been doing for the last three months. As with most of my friends she asked about my retirement and gave me some food for thought as to what I might want to do when I finally take that step.
On Wednesday a group of us from school decided to have a bit of a staff social and we went bowling and then out for dinner. Most of us are not very good bowlers but it was a lot of fun and we vowed that we would plan another outing after March Break.
Last night my daughter and her husband came over for an impromptu dinner of homemade pizza and salad. My husband and I are very spontaneous and we love it when things like this just come together.
To top off my highs for the week my husband bought me another fresh bouquet of flowers.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – My Favourite Things-Verse One
…this challenge comes from the song ‘My Favourite Things’ from the Sound of Music
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, Bright copper kettles, and warm woolen mittens, Brown paper packages tied up with strings, These are a few of my favorite things
Thanks Cee!
Busy, Busy, Busy…..
….the month of November has been incredibly busy but very enjoyable for the most part
It seems that the number of cultural events that I get to experience are few and far between but lately I’ve been going to quite a few shows. As they say ‘when it rains it pours’.
The month started off, sadly with my aunt’s death and her memorial gathering six days later. On a h
appier note my daughter celebrated her birthday and my son came home for a short visit from London all in the same week. I also attended a show called Between the Pages with a group of friends where we were treated to readings from the top five books that were short listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. All the authors were there and we listened to them answer questions that were given to them by the evening’s host, Carol Off.
In the following week we celebrated Remembrance Day at school on the 11th. It is always a big deal at our school and the children and staff prepared a very moving and memorable assembly for the community. 
Two days later I attended an afternoon concert at the Edward Johnson building where the Dover String Quartet played to a full house. They were the winners of last year’s Banff Springs String Quartet competition. It was an amazing concert and received rave reviews from two newspaper critics. 
The concert was sponsored and hosted by the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto.
A week later on the 20th, my husband and I saw the show, The Book of Mormon at the Princess of Wales Theatre. It was a very funny show. Just what the doctor ordered. We needed a good laugh after getting the news that my husband will need another surgery to remove the other half of his thyroid. They discovered that the nodules were cancerous. Apparently cancer of the thyroid is very slow growing and as his doctor put it, it’s not the illness that he’ll die from. None the less, the news was discouraging and the play helped alleviate some of his despair.
Two days later, our good friends, D and D called us and invited us to brunch at the restaurant, Frank, at the AGO. The art gallery was featuring works from Michelangelo and Rodin so after our meal we decided to take in the show. I have to admit that I found the Michelangelo pieces somewhat underwhelming. Many of the works were very small and people moved into the the pieces way too closely for my liking but I can understand why.
The Rodin pieces on the other hand were all sculptural and much larger. I enjoyed seeing the sculpture, The Thinker, up close and personal. It was also interesting to see how large Rodin made the extremities of his figures. The hands and feet of many pieces were massive. 
On the 25th I received a phone call from my friend L and she informed me that our friend, C had put her back out and couldn’t use her tickets for the ballet the next day. She offered them to us and so the next day we headed downtown, had dinner together and then went to the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts to see the ballet, Nijinsky. It was an incredible performance. I was mesmerized by the slow motion action going on in the background and the shear physicality of the lead dancer’s movements. How that man isn’t black and blue all over is beyond me.
Finally on Friday, November 28th we were guests of our friends D and D at the University of Toronto production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore, It was charming and fun to watch.
As I said earlier ‘ when it rains, it pours’. So much to see and do. I’m exhausted just writing about it. Now that we’re into December I’m sure things will not slow down but for different reasons. November was truly a month for the arts.
Mama Cormier 
