Tag Archives: Toronto

Music in the Afternoon – Trumpet, Piano, Bass and Drum

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…..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!

More Snow, Cuban Food, Cheese, Tarts and Jazz

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….despite the snow it was a very full and delightful day

On Saturday we woke up to more snow. Lots of snow. We had made plans earlier in the week to meet up with friends for lunch and because we had already cancelled the last get together because of illness we didn’t want to cancel again. Luckily the drive wasn’t too long.IMG_4009

We had lunch at a very popular restaurant on Roncesvalles in the west end of Toronto. The weather certainly didn’t keep people from going out for a meal. The place was packed but our wait was relatively short. La Cubana specializes in Cuban delights and because we were there on a Saturday the brunch menu was being served.

The food was very tasty and the service very friendly. I would definitely go back. We hadn’t seen our friends, D & D, since New Year’s Day so we had a lot of catching up to do. They talked about their recent trip to Singapore and shared some beautiful photographs of this island country. We brought them up to date on K’s recent surgery and his even more recent accident. You can see from the photograph that he’s healing nicely.

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After lunch we said our good-byes, scraped off more snow from the car and then carefully drove off. On the way home we decided to stop at one of our favourite cheese stores in town, The Cheese Boutique. It was a good day to go. We sampled some delicious organic olive oil from Turkey, were served some hot turkish tea and met a lovely lady who was promoting her homemade lemon curd tarts and butter tarts. I asked her if she lived close by and she told us about her store and bakery on the Queensway called the The Tartistry. She also told us about the live jazz band that played there every Saturday, all day long. Seeing it was on the way home we decided to stop in and check the place out. Before we left we picked up some great cheese that was on sale, a free range chicken and a nice big steak to share for dinner.

The Tartistry is a small store, crammed with beautiful antiques, jewellery, art work and of course tarts. We sat at a small table and ordered two pots of tea and because we hadn’t had dessert with lunch we also indulged in the best tarts I’ve ever eaten. The jazz band was very good. The place was pretty quiet, probably due to the bad weather, but I can see how on a nicer day the place could be very busy. I would definitely go back here again as well.

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After spending about an hour listening to jazz we finally drove home, stopped to pick up some fresh vegetable to go with the steak and quickly shovelled more snow and took the dog for a walk before preparing dinner. Actually, we were pretty full from our mid afternoon snack so we waited quite a while before making dinner. The steak was amazing and even though one steak is normally enough meat for both of us my husband did wish he had an entire steak to himself (only because it was so good). We laughed when he said that because when we have in the past eaten a steak each he usually complains that it’s too much meat.

All in all it was a wonderful day. Full of new and unexpected and spontaneous adventures.

5 Day Black and White Challenge – Day 2

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…..thanks to Becca from On Dragonfly Wings With Buttercup Tea  for inviting me to join the 5 Day Black and White Challenge

Day 2

IMG_0342 The challenge is to post one (1) B&W photo a day for 5 consecutive days, and ask someone each day to join in the fun.

For my Day 2 of the Challenge:
I ask Elizabeth of Tea and Paper to share her talent.

∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴

If any one of you would like to participate in this 5 Day Black & White Challenge, please let me know.

Rules for 5 Black and White Challenge (there are only 2) 😀

For 5 days create a post any past or present photo in black and white.
Each day you invite a new photographer to join the fun.

5 Day Black and White Challenge

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……thanks to Becca at On Dragonfly Wings for Buttercup Tea for inviting me to join in the 5 day challenge

Day 1

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The interior staircase at the AGO in Toronto.

The challenge is to post one (1) B&W photo a day for 5 consecutive days, and ask someone each day to join in the fun.

For my Day 1 of the Challenge:
I would like to ask Trisha from Notes from the Fog to share her talent.

∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴

If any one of you would like to participate in this 5 Day Black & White Challenge, please let me know.

Rules for 5 Black and White Challenge (there are only 2) 😀

For 5 days create a post any past or present photo in black and white.
Each day you invite a new photographer to join the fun.

The Next Wave of Snow is Upon Us

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…..last Monday we saw more snow than predicted but still no ‘Snow Day’ in Toronto

Luckily everyone else stayed off the roads so driving to work on Monday wasn’t as bad as it could have been. About one third of our students stayed home and made their own ‘Snow Day’. All the other school boards around Toronto closed schools for the day. We only cancelled buses. It’s funny how conditions for school buses are too dangerous but it’s okay for teachers and parents to get out in their cars to get to school. Go figure!

Anyway, I didn’t intend to rant about last Monday. Today we’re experiencing more snow but I’m not sure that we’re going to get as much as predicted. I’m trying to get out and walk more so late this afternoon, when the snow started I went out for a walk and on my way home I took a few photos. They’re a little grainy because it started to get dark but some of that graininess is the snow that’s coming down.

I went out again a little while ago to walk the dog but she wouldn’t go further than around the block so I think I’m going to be about a thousand steps shy of my 10 000 step goal. Maybe I’ll go out one more time without her and shovel some of that snow.

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Share Your World, 2015 – Week 4

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Where did you live at age five? Is it the same place or town you live now?

At the age of five I lived in Toronto. The following year we moved to Oakville, which is about a half hour west of Toronto. We only lived there for four years before we moved back to Toronto. I have lived in this great city most of my life.

View of the city from Centre Island.

View of the city from Centre Island.

You are invited to a party that will be attended by many fascinating people you never met. Would you attend this party if you were to go by yourself?

I’m not sure I would go by myself. If I know someone at the party and I’m assuming that the person who invited me knows me I might go for awhile. This summer I went to a neighbour’s party but I didn’t stay long because there were a lot of people there that I didn’t know.

Did you grow up in a small or big town? Did you like it?

I guess you figured out that I grew up in a big city. In fact, Toronto is the biggest city in Canada. I can’t remember not liking it. We had a park, skating rink, tennis courts and swimming pool right across the street. In the summer I swam every day and in the winter I was always at the rink. In the summer we used to go to Centre Island for picnics and we always looked forward to the CNE (Canadian National Exhibiton) which signalled the end of summer. IMG_0205_2

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

My first memory of what I wanted to be was a nurse (me and every other little girl in the 50s) but at the age of 12 I decided that I wanted to be a Family Studies (Home Ec.) teacher. That dream didn’t waver much. Sometimes I thought I might want to become a doctor but I always went back to teaching. I studied to become a Family Studies teacher and for 17 years that’s what I taught. I have been a teacher for 34 years and I still love it.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I answered this question on Sunday so nothing much new to report here.

For more Share Your World posts check out Cee’s Photography.

Birthday, Brunch, Books and Best Buys

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…..Dec.30 is the birthday of my twins, G and B

Today we celebrated a birthday. Thirty-three years ago I gave birth to two healthy children, a girl and a boy. We celebrated at G’s place where she treated us to a wonderful brunch of homemade bread, homemade ricotta cheese, jams, honey, coffee, fresh fruit salad, kale and goat cheese frittata and a delicious green salad. Everyone contributed to the meal but the bulk of the work was prepared by G.

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Gifts were exchanged earlier in the day and then again at the brunch. Our son loves books and our daughter collects cookbooks. Yesterday G ordered B a very special cookbook that he had expressed an interest in and surprisingly it was delivered while we were there. Now that’s service!

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After brunch we (our oldest daughter, our son and his fiancé) drove north on Yonge St. and   stopped at Super Khorak to purchase some special food items for dinner. Our future daughter-in-law is Iranian and we wanted to purchase some authentic Iranian food. My son and my husband literally cleaned their bowls and the food containers with the flat Iranian bread that we bought. There wasn’t a morsel of food left over. It was definitely a ‘best buy’ today.