Archive of ‘jess’ category

Tea for two, with a side of Nostalgic Pie

My wonderful friend Jessica, is back in town, after much musical-globe-trotting, and schooling abroad. Jess is a bright light, quirky, bubbly and a very talented violist and singer. She is always so busy, that this peaceful summer lull makes quite a welcome change.  It was so nice to be able to call her up yesterday and make plans to chill today! That has never happened, and I’ve known her since we were in grade 5…gosh…has it really been 9 years already? I’m kind of teasing her here, but its usually really hard to get together with her outside of school…its kind of a joke among our friends.

We met at the Solstice Cafe for tea, a cafe that hearkens back to Paris and Vienna’s artistic cafe’s, that I’ve only read about in novels. Organic, local, fair-trade, with lots of vegan baking. Paradise, essentially.

Maybe its because Jess and I are around the same age, but when we’re together, it still feels like we’re little girls, a giggly duo who can literally talk forever. When you grow up with some one, sometimes you can’t appreciate how much they have matured, blossomed, until you’ve been away from them for awhile. I’m not talking about the ‘oh-I-can-see-you-as-an-accountant-already’ kind of grown-up, nothing bad or dull like that. 🙂

I kind of had this idyllic notion, that when it was time for people to leave to go to school, no one would really go far, Vancouver at the worst, and we’d all stay as close and our lives as interconnected as before. Most of my good friends I’ve known since Middle School, and that circle hasn’t changed very much, although we have all grown into very different people, our personalities complementing each other in our quirky way, friendships that are as well worn and treasured as a pair of favorite dancing shoes. I try to write like I am blissfully unconscious of my audience (hello? are you out there 😛 ), and so its ‘just the facts’. I know that its 100% non-fiction when I write that I have the most cherished friends imaginable; I am truly blessed. Pardon me as I overflow with nostalgia for the old days, of playing Cops and Robbers in the rain, our kilts swishing, ridiculous nicknames, playing the ‘Blue’ game on the swings, the Pickle Trees, and gossiping in Windy House…

Oft, in the stilly night,
  Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,
Fond Memory brings the light
  Of other days around me …

 (Thomas Moore)

It is kind of exhausting, talking for so long, but I wouldn’t trade our catch-up for anything. I haven’t been feeling super-dee-duper lately…always feeling like I could have used another decade of sleep, not wanting to move or think too much. Anything but knitting, or practicing my Debussy repertoire (recital on Monday!) seems too overwhelming.

Vegan Cupcakes Invade My Oven…

…and it isn’t exactly a hostile take-over. 😉

Wowzer. I was flipping through the cupcake book this afternoon, drooling at every single picture, and imagining all the wonderful parings of frosting and cupcakes I could create, when I realized I could be baking them right then and there. So I carefully got up from my chair (so as not to arouse suspicion from my Mum), and began to curdle my soy and coconut milk in the kitchen. I usually make a big mess when I bake, but then am not so good at the cleaning up part- in my defense, the sink is really high and I can’t really reach into it very easily.

I decided to bake a simple Agave Vanilla Cupcake, but added a little coconut milk (oh, the decadence!), and maple syrup for extra yum yum factor. They came together beautifully; the batter was so thick and creamy that it reminded me of Belgium waffle dough. They were this lovely golden brown color, thanks to the maple syrup, agave and copious teaspoons of vanilla I added to them. And 18 minutes later, they magically reappeared from the oven looking golden-er and smelling vanilla-ier than before! I hate waiting for them to cool, but every darn cookbook mentions this. Soooo I am being very patient, but am itching to frost them. I am thinking of adding some melted chocolate to a coconut based icing that we have. These thoughts are rather torturous to one who is immersed in the sweet smell of a dozen fresh baked cupcakes, so I will regretfully move from this topic to an equally wonderful one.

I received a letter from my good friend, Jess, who has left the island for Georgia, USA, to do what she loves; play the viola. Any booyyyyy does she play…I am so happy for her that she gets to do that all day long!! Paradise, but hard work. I feel so very fortunate to know such amazing talented, kind, generous people. We have been such wonderful friends since I arrived at GNS! Cornrowing each others hair at sleepovers, making ‘menus’, playing outside, choir several times a week, lunchtimes on the field gossiping, helping each other in school and bemoaning IB work. I miss her like bread misses butter. Can’t wait til Christmas break! Love you, Jessi <3

The cupcakes are cooling… 

Kristin is so wonderful and caring, and I look forward to our piano lessons together so much! We always have so much fun -> no ruler-hitting.-work-to-the-bone,-and-never-right,-and-mean teacher here, but there is oodles and oodles of learning happen’. You train a dog with biscuits, not kicks. :D. I write down my questions for her as I am practicing during the week, that way when we meet I can remember what parts I had trouble with. Kristin gave me a wonderful gift for my birthday: a pashmina scarf with piano notes and symbols on it in pink and l(y)me green, a CD of all the out-of-print jazz “Fake Books”, and a wonderful book of Chopin pieces, including all my favorite mazurkas, waltzes and preludes. Because I can play all the tricky Debussy pieces (nearly!), Chopin can’t be far behind. I wish that I had a prehensile pinky finger…that would really help playing his pieces!

Today, I was grilled on this incredible beautiful Chopin Waltz (posth., from the Trio Valses #2). It is very depressing to admit that although I am working hard on it and think I am playing it very fast, I am barely beyond half-speed!! It is played at a break-necked pace that surely no dancer could keep to, and my fingers sorely object. I do have all the notes in generally the right places which is always promising, but now I have to add in all the fiddly bits which are most time consuming; the pedaling, trills and occasionally fix up the odd slowdown/speedup’s that happen when one is learning. The other piece is Schuberts’ “Herberge”, which means a country inn. It is a delightful work with all this majestic dotted rhythm that carry me away in their boom. It moves from the sweetest pianissimo staccato passages to these sweeping, swelling chords. There is much room to rubato (classical musics’ ‘swing’ or stretching, in a way) and add emotion, which I do anyways, regardless of the rules.

Ah, music. Imagine if the early peoples had not felt the urge for rhythm, to beat on drums and to sing, to create primitive flute-esque and stringed instruments. What if no one had thought to use strings from the stomach of a goat?, a horse tail brush?, mahogany body?, black and white keys?, brass curves? It would be just us, alone in a wave of rhythm crying out for sound, and noise begging to be sculpted. The cacophony of life and the music inside. 

I have the most amazing, talented, wonderful friends ever!!!

I am so glad we made to a concert of the Divertente String Quartet, at a hall at UVic today. My best friend Jessica Pickersgill (watch out for her…one day she’ll be on the finest stages across the globe…fo sho!), plays the viola so passionately, and I haven’t heard her play in a long time, so I was so blown away at how amazing the music was!! The other three players were fantastic also, two violinists and a cello, all very young! It was so relaxing, listening to the music. It is the only thing that makes me feel better. The music was so beautiful, it is hard to describe, so of course it must be heard to understand. Please enjoy:

 
This is my dear friend, Jessica, playing:
Der Schwanendreher, 1st Movement by Paul Hindemith
accompanied by Elfi Gleusteen

Incidentally, this is my 130th post. Kind of a landmark, I think.
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