Anniversary celebrations; back to school for Maggie; cutting firewood; pesto and elderberry; resumption of attic work

Back to work for Maggie!  It was not so fun to have a 7am wake-up call this morning, but it was a necessary thing for us to get ready and for me to drive her to Waterloo this morning for an 8:15 start.  She has meetings today and tomorrow, prior to the first day of classes on Monday.  I have just continued to Wavre where I'm going to work on the attic today... we had the roofer come and finally fix that pesky water leak at the front of the house.  Now that it is confirmed to be dry I have put in the last of the rockwool and hope to get the drywall finished today or tomorrow.

We had a plasterer come in and give us an estimate.  Rather than mudding just the screw holes and the joins we have decided that he will do a quick coat of these, and then a thin plastering of the whole surface.  It's a little more expensive but I think it will look much better in the end.  But before he does that I have a lot of framing in to do around every window, and some decisions to make about electrical placement.

Last posting I mentioned that we were going to harvest the basil plants as the butternut squash was choking them out.  The basil made a good harvest; after washing and picking off all the leaves we ended up with around 500 grammes of basil, which ended up making five jars of pesto for the freezer.  We use it on pasta of course, but it is also a great marinade for a leg of lamb, or as a pizza sauce.

August 16th marked the 21st anniversary of our wedding ceremony, and as my mother cultivated some gladiolus flowers in the summer of 1997 to decorate the church, I made sure to find some this year for the table in Bousval.  The 16th was also the day for the unveiling of the flower carpet in Brussels' Grand'place, and as Duncan had never seen the carpet we decided to go into town together and see it.

This year the design is inspired by a Mexican theme:

As always it was quite impressive, constructed entirely from begonia flowers, and built in one morning.  The carpet stays on display for three days before the flowers wilt.

The next day we had a nice prix fixe lunch at a restaurant not far from Bousval, called Le Lieu.   It is in an old converted barn, and holds an excellent kitchen and a good wine cellar, as well as a coffee roasterie.  The proprietor Serge was nice enough to comp us some glasses of champagne to start, and a little cake at the end, because it was an anniversary meal, and we enjoyed the menu very much.  As we both like to cook we very rarely go to a restaurant so this was a special treat.

Jean-Claude and Mischou live next door to Bryan and Kiana, and they also went out to Le Lieu, but on Saturday night.  As they have recently adopted a new puppy, Elsa, they were nervous about leaving her at home, so they asked us to come next door and dog-sit.  She is a lovely little Jack Russell mix, and we got along very handsomely.

One of the benefits of buying a new house with a garden is that you discover all sorts of plants that are new to you.  Malcolm trimmed the heck out of the trees and shrubs along the garden fences last summer, and this year we saw tremendous regrowth.  Pictured above you see the european black elderberry, which did extremely well this year.  We harvested a bucket-full, and after some research decided to make jelly.  The unripe elderberries and the stems have to be carefully picked out, as they contain some not-so-nice substances, but the ripened berries can be cooked and the juices strained out to make a jelly.

We've had many adventures in firewood since buying our woodstove, and Bryan and I moved about 33 cubic metres of firewood since last autumn.  But when I saw ten cubic metres for 300 EUR, and a cheap 50 EUR delivery fee, I wrote the Hammers and asked if they wanted to go halves on it.  They agreed; the delivery truck came earlier this week, and I got the chainsaws sharpened up to have a go at it.  Duncan and I have cut up maybe a quarter of it so far; most of it doesn't need to be split so I will save that for later as needed, but for now we're stacking the 40cm lengths up near the hedge, and once that's done we can divide it later.  The wood was felled at the beginning of the year so it needs some more time to season, but we both have lots already in storage to see us through this winter.

next year's Stihl calendar?

stacking

a sample of this season's work

I have recently received a few inquiries for some new work this season.  I have had four December performances of the Mozart Requiem on the books for a long time, and the Elijah for May 5th, 2019 has been confirmed since this past April.  But I've added a Messiah in Bruges at Christmastime, and a second Matthäuspassion (arias) in Bruges in March, to go along with the Christus role in Zieuwent NL in April.  As well I was just called for an opera quartet concert in early October with a string quartet, in Zeeland, NL.  My soprano colleague and friend Rita Matos Alves has organised a concert of Monteverdi madrigals with four singers and a theorbo player that will also happen in October, in La Venerie concert venue in Watermael-Boitsfort.  Lastly, someone important from the Brussels nobility has passed on, and the Ensemble Orchestral de Brussels has been invited to perform a memorial concert at the end of September.  The conductor has asked me to sing the BWV 82 solo cantata Ich habe genug, which is a favourite of mine, and which I have done twice before.  It will be a real pleasure to tackle this again.

There is also some planning happening for next April/May in Canada; along with the Elijah, I am hoping to do another recital with Dina; I was thinking about trying out the Samuel Barber Hermit Songs, but we'll see...  I have never done Schubert's Winterreisse in its entirety, and I am thinking that maybe it is time.  Dina has of course played it many times, so she's up for it again.  And there is a possibility of another concert in Ontario that is still being discussed; I can't really say anything about that until the planning committee decides, but if it works out it will really help make the trip more profitable for me both artistically and financially...