Last day of summer holidays for the boys

flower carpet from the balcony of the Hotel de Ville

We have had a pretty nice summer vacation... Maggie has already started classes, and Malcolm starts Monday.  I will move his stuff up to his new student studio on Sunday afternoon.  Duncan has his first karate class tomorrow morning but his classes won't really start until later this coming week.  I thought I would share a few more photos of what we have been up to recently.

late summer balloons in Bousval

The weather has cooled off and it's been really quite nice again in Belgium.  The grass has started growing again, and it makes it much easier to go running.  I have been going out in the morning of every third day, and yesterday managed almost 23km, which is my longest run since October 29th of last year, and only the third time I've surpassed 21km in the last twelve months.  It's great to get going on longer runs again and my sleep pattern last night showed that being tired out from a long run does wonders for my sleep.  I have a run on September 8th that will be 21km on familiar ground in the Foret des Soignes, so I am confident that all will go well.

back to school flowers for Maggie

the firewood is cut and stacked

As you can see that 10 m3 pile of logs that we had dumped in the laneway a few weeks ago has now been cut into 40cm logs and stacked up.  I didn't bother splitting it yet, but since we are not in a huge hurry for the wood for a couple of years, we can let it dry on its own, and I can always split it after we have divided it in half and moved our half to Wavre.  I was happy to get my chainsaw working, and also to use a new honing guide from Stihl that makes sharpening the chain an absolute snap.

August corn-on-the-cob

Kid IPA "Brewed with Kuyler and Matthew"

Our friends Jean-Marc and Anne came over for a Sunday lunch with their dog Perdita, and we had a good time going for a leisurely walk in the forest, and had ribs and sweet potatoes and other summery bbq foods.  Jean-Marc brought a few bottles of his Belgian IPA that I helped him brew, so that is encouraging me to move ahead with my own plans to brew something.  I'm thinking a saison... this type of beer is a relatively low-alcohol variety, and was popular as a thirst-quencher for farm labourers in Wallonie.  According to Phil Markowski's Farmhouse Ales: Culture and Craftsmanship in the European Tradition in the middle ages workers would drink as much as five litres of saison a day.  Certainly I'm not planning on brewing in those quantities but I'd like to give it a go.  Saisons often have a nice spiciness, so I think I might try flavouring it with a little ginger syrup or maybe rhubarb from the garden.

new douglas fir framing in the attic

But I'm busy with other projects right now.  I got the roofing guy to come back and finally take care of that leak.  I hope that the repair lasts, but it seems to be dry now, even after very heavy rains, so I went ahead with the last bits of rockwool and then drywall.  Now it's time to pre-build the end walls and run the electricity, and then get the plumbers to come and move the pipes so that I can fix the walls in place, and then put the insulated drywall on those walls too.  I was happy to get going on the wood framing, as that's a particularly pleasurable part of any building or renovation job... the smell of fresh sawdust and the feel of the brand-new wood as you are measuring and marking, cutting and assembling is very pleasant.

Musically I have made some really great progress this past week.  Someone contacted me about a very high-profile concert this season, singing as baritone soloist in the Vaughan Williams Dona nobis pacem.  This is a very high-profile gig and a beautiful piece that really shows off the baritone voice, and to sing such a piece in English in Belgium will be great.  It is still awaiting board approval so I can't say which orchestra or at what hall, but if it is agreed-upon I'll give you the rest of the details.

As well, the Belleville Choral Society has invited me to sing as the special guest at their 60th Anniversary gala concert, which will take place on April 28th, 2019.  I was the recipient of a scolarship from the BCS about twenty years ago, and sang in one of their concerts as a thank-you at that time.  It will be great to perform with them and the Quinte Symphony this coming season.  I am singing Elijah the following weekend in Toronto so that fits perfectly with my travel plans.

Lastly, I received an important offer from a conductor who lives near Amsterdam.  Michael Gieler is an accomplished musician and has been the principal violist in Amsterdam's world-famous Royal Concertgebouw orchestra since 1993.  He also is the artistic director of at least two other orchestras.  I auditioned for him a few years ago but no work came of it until this week, when he asked if I could sing two performances in Bach's Johannespassion this coming spring.  One performance will be in March in Amsterdam's Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, and the second will be in the Canary Islands in April, as part of their international Bach festival.  Of course I said yes!

This will be very challenging as I will have to sing the role of Pilate, and sing the bass arias, but from memory, with some staging, and without a conductor!  However I think that with proper preparation I will be ok.  I take so long to learn to sing Bach accurately and expressively that I pretty much end up memorising it anyway, but it will be a different thing to have to sing this music "without a net".

For those of you in Canada celebrating the holiday, I wish you a very happy Labour Day weekend!