Music danl'mine

Some other things that I forgot to mention... I wrote last time about seeing Malcolm's band play this past weekend.  But I forgot to mention other musical happenings on the preceeding weekend: what we call the Civic Holiday Weekend in Canada.

When we lived in Ontario, if it was at all possible, we made sure to go to the Blue Skies Music Festival in Clarendon, Ontario, near Sharbot Lake.  Many of our friends and musical colleagues are/were involved in this yearly event, and it's one of the most magical places to play.  I've been lucky to have done a solo gig there (as Moses Gillespie) in the very early 2000s, and then I was asked in 2010 to present a classical concert there, as myself, with Brahm Goldhamer on piano and Richard Hoenich on bassoon.

Of course this summer we are nowhere close to Clarendon, but instead we made a road trip to a little place near Chimay, to attend the second annual "Musique danl'mine".  This is a very small festival that takes place on a patch of land that is accessible only by climbing up a long train through a forested area, until you come to a hollow indendation in the hilltop.  I heard that the "mine" was originally a quarry for stones, but now is has reverted to forest and forms a natural amphitheatre that is very nice for an intimate concert.

The organiser Thierry owns a garage in Rixensart, not far from us, and periodically he attracts some of the top jazz players from Belgium, and international tour artists to perform in the "fosse" or pit in his garage, as part of his series "Espace Danl'foss".  As you may have seen, large garages sometimes have pits underneath the floor level so that cars may be driven directly over top of them, and the mechanics then can work on the undercarriage of the car without having to use one of those sliding boards, and without the necessity of a lift.  It's a very quirky type of acoustic environment but makes for an interesting an unusual evening, and the quality of the musicians is always very high.

Thierry decided to have an outdoor festival last year "dans la mine" and it was repeated this year.  We made the road trip, and had a nice time of it.  There were two bands on the lineup, one a Bolivian style group and the other an Indian-inspired jazz group.  It was really a nice time, and we enjoyed ourselves a lot, sampling some local beer and enjoying barbequed sausages at the intermission.

Other than that we have been busy with lots of cooking.  Maggie has had several "jam sessions": one with apricots that were on special at the grocery store, but several other sessions using blackberries that we picked either at Lawrence and Tiffany's or up the road from Bryan and Kianas.  We have also been trying to keep up with the single zucchini plant that has been producing like crazy, something like a zucchini every couple of days.  Marinated and grilled; dipped in bread crumbs and fried like tempural, shredded and put in a cake, pickled in a salad... we are running out of ideas.  But it's great to have such a high producing plant, especially since it was an extra that Kiana gave us, so it was free!

english muffins

apricot jam

fresh pasta

As well the two squash plants continue to run rampant over the backyard, and they were starting to choke out our basil plants.  I pulled the basil out today, and we will make pesto later on tonight.

Other than that I have been working again up in the attic, and have made some progress on the carpentry aspect of the job.  It's slow going as I am figuring it out as I go, but I am emboldened to keep going.  Malcolm has been too tired from his work to really be of any help but Duncan is here with me today, so I hope to move ahead a bit... there is still a small leak in the front of the house that the roofer should have fixed, but I actually got him to call me back yesterday, and we are HOPING that he will come on monday, so I can finish that last little area of the roof.  As well I have contacted a plasterer who I hope will be able to give me an estimate on plastering over the ceiling and walls.  It might be more expensive but I really think that if he can do a complete plaster coating the result will be so much better than me fiddling about with scaffolding and mud and sanding for months.