Of Mice and Men April 14, 2009
Posted by Dale in Wildlife.1 comment so far
Last night I had a dream. I dreamed that there was a mouse in our house, and when I discovered it, in my dream, I caught it by the quickest, most resourceful method I could come up with in the spur of the moment – with my bare hand. It was a wiggly little thing, this mouse in my dream, but I managed to hang onto it without either of us getting hurt. Knowing that the mouse would need to be released a considerable distance from the house so it wouldn’t find its way back in, I proceeded to make my way into the woods, intending to go as far as I could, right to the very end of our property. The mouse in my dream was actually rather cute, and with every step I took through the woods, I found myself falling more and more in love with the little creature. It was, then, a tearful moment when I finally said goodbye to my new little friend as I sent it on its way.
The dream was not a surprise. You see, we’ve had an actual mouse in our house the last couple of days – maybe longer, but I just saw it for the first time a couple of days ago, a little brown streak out of the corner of my eye, disappearing under the couch, never to be seen again. I set a trap, a nice little humane trap designed to keep the mouse alive for release back into the wild.
Sure enough, when I awoke this morning the trap door was closed, so I prepared to live out my dream by taking the trap outside. But that’s where the similarities ended – my real mouse (probably a vole, actually) was dead; in fact, rigor mortis had already set in. Perhaps due to my dream (or the fact that I am such a softie), I realized that I was upset by the little creature’s demise. It really was a little cutie!
International Trombone Week 2009 April 5, 2009
Posted by Dale in Trombone.1 comment so far
Today marks the first day of International Trombone Week 2009, and I intend to celebrate! I am going to attempt to write a post a day here on my blog, and I even have a performance planned with the UPEI Trombone Quartet.
It is fitting that I should be performing in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony with the PEISO this afternoon. This particular work is generally regarded as the first Symphony (the genre, not the orchestra) to use trombones, albeit with one relatively obscure exception. After this, it would become common to have three trombones in the orchestra, and for this we are truly grateful to Beethoven for his influential and extraordinary vision. The score calls for alto, tenor and bass trombones – but not until the last movement. The first note for the alto trombone is a high C, and it is agonizing to sit quietly on stage for three movements waiting for your big moment – it would be really nice if the conductor would stop the piece for a few minutes to let you warm up for it! Later there is a high F (two if you take the repeat!), and a high E near the end. This is the only piece in all the standard orchestral repertoire that asks the first trombonist to play these notes. One might assume that there must have been an amazing trombonist at Beethoven’s disposal for him to have written these notes; on the other hand, maybe old Ludwig just had no idea what he was doing. By all accounts, the first performance of the work was an absolute disaster, although we don’t know how the trombonists may or may not have contributed to this. What is clear is that neither Beethoven nor anyone else would ever write such high notes for the trombone again, perhaps implying that a lesson had been learned!
I do enjoy playing the alto trombone, and look forward to this afternoon’s challenge. And I can’t think of a better way to kick off International Trombone Week!
Making Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups April 3, 2009
Posted by Dale in Food, My Favourite Things, Recipes.3 comments
Considering my recent obsession with dark chocolate and my fondness of peanut butter, it’s only natural that I should want to eat them together. With Reese’s as my model, I’ve been making my own chocolate peanut butter cups, and it goes like this:
Using a double boiler (to avoid scorching), melt some nice dark chocolate. Into a little candy cup, spoon just enough chocolate to cover the bottom of the cup. Let the chocolate cool down and solidify (faster if you put it in the fridge). While you are waiting, mix some peanut butter with a bit of honey. I use natural peanut butter (100% peanuts), and the honey helps stiffen it so it is easier to control when adding it to the cup. When the chocolate base has set, spoon in a small ball of the peanut butter mixture and press down to spread it into a disc shape, keeping it slightly away from the side of the cup. Then pour in some more melted chocolate so it surrounds and covers the peanut butter. Let cool. Presto, delicious peanut butter cups, guaranteed to please!
A word of caution: don’t be too disappointed if people refuse to believe that you made these all by yourself!
