Happy Thanksgiving 2010

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends and family!

Thanksgiving this year is quieter than normal; Laurent is in Greece with his Dad - at this point they are in Santorini - so festivities were limited to the Canadian Club of Rome annual lunch yesterday afternoon. This year it was held in a very hard to find but great Trattoria di dui ponit out on the Via Flaminia. I was glad my cab driver wasn't the only one who got lost - most of us (even old Roman hands) went around in circles for 20 or 30 minutes (not hard to do when the street numbers suddenly jump from 278 to 858) which meant a glass of wine was called for immediately upon arrival.

What followed was a wonderful Thanksgiving menu with an Italian twist:

After salami, fried vegetables and grilled olive oil soaked bread we tucked into a very untraditional primi. Because of my gluten thing the trattoria did a corn pasta with fresh porcini mushrooms (its that season again) for me.


Though turkey (tacchino) is popular here it is mostly in scallops, legs or breasts - roasting a whole turkey is not a done thing- most people don't have an oven that would be big enough. I'm sure its only me but I find poultry here has a moisture to it that back in Canada seems can only be achieved by brining. Mind you it could also be that our turkey yesterday was cooked in a huge wood burning oven. And what would Thanksgiving turkey be without cranberry sauce - straight from the can, just like mother use to make!


And to round off the meal - pumpkin pie! Pumpkin (zucca) is better known in Italy as a cooked vegetable. It often shows up as a ravioli stuffing or even better in the Ghetto lightly battered and deep fried. Put in this case we had a torte di zucca - and nothing canned about that filling.

So though it would have been a better thanksgiving if Laurent had been here - I may be mistaken but I think this is only the 2nd one we missed together in 33 years - it was still a great chance to see friends, share a meal and give thanks that we seem to have the best of both worlds.

And as I have done in the past I listened to a few of the old Harvest Hymns that we sang back in my church going days. My own particular favourite, which I've posted on here before,


.

Again to all my friends, family and loved ones absent the happiest of Thanksgivings - we do have much to be thankful for.

11 ottobre - Giorno del Ringraziamento

Easter Memories

Every Easter I look back with growing nostalgia for the years I spent worshiping at St Thomas, Huron Street in Toronto. It was a place of incredible music, ritual, faith and friendship - particularly friendship. It was a congregation of people who cared. Yes the ritual was splendid - banners, smells and bells - but it was also a congregation that reached out into its neighborhood and worked to provide services for the students, working parents and elderly. Worship didn't end at the communion rail of a Sunday.

During my time there the music was directed by Walter McNutt - an organist of incredible skill at improvisation and a remarkable service player. His wonderful choir - boys, women and men - sang a mixture of the traditional and the more adventuresome but you knew that certain hymns would be sung at certain times of the year.

Without fail the Easter vigil would always end with Francis Pott's translation of the old Latin hymn Fi­ni­ta jam sunt prael­ia. And it would always be the setting called Victory - an adaptation by William H. Monk of Palestrina's Mag­nif­i­cat Ter­tii To­ni.

The strife is o’er, the battle done;
The victory of life is won;
The song of triumph has begun: Alleluia!

Refrain
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

As I was making this video memories of processing out of the sanctuary with the clergy and choir came to mind. Hearing individual voices in the congregation that I recognized as I walked past them exchanging smiles and nods: my darling Elizabeth with her bass voice gruffing away, Gail, her glasses slipping down as she bowed every so slightly in greeting, Winnie, a small Dresden china figure who had lived all her 80 years in the parish and still wore a hat with a veil and gloves to church; Don with his great booming CBC announcer voice; so many more dear loving and much loved friends.

I was asked recently if I missed the church and in many ways I do. Yes, for the ritual, for the music, for the comfort that faith brought but mostly for the friendship which brought both comfort and love.

For them all: Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

And in my heart and mind I can still hear them respond: He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

04 aprile - Il resurrezione di nostro Signore

Mercoledi Musicale

A little late with the regular Wednesday music post but I had to work on this. In honour of my new found - okay imposed - devotion to temperance. Mary Lou Fallis sings an inspiring piece from the Methodist Hymnal 1912, which exhorts us to have the courage to say NO!

This number is taken from a wonderful collection called Primadonna on a Moose. Miss Fallis sings popular Canadian songs from 1840 to 1930 including Paddle Your Own Canoe, Oh What A Difference Since the Hydro Came and By the Banks of the Saskatchewan.

19 marzo - San Guiseppe