December Color

When we landscaped our yard for the first time, I told the designer that I was from New England and wanted fall color, hence the birch trees. This Nandina domestica, or Heavenly Bamboo, provides color in its leaves which can take on a reddish cast, but also in the berries which look very pretty at this time of year.

I have no idea what this plant is, it is a volunteer from my neighbor, but I have grown to like it. It is very drought tolerant and blooms every December with just the right color.

Even the Clivia miniata (pronounced with a long "i" since it was named for the Lady Clive) has red berries at this time of year. It took me a long time to convince my gardener to leave the flower stalks after the blooms had faded so that I can enjoy the berries. It takes two years for the red color to appear.

Hibernation

Happy Winter Solstice! Lately I have been feeling like hibernating. I get plenty of sleep at night but I'm still sleepy during the day and want to take naps. With the sun setting at about 5:00 pm and the rays of the sun low in the sky even at noon, the signals are pretty clear that it's time to slow down. I recently received a newsletter from Yoga Journal, which I subscribe to, giving the advice to resist the urge to hibernate and use vigorous Yoga to stay active in the winter months. While I enjoy Yoga and agree with most of the life-style ideas that go along with the physical practice, I strongly disagree with their vegetarian outlook and now also with this idea that we must resist our urges to rest more in the winter months. It's the way animals respond to the cold and less food being available and was probably the way humans behaved until they learned to control light by creating fire.

In her book, Lights Out, T.S. Wiley claims that hibernation studies have shown that learning and retention are enhanced in animals who are allowed to find respite from life and many studies have shown that sleep deprivation may lead to obesity. Just google "obesity sleep deprivation" for dozens of links to recent journal articles. This would corroborate Wiley's thesis that we are meant to crave carbs and get fat in the summer in preparation for winter, but then sleep it off bringing our bodies back to equilibrium.

Another good book on the subject of sleep is The Head Trip by Jeff Warren. I read this book last spring and meant to blog about it, but never got around to it. It's very thought-provoking. The book is actually about consciousness but for Warren sleep is a form of consciousness and not unconsciousness as we usually think of it. He has whole chapters on the various forms of sleep and semi-sleep situations. He considers it perfectly normal to have wakeful periods during the night and that is what hibernation must have been like for humans. They slept a lot, got up to eat now and then, went back to sleep, dozed, dreamt, and solved problems in their heads. Warren comments that in order to be truly awake, you have to have more natural sleep.

So it's almost 8:30 pm now. Time for me to start winding my day down, dim the lights, get into my jammies, turn the heat in the house down to 60 degrees, take my melatonin, turn off the lights, climb into my organic-cotton-knitted-sheeted bed with the down comforter, and hibernate for at least 9 hours. See ya!

A Christmas Tradition

OK, now it feels like Christmas. This afternoon I played a rehearsal of Handel's Messiah and tonight is the performance. For me, nothing says Christmas more than this famous work.

I played my first Messiah my freshman year in college and continued to play it every year after that for a total of about 35 years, I think, until recently when the chain was broken. I have played both first and second violin, in large orchestras and small groups no bigger than a string quartet with a few winds. The choruses have ranged from the professional to the amateur church choir. The venues have ranged from concert halls, to churches, of course, and hospitals. I've toured northern Spain with it. I've played strict, light and crisp, Baroque-style versions and heavy, but glorious, Romantic versions. No matter, the spirit of the music always comes through. My cousin recently heard her first performance of this masterpiece and was not impressed. She said she found it boring and repetitive. What can I say? I love it. I love Handel. I love his simple melodies. The Hallelujah Chorus brings tears to my eyes every time. But I'll tell you it's a whole lot more fun playing it or singing it than just listening to it.

A couple of years ago, I attended the Messiah Sing-a-long with the Los Angeles Master Chorale at Disney Hall so now I can even say I have sung the Messiah in Disney Hall no less. My son-in-law, who has a great bass voice, sat next to me and someone who knew what she was doing sang soprano in front of me. I am an alto with a very limited range. It was great fun but harder than I expected.

Sorry, I have to run. Gotta change into my concert black and get back to the church.

'Tis the Season

Last night's rehearsal was one of those kinds of rehearsals that I hate. We are preparing a holiday program with a mixed bag of music including a medley of this, a smidgen of that and encompassing a large chorus, a children's choir, dancers, two emcees, and of course, us, the orchestra.

Space on stage is very tight. Everything is miked so there are wires and boxes underfoot and microphone stands everywhere blocking your view of the conductor. We violins are squeezed in front of all the percussion and so close to each other that one false move sends your bow into your stand partner's face or causes the scroll of your neighbor's violin on the other side to smack you in the ribs. (It happened to me last night when my neighbor sneezed.) There is a blue line marked on the stage which we cannot cross because a scrim comes down at some point, a fence goes up at another, and after hours the fire screen comes down. Space backstage is equally tight with all the props and extra people hanging about.

Several players were late or borderline late because of miserable traffic on the freeways. Getting them to their seats required climbing over instrument cases and people's feet followed by all the readjusting as they claimed their space to play. Tension was high as we read through the mountain of material. The conductor's tempi were all too fast as he was under the gun to get everything done in the allotted time. No overtime for us. Bowings (the bane of my existence) were mostly marked but in a few pieces we had not done before, they were not marked at all. The section leaders are still working out what they want to do.

And the lights... Did I mention the lights? Stand lights wouldn't work or were too dim. My stand partner (bless her) brought an extra light from home for us to use. House and stage lights were erratic and the conductor was totally in the dark for most of the rehearsal (not a pun, he's a smart guy) as the stage crew practiced what they had to do.

We get one more rehearsal (for a grand total of two) before the first performance when suddenly it will all come together. The conductor will relax (somewhat). The singers will swell with pride and the dancers will give their all. Meanwhile, the orchestra musicians will bring their years of experience to focus on the job at hand and do things that were not possible in the rehearsals. And the audience will love it.

Pears and Pomegranates

I love this time of year for many reasons, of course, but one of the reasons is all the surprises I receive in the mail or by other delivery services. Yesterday, I was totally surprised by two packages. The first was a gift from my bank, one of the new institutions I have opened accounts with recently. I thought the days of giving out toasters with every new account were over, especially in this economy, so I was very pleasantly surprised to receive a box of Harry & David's famous Royal Riviera Pears courtesy of Farmers and Merchants Bank plus a gift card towards a future purchase.

Now pears are not a low-carb fruit. Each one of these beauties delivers 31g of carbs, so when you are trying to keep your daily total between 30 and 60g, just one pear will do it for you. So last night I treated myself to half a pear, and an under ripe one at that (apples and pears are lower in carbs when green or under ripe). Just by chance I had purchased some delicious raw milk Pt. Reyes blue cheese and a bottle of pomegranate wine earlier in the day. I had the makings of a fantastic dessert.

Pomegranates and especially wine made from pomegranates have been found to be very high in anti-oxidants, containing three times more than the same amount of red wine or green tea. I had purchased The Republic of Tea's Pomegranate Green Tea earlier this year when it was available. Apparently, it is a seasonal thing. But my favorite way to consume pomegranates is to buy the fresh fruit and dig out the arils myself. It is a tedious job and the red juice splatters everywhere, but the arils don't keep very long out of the fruit. My son told me that there used to be a pomegranate bush on his way to school and that he and his friends would pick the fruit and eat it like an apple while they walked. I asked didn't the juice go everywhere and turn their hands red? He said yes, but they didn't care.

The wine came from Armenia and it turned out to be a good dessert wine. It was very reminiscent of blackberries and cherries although not very sweet. It is 20% alcohol, and 10 to 15 fruit are needed to make a gallon of wine. Something different.

The other surprise was a package from my cousin who shares my genealogy passion. She inherited boxes of stuff from our great aunt who also was very interested in our family history. Until now my cousin has not had time to go through the boxes, but a recent move has forced her to take a peek. What she sent me was a photograph of my father taken at the time of his high school graduation. My father died ten years ago and I had never seen this photo before. Now I can clearly see the resemblance between my father and my younger brother and my son. They all even sport the same hairstyle! It brought tears to my eyes and warmth to my heart. What a treasure!

Tools of the Trade

My cousin says I don't talk about my music enough. This last photo is from a page of a Bach Solo Sonata, the Adagio from the first Sonata in g minor, and is a facsimile of the autograph manuscript. At the very bottom in the lower right corner are two 128th notes. Bach and Beethoven are the only two composers that I know of that actually wrote 128th notes. Of course, I am not familiar with all of the piano music.

Knitting Photos

From top to bottom, that's Sorrel, Glade yarn and Glade beginning (that's about as far as I have gotten with it; I really ought to finish it), Elodie, Anya (front is done, back not yet started; they are exactly the same), and bare wet yarn waiting to be dyed. My screen-saver cycles through My Pictures when I haven't used the computer for awhile and when these came up this morning, I thought, hmmm... some of these are pretty interesting. But I can't compare with this lady from Australia, Alison Brookbanks at six and a half stitches, for creativity and design.