Birthday Cake Photos

May sixteenth was Angus' birthday. I bought him the Buena Vista Social Club DVD produced by Ry Cooder and a double CD of the music. He loves it. Old Cuban folk music from the fifties. Here's his cake just after I poured the bittersweet chocolate icing over it.
I told him to pick out a recipe and I'd bake whatever he wanted. He wanted an orange rum cake. It was delicious. I should post the recipe.

59 candles.

I was a brat and ran around the last minute to find enough candles. He said one package of 24 would do. Nope. I don't think so.
With all the rum in the cake, we were speculating that the whole thing might burst into flame, but it didn't.

The cake was so good, it did not need ice cream. (Good choice, honey.)

Here's my baby blowing out all the candles. We didn't help him.

The Sunday before Angus' birthday, Andrew had his birthday. I made an asparagus quiche and rhubarb strawberry pie for Sunday brunch.

(For some reason I took about 8 photos showing the whole process of rolling out the pie dough, mixing the fruit, fruit in the pan, putting on the top crust, etc. I thought it all looked very pretty at the time.)

Also went out and bought myself a new pair of silky pajamas. They are cream colored with red hearts. I love them and feel very feminine in them.

I've been writing stories and perfecting them for the last couple of weeks. Angus says one of them is the best thing I've ever written.

Read three collections of Alice Munro's short stories this month. I'm almost finished with another: headship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage.

She always succeeds in surprising me. There's always a twist, something going on that I didn't realize would wind up being the point of the story. Some of it is quite poignant.

Saw Roy McDonald at Covent Garden yesterday and we talked for over an hour. It was raining outside. He paid me for the copy of my book that I left him. He was so enthusiastic about my book. Said he really likes the prayers.

Roy is not false in any way and it was just what I needed to hear.

Also, someone bought 25 of my "Democrats: For The People" bumper sticker. That's very gratifying. I'm glad I made it.

Went out for a cappucino tonight which is why I'm still wide awake. But I'm winding down.

Oh, yes. Here are photos of the CD cover and back. These are neat, but it's the DVD with its interviews of the great old musicians that I found so wonderful. The last member of this group, Ibrahim Ferrer, just died a month or two ago. Ry Cooder did the music world a big service when he recorded these musicians and filmed them for posterity.
Angus and I went to see Thank You For Smoking on Wednesday night. Quite wry and a very clever approach.

It was warm and humid here today and apparently will be warm and humid tomorrow. I wore capris and sandals. Very nice.

It's four o'clock a.m. Saturday night (Sunday morning actually) and I need to crawl into bed. No Rumi or pie photos tonight.

But I will say I woke this morning laughing. I had a silly, fun dream - the first in years where I woke up in delight.

That was a pure gift.

Spring Is Sprung In Ontario

Spring is blossoming in Southern Ontario. Today I walked downtown in a short sleeved shirt, over the pedestrian bridge and the river not cooled at all by the breeze.

It may have been even warmer yesterday. A woman came to the door around one in the afternoon selling chocolates. Overweight, she was panting, sweating and miserable in the unseasonable heat of the sun.

(Here's a Red Bud Tree, native to Ontario.)

It was, in retrospect, a lack of tact for me to turn her away with: "Oh no, I need to lose weight, not gain it." Then I meant to get out in that hot sun, to experience it, but didn't.

But heavens it was beautiful today!

Look at these gorgeous flowers. I took these photos yesterday on my walk downtown. I like to walk downtown every day, but I often get so engrossed in writing a story - or working on an image - that I let the day go by and wind up going when the sun is low and I need a jacket.
Yesterday evening no jacket was needed until quite late.

By the way, I submitted a 2200 words story to Glimmer Train and a 4900 word story to Dirt Press. I'm working on another story - I have over four thousand words in it so far.
But the number of words is irrelevant. What matters is which words are in that story, whether it is skillfully layered or just a stream of consciousness.

I was absolutely lost for four hours on Saturday. I remember noticing that it was two o'clock (I had been working on the story for over an hour.) The next thing I knew, Angus had come in from golf and errands and it was six-thirty. I had no idea that four hours had passed or where they had gone - I had been so engrossed in crafting that story.

I bought a notebook so I can keep better track of my submissions. Keeping track of them via computer doesn't work for me. I need a place to write all the details down, in order - and whether the publishers/contests are open to multiple submissions - so I can keep track of what I've sent out and what I can submit elsewhere.

Tonight, after Angus came home from the driving range, we went out. I bought two pair of pajamas from La Vie En Rose (Finally! What I've been wearing to bed is depressing) and we picked up a few plants for the planters.

Angus was insistent he didn't want anything planted until after May 24 - when folk wisdom says there is no longer danger of frost - but it's been so warm I convinced him frost is very unlikely from this point on - not this year, not with these trends.

So that will be a little project for tomorrow, to get me out in the sunshine earlier.

I've done nothing on the peace collage. Did not practice drawing tonight and it's already eleven. I'm going to bed after I upload a few photos - tomorrow's another day.

There's an idea. I can take photos of some of my drawings from Nicole's class and post them. I told myself that I would draw every day with this class. I did for the first two weeks, but since then I haven't drawn much - had to do taxes, was ill for a week (probably because I hate doing taxes enough to get sick over it) so my improvement has slowed. Still I like a couple of the drawings I did.

Let's see what Rumi has to say tonight - it's been so long since I consulted the poet.

I have turned to the end of The King and the Handmaiden and the Doctor and my finger has landed on the moral of this long poem:

Any love based on physical beauty is not love.

This is immediately followed by:

"This world is a mountain. What we do is a shout. The echo comes back to us."

From page 232 of The Essential Rumi translated by Coleman Banks.

Wise words from the eighth century.