Wasn’t it wonderful having been blessed with this marvelously sunny day? Now if the wind wasn’t so strongly blowing, it would’ve been near-perfect. With Spring being officially here, we’ll be seeing many of our early flowers starting to poke their heads above ground, as I’ve already been noticing some Tulips beginning to come up. I like them, but I don’t, as they’re beautiful when blooming, but very short-lived, and of course our resident deer and rabbits just love eating them down to the ground. I’d say the best place to have them, would be in a secure flowerbed with other plantings that bloom at various times of our growing season, and thus have flowers blooming during our frost-free months. There’s only one person out of my past who had a very large rear yard that contained more flowerbeds than grass. She must’ve done a great deal of trial and error before she finally had various perennials blooming thru-out the season. Velma was a dear soul, and after all these years, I still miss her. Her two great loves were reading and gardening.
Most of my morning was spent with my early contemplative session, and not long after finishing, it was time for me to head over to St. Paul Lutheran Church to play their pipe organ. I did get some practicing of the three pieces I was to play, as well as running thru several more difficult hymns written by Handel and Frank. One of their members arrived upstairs just as I was finishing up on the more difficult one, which prompted me to announced, “Since I can comfortably play this piece on my piano, I’m now moving onto getting it right on your organ.” Unless one is a truly accomplished keyboardist, it takes some extra effort to comfortably move from playing a given piece on a piano, and then similarly play it on a pipe organ. For me, having played both pipe and electronic organs, there’s no question a vintage pipe organ is more difficult. Not to worry, St. Paul’s old girl and yours truly, are growing quite comfortable with each other.
Without a doubt, today’s playing experience was the best I’ve done since I started playing for them, and you can bet I’ll be moving onward and upward with the gift of music I so much enjoy sharing with their delightful community of faith. I didn’t have much time to linger after it was over, as I had an appointment at my office which was to arrive about fifteen minutes after I walked out their doors. Since those customers had contacted me just after I headed over to St. Paul, I had to get myself at least a little prepared before they arrived.
After finished up with those customers, I jumped in my car and ran a few quick errands before lunchtime arrived. For the strangest reason, I was more filled with hunger today, so I stopped at Taco Bell and purchased a take-away bean burrito. After having my quick lunch, I went to my computer to watch today’s video of St. Paul Lutheran’s Service. After watching and listening, it was another confirmation my organ music presentation was the best ever, as I even had a few chills running thru me when listening to the playing and singing.
While out working on my clean-up project this afternoon, I suddenly realized why I was so moved by that music today, and the reason being, it reminded me of the soft religious organ music being played while listening to various choirs singing chant. From now on, and unless asked otherwise, I’ll continue playing in such a fashion, as I believe it’s more moving than listening to a “full” organ with all the many of its stops pulled out.
Back when I played at another church, the music director preferred I play their organ in a “fully-rich” fashion, but now that I’ve heard otherwise, I’ll be ever-watchful to not be playing very loud, and certainly not having many of that organ’s voices added. When thinking back on the whole listening and playing of organ music, I believe I’ve unknowingly evolved to more contemplative music settings, than those Baroque forms which get to be a bit too much. Yes, some like them loud and commanding, while others like me, prefer the softer and quieter tones. It’s better to have a little tin with your woods, instead of a little wood with yards of tin.
The remainder of my afternoon was spent at a home where I’ve been having to do some deep cleaning, and once I realized how dirty everything was, I figured it’ll be another project I’ll be working on in my free hours. Without a doubt, the two ceiling fans I cleaned, were the filthiest I’ve ever touched. It took me over an hour and a half to clean just one of them, and I’ve got three more to do before they’re finished. What a nightmare!
While cleaning them, I couldn’t help having a few wicked thoughts to where I’ll have to be watchful of eating in any restaurant, or in someone’s home where there’s a ceiling fan swirling, as my first thoughts will be, “I wonder how many dead skin cells are being dropped on my plate while those paddles are turning.” Yes, I’m being naughty, but it sure makes a person think. I don’t even want to say how many times I had to change the water in the pail I was using. Oh well, it’ll get cleaned from stem to stern, and then I’ll be moving back over to my precious little/big project.
I’ve got another recipe for you from that vintage cookbook I spoke about last night, so here it is.
SOFT GINGERBREAD
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in 1 tablespoon of cold water.
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons softened butter
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 egg
- 1 cup molasses
- 3 tablespoons cold water
Sift together the flour, ginger, salt and baking powder, make a hollow in the centre; pour in the molasses into which the dissolved soda has been stirred, the butter, beaten egg and water. Stir vigorously and bake in a well-greased shallow pan twenty-five to thirty-five minutes in a moderate oven.
This recipe sounds almost like one you’d use to make soft ginger cookies, so it may be worth your while to consider this a new/old recipe for making them. Good luck.
Tonight’s One-liner is: Emotionally, in our minds, we get so filled with resentments to where we’ve got a story about absolutely everything.
