Pillow Cases and Dreams

A recent gift of a handmade pillow case has me thinking about dreams.  I track and journal my dreams; have done so for years.

Dreams are elusive unless I consciously work at retaining them upon waking.

 

Within moments of awakening from a dream, our memory for its plot is wiped out, presumably to avoid contaminating autobiographical memory with bizarre confabulation.

(Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works)

If I write about and examine my dreams, this “wiping out” effect lessens.  With paper and pen beside the bed, upon waking I write quickly to retain much of what the dream offers.  This might seem like mere intense navel-gazing, but dream work helps me with issues or decisions with which I am struggling.  Often, I go to sleep with unanswered questions and unresolved dilemmas only to awaken with fresh answers or solutions.

Sometimes my dreams warn me of impending troubles.  I don’t always understand the message nor clearly interpret my dreams, yet, years of working on my dreams have provided me with an enhanced sense of their meaning and of my own dream symbols.  It becomes easier to distinguish between the day’s conglomeration of regurgitated detritus and dreams that send messages.

Startling dreams, night terrors and nightmares often signal that my sub-conscious mind is trying to grab the focused attention of my conscious mind.  Those dreams are hard work!  Often they are vivid, emotionally tangible mini-movies of surreal and mythical proportions, literally waking me to communicate.

Last April, one such dream turned out to be a precursor to a life-threatening illness.  Hindsight is wisdom!  I now know that this particular dream with its intensely startling imagery, repetitive stark choices and heightened sense of danger was a warning of a near-death experience to come within a few days.

Later, as I lay in the Emergency Department clearly facing the choice of leaving or staying in this lifetime, vague images of that recent dream flitted though my dulled consciousness.  The ethereal images from my earlier dream were there with me, vivid, shocking, familiar.  I faded in and out of consciousness through several days of intensive care.  Only after I was home recuperating did I re-read my dream journal, learning how my prescient dream and my illness were connected.

A hard lesson, but a useful one.  If I dream like that again, I may recognize that health issues and serious life choices are imminent.

This lovely handcrafted pillow case is a warm and welcome gift; it reminds me also of the necessity, wisdom and reward of paying attention to dreams.

When people dream, their body stays in the bed but some other part of them is up and about in the world.  The soul and the body also part company in the trance brought on by an illness or a hallucinogen. … But how does it [modern science] do at explaining the sentient self that dreams, imagines, and directs the body?

(Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works)

Interesting question.

Captain Burgess Rum Cake

Captain Burgess Rum Cake

Baking Time:  55-60 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit

Yields 12-14 servings

·                       3/4 cup softened butter

·                       1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

·                       4 large eggs

·                       3 cups all purpose flour

·                       1/4 teaspoon salt

·                       4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

·                       1/2 cup dark rum 

·                       1 cup milk

·                       1 cup raisins

·                       1 cup chopped pecans

·                       1/4 cup pecan halves

Rum Glaze

·                       1/4 cup melted butter

·                       1/4 cup water

·                       1/4 cup dark rum  (I used more)

·                       1 cup granulated sugar

 Grease 10-inch tube pan.

 Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.

 In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder.  Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, alternately with rum and milk, being careful to mix only until batter is smooth.  Fold in raisins and chopped pecans.

 Place pecan halves on the bottom of the tube pan.  Spread the cake batter evenly over the nuts.   

Bake in 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 55-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.  Turn the cake onto a cake rack to cool, before glazing.

 In a small saucepan, combine butter, water, sugar and rum and place over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.  Prick the cake with a small skewer and drizzle the syrup over the cake until it is all absorbed. 

Store in a tightly sealed container at a cool temperature, to mellow for a day or two, before serving.

I stored the remaining glaze in a covered container.  When we ate the cake, I warmed the glaze and served it with French Vanilla Ice-Cream on the side.  Another time, I would cook the leftover glaze a bit more to thicken it.

This recipe is probably the Blomidon Inn’s best known dessert.  The recipe is taken from the 6^th Edition of Maritime Flavours by Elaine Elliott and Virginia Lee.  The book has interesting back stories about the Maritime provinces’ finest inns and restaurants with beautiful photographs by Keith Vaughan.

The Blomidon Inn, Main Street in Wolfville, Nova Scotia was built in 1882 by Captain Rufus Burgess.  This imposing inn features exotic woods, plaster cornices, dados and marble fireplaces that were fashioned by Italian craftsmen.   The inn has 26 beautifully appointed guest rooms and two dining rooms.  

Open year round: breakfast and afternoon tea for guests, lunch and dinner for guests and the general public.  Web site:  www.blomidon.ns.ca

Apricot Chicken Tagine with Toasted Pine Nuts

Apricot Chicken Tagine with Toasted Pine Nuts 

Feeds 4 or 6 depending upon appetites, plus provides “left-overs”

We experimented with our new tagine using this chicken recipe.  The word tagine refers both to the cooking pot and the stew cooked in it.  A tagine consists of two parts, a round pot (often clay) and a conical cover with a small hole to allow steam to escape.

This tagine is from  lataginerie.com  in Morocco.  We purchased ours at the Blue Olive International Market located in Dieppe, NB.  What to look for when purchasing a tagine, click here.

To learn more about how to prepare a tagine for use the first time, click here.

Start with about a cup of chopped onions sprinkled with oil and a bit of salt; pile the onions in the middle of the bottom of the tagine. Add some butter.  Next add about 3 pounds (or whatever amount is needed) of cut up skinless, boneless chicken which has been flavoured with: 2-4 minced garlic cloves, 1 full teaspoon of ginger (or 1 tablespoon of grated and peeled fresh ginger), ¼ teaspoon turmeric,  ¼ teaspoon paprika and a pinch of saffron threads.  Spices can be adjusted to taste, of course. 

Pile the chicken like a pyramid on top of the onions.  Add enough water or chicken stock to keep the tagine moist, perhaps a cup or more.  Place tagine with cover in an oven heated to 325 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30 to 40 minutes, until chicken starts to become barely tender. Stir it occasionally. 

Be careful removing the tagine from the oven, as it is slightly unwieldy when full of meat and sloshing liquids.  This recipe can be done on the stove top if one has a heat diffuser.  I don’t, so cooked this in the oven.

Return covered tagine to oven after adding more liquid if needed.   Simmer gently until chicken is tenderer, maybe another 30 minutes…depends upon the amount of chicken.

Turn chicken again and add 2 tablespoons of bitter-orange marmalade, 2 teaspoons cinnamon (or a cinnamon stick), 1 teaspoon thyme (or a sprig of thyme), 2 cilantro sprigs and 12-18 chopped apricots.  Cook in the oven for 10-15 minutes more uncovered, until chicken is very tender.  Mine took double this time as I had lots of chicken in the tagine.

While the tagine is in this last cooking phase, heat one tablespoon grape seed oil in a small heavy frying pan.  When the oil shimmers, add ½ cup(or more) pine nuts mixed with ¼  teaspoon turmeric and ¼ teaspoon paprika, also a little cayenne, if you want extra heat.  Put pine nuts aside for later.

Remove tagine dish from oven, whenever the chicken is tender to your liking.  Discard herb sprigs and cinnamon stick.

Stir in chopped cilantro (about 1 tablespoon) and the toasted pine nuts.  Garnish with lemon wedges, if desired.

Serve with couscous or brown rice or quinoa.  Any of these can be cooked with the chicken if you add enough liquid or cooked separately…whichever you prefer.

Lug the whole dish to the table and place it on cork pads.  With the cover on, the tagine will keep the food handy and hot as long as you are enjoying your supper. 

Wines with the Grenache grape go well with this tagine dish, and with the cooking process.  I’ve tried these with success:  Oomoo Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre 2006 from McLaren Vale Australia, Wolf Blass Red Label Shiraz Grenache 2009 from Australia.

Freshen your wine and enjoy.  It is delicious!

There are varied tagine recipes on line if you want to try others. 

Serenity and Snow

God grant me the serenity to
accept the snow I cannot change,
the courage to plow the snow I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

Ah, winter/ spring/ winter/ spring/ winter in the Maritimes!

Today is lovely, 'tis true, but
Oh, I yearn for spring to stay.

Moky

Though I’ve never met her, sometimes I feel I knew her. 

Moky died two years ago today.  I never met her, but I have met her astonishingly gifted children, two daughters and a son.  Through them, I’ve learned about Moky.

Moky was brilliant, creative, thrifty, witty and occasionally acerbic. 

She was a woman who delighted in her garden and the outdoors, had a keen sense of justice, intolerance for bad art, a wicked sense of humour, a taste for good sherry and cheap wine. 

Moky was generous, recognized potential in discarded furniture, loved the colour blue, appreciated ballet, and treasured adventure… whether within her neighbourhood or by travelling afar.

She revered and supported libraries, loved old movies and great musical classics.

Moky was a strong woman, given to strong opinions easily shared. 

She welcomed the whole wide neighbourhood into her home every Christmas with a full- blown party, delightful food and plentiful wine, live music and shared song. 

Moky loved her children above all else, as in turn, her daughters and son so clearly love and adore theirs, her five grandchildren.

I never met Moky but I wish I had.

 

Grandsons

My life is full of love.  I have five grandsons and five grand-daughters, each one charming, delightful and lovable.  This year, two of my grandsons are two years old.

What are two-year-old little boys made of?

• Climbing into closets and cupboards
• Hiding in drawers and dryers
• Eating markers (washable, what luck)
• Sitting on a small step stool to snack
• Playing with make-up and kitchen tools
• Darting away in department stores
• Losing Teddy at the Mall
• Sleeping anywhere but in his own bed
• Squealing with laughter, loud and long
• Testing every boundary, every limit, every rule
• Hugging and falling asleep in your arms

• Wearing rubber gloves to bed
• Loving new sneakers with heel-squeakers
• Cleaning crumbs with the vacuum
• Watching “Cars”, “Pingu” and “Toy Story”  
• Screaming inconsolably when things disappoint
• Pulling the play-kitchen down on himself
• Needing stitches again and again and again
• Climbing the outside of the escalator
• Chasing the cat round and round
• Learning to talk and making up words



• Getting into the tub with pyjamas still on
• Pounding the piano keys and singing
• Getting into everything, yes, everything
• Grinning such huge happy smiles
• Looking like an angel while sleeping

That’s what two-year-old little boys are made of!

Laurence Marie, Therapeutic Musician

Laurence Marie, Therapeutic Musician

Laurence Marie’s website at www.harpsylon.ca  opens with her harp music playing gently in the background, and the soothing colour of spring green pages describing her services as a Therapeutic Musician in the south-east New Brunswick area.   I have known Laurence for years, personally and professionally, and recommend her skills and her services.

 Laurence Marie's life journey took many twists and turns before culminating in her vocation as a certified harp therapy practitioner. She was born in Aix-en-Provence, France, where she took piano lessons until the age of 14.

After high school, she trained as a registered nurse in England, moved to Corsica, then Canada, living in Ontario for five years before arriving in New Brunswick. By then she was a wife and mother, and with her young daughter, attended Suzuki violin lessons, which led her to the Université de Moncton for a music degree.

Some years later, as Laurence was dealing with personal health issues, she studied natural therapy and homeopathy. She then began looking for a way to combine her knowledge and skills as a nurse, a musician and a natural therapist, or as she says, "put all of the components of my life together. I found a program in California, but first I needed to learn to play the harp. I began with Esther Underhay in Riverview. After she returned to the U.S. in 1997, I studied for 10 years with Dorothy Brzezicki and during that time I was accepted into the International Harp Therapy program in San Diego, completing an intensive year in 2000."

Therapeutic music is an art based on the science of sound in which acoustic music is played and tailored to the immediate needs of the client, using the intrinsic elements of music: that is, vibrations, resonance and entrainment.  Since the harp is the musical instrument that vibrates the most, it affects the entire body, allowing for relaxation, or focused concentration, depending upon the mode used by the harpist.

Notes and scales tend to resonate with different parts of the body, relieving pain or discomfort. Entrainment involves the use of music that will encourage brain waves of 7 to 12 cycles per second for alert relaxation or 12 to 18 cycles per second for optimum working efficiency. People who are stressed or anxious may have brain waves as high as 30 cycles per second, indicating a mind that is literally "racing." Music played with a regular tempo also encourages a regular heartbeat.

Therapeutic Music is for everyone from birth to end of life.  It can be used before, during and after birth and also for premature infants. Hospitalized children and those with special needs (autism, CP, ADHD, Down syndrome etc.) also benefit from Therapeutic Music. 

It can be used for adults with special needs (CP, MS, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s etc.) or those in rehabilitation following a cerebrovascular accident. 

Therapeutic Music can be used for people in Intensive care, Post-Operative care, Oncology, Palliative care as well as for end of life vigils.

Benefits of Therapeutic Music / Harp Therapy

It helps with: 

• pain
• insomnia
• anxiety
• depression
• muscular tension
• stress
• lowering blood pressure
• regulating
• pulse and respiratory rate
• gentler transitioning 

Vibro-Acoustic Harp Therapy

(VAHT)

In addition to the harps, Laurence has a vibro-acoustic mattress which rests on a standard massage table and is connected to her harp through an amplifier. She uses this with adults with neurological issues, such as Parkinson's or MS. While it's not a cure for those chronic conditions, Laurence says the symptoms can be alleviated, as areas of stress and pain are relieved.

While confidentiality precludes naming clients, the mother of one young man, who had suffered brain injury as a result of diabetic coma said, "It was a great relief to know that music therapy, specifically harp therapy, was available here. I had done some research and learned it could be beneficial in many circumstances, including cases of brain injury. My son was Laurence's client for five years. He enjoyed the sessions, responded well to her music and conversation and, quite frankly, the sessions provided peace and comfort to all of us. Our family is thankful to have had the opportunity to work with her and experience first hand how beneficial harp therapy sessions are."

Some of Laurence's clients are children who have been diagnosed with autism.  "The parents find that music calms them," she says, "and the teachers say they see an improvement in their work. One of the children I worked with finally started talking - at age 11.”

"When I work with children with autism, I have them sit on the other side of the harp, so that the strings act as a screen, since they are not comfortable with physical closeness. (Recently), a 10-year old boy put his fingers though the strings to touch mine and I thought I'd melt, as children with that condition usually refuse touch. The harp seems to break through their shell.”

By logging on to Laurence Marie's website, www.harpsylon.ca  you can enjoy a few moments of relaxation as you listen to her play while you read more about her work.

Laurence Marie can be reached by phone at 506- 532-5616 (office) or 506- 533-6856 (cell) or lym@nbnet.nb.ca. 

Note: some private health insurance companies do cover either the entire cost or a portion thereof for Vibro-Acoustic Harp Therapy sessions. They may also be covered by Social Services in New Brunswick.

All information and photos are from www.harpsylon.ca