MUSIC SATURDAY - EASTER ORATORIO

“The symbolic language of the crucifixion is the death of the old paradigm; resurrection is a leap into a whole new way of thinking.” - Deepak Chopra

The Easter Oratorio (German: Oster-Oratorium), BWV 249, is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach, beginning with Kommt, eilet und laufet (“Come, hasten and run”). Bach composed it in Leipzig and first performed it on 1 April 1725.

The first version of the work was completed as a cantata for Easter Sunday in Leipzig on 1 April 1725, then under the title Kommt, gehet und eilet. It was named “oratorio” and given the new title only in a version revised in 1735. In a later version in the 1740s the third movement was expanded from a duet to a four-part chorus. The work is based on a secular cantata, the so-called “Shepherd Cantata” Entfliehet, verschwindet, entweichet, ihr Sorgen, BWV 249a which is now lost, although the libretto survives. Its author is Picander who is also likely the author of the oratorio’s text. The work is opened by two instrumental movements that are probably taken from a concerto of the Köthen period. It seems possible that the third movement is based on the concerto’s finale.

Unlike the Christmas Oratorio, the Easter Oratorio has no narrator but has four characters assigned to the four voice parts: Simon Peter (tenor) and John the Apostle (bass), appearing in the first duet hurrying to Jesus’ grave and finding it empty, meeting there Mary Magdalene (alto) and “the other Mary”, Mary Jacobe (soprano). The choir was present only in the final movement until a later performance in the 1740s when the opening duet was set partly for four voices. The music is festively scored for three trumpets, timpani, two oboes, oboe d’amore, bassoon, two recorders, transverse flute, two violins, viola and continuo.

The oratorio opens with two contrasting instrumental movements, an Allegro concerto grosso of the full orchestra with solo sections for trumpets, violins and oboes, and an Adagio oboe melody over “Seufzer” motifs (sighs) in the strings. The first duet of the disciples was set for chorus in a later version, the middle section remaining a duet. Many runs illustrate the movement toward the grave. Saget, saget mir geschwinde, the aria of Mary Magdalene, is based on words from the Song of Songs, asking where to find the beloved, without whom she is “ganz verwaiset und betrübt” (completely orphaned and desolate), set in the middle section as Adagio, different from the original. The words are close to those opening Part Two of the St Matthew Passion. The final movement in two contrasting sections resembles the Sanctus composed for Christmas 1724 and later part of the Mass in B minor.

Here it is performed by the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Lisa Larsson, Elisabeth von Magnus, Gerd Türk, Klaus Mertens, conductor Ton Koopman (Erato, 1998).

HAPPY EASTER!

FOOD FRIDAY - RUSSIAN PASHKA

“Easter is meant to be a symbol of hope, renewal, and new life.” - Janine di Giovanni

Pashka is a Russian Easter traditional dessert, a sort of custardy cheesecake without the biscuit base, traditionally shaped in a pyramid mould. Pashka means Easter and the dessert may be decorated with the letters XB, from “Christos Voskres”, the Russian for “Christ is Risen”.

RUSSIAN PASHKA

Ingredients

3 egg yolks, slightly beaten

1 cup whipping cream

1 cup granulated sugar

A pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 cups small-curd cream-style cottage cheese

1⁄4 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup chopped mixed candied fruit

1⁄3 cup finely chopped blanched almonds

cheesecloth

Method

Mix egg yolks and whipping cream in a heavy saucepan. Stir in the sugar and salt. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture just coats a metal spoon (about 12 to 15 minutes).

Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Place saucepan in cold water until custard is cool. If custard curdles, beat with hand beater until smooth.

Place 3 cups of the cottage cheese and 2 tablespoons of the butter in blender container. Cover and blend on medium speed, stopping blender occasionally to scrape sides, until smooth. Repeat with remaining cottage cheese and butter.

Stir custard into cheese mixture until smooth. Stir in candied fruit and almonds.

Line a 2-litre non-clay flower pot (or any form dish with opening in the bottom, like a flower pot has; a colander works well!) with a double layer of dampened cheesecloth. Pour cheese mixture into pot; fold ends of cheesecloth over top. Place pot on cake rack in shallow pan; place weights on top. Refrigerate 12 to 24 hours, pouring off any liquid that accumulates in pan. To serve, unmould onto serving plate; remove cheesecloth. Garnish as desired with additional candied fruit and blanched almonds. Refrigerate any remaining dessert.

Add your favourite recipes below using the Linky tool:

ALL ABOUT THYME

“Are you going to Scarborough Fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme; Remember me to the one who lives there, For once she was a true love of mine.” – English Folk Song

Thyme is an evergreen herb with culinary, medicinal, and ornamental uses. The most common variety is Thymus vulgaris. Thyme is of the genus Thymus of the mint family (Lamiaceae), and a relative of the oregano genus Origanum. It is a popular culinary herb and has also many other uses, including the extraction of an essential oil and various useful organic chemicals.

The Ancient Egyptians used thyme for embalming, the high thymol content having a pleasant aromatic odour and strong antiseptic properties. The ancient Greeks used thyme in their baths and burnt it as incense in their temples, believing it was a source of courage. The spread of thyme throughout Europe was thought to be due to the Romans, as they used it to purify their rooms and to give an aromatic flavour to cheese and liqueurs. In the European Middle Ages, the herb was placed beneath pillows to aid sleep and ward off nightmares. In this period, women also often gave knights and warriors gifts that included thyme leaves, as it was believed to bring courage to the bearer. Thyme was also used as incense and placed on coffins during funerals, as it was supposed to assure passage into the next life.

Thyme is best cultivated in a hot, sunny location with well-drained soil. It is generally planted in the spring, and thereafter grows as a perennial. It can be propagated by seed, cuttings, or dividing rooted sections of the plant. It tolerates drought well. The plants can take deep freezes and are found growing wild on mountain highlands. Along the Italian Riviera, it is found from sea level up to 800 m. In the mountains of Greece thyme is widespread and the honey that bees make by harvesting nectar from its flowers has an exceedingly pleasant aroma.

Thyme for culinary use is sold both fresh and dried. The fresh form is more flavourful, but also less convenient; storage life is rarely more than a week. Although the fresh form only lasts a week or two under refrigeration, it can last many months if carefully frozen. Thyme retains its flavour on drying better than many other herbs, so it commonly used dried. It is perfectly acceptable to substitute the dried leaves of the herb for whole fresh thyme. However, one should be careful with quantities, as dried thyme can pack quite a punch!

In some Middle Eastern countries, the condiment za’atar (Arabic for thyme) contains thyme as a vital ingredient, together with other herbs, salt and sesame seeds. Dried thyme is widely used in Armenia in tisanes (called urc). In French cuisine, thyme is a common component of the bouquet garni, and of herbes de Provence. Thyme is one of the herbs used in flavouring the liqueur Benedictine.

Oil of thyme, the essential oil of common thyme (Thymus vulgaris), contains 20–54% thymol. Thyme essential oil also contains a range of additional compounds, such as p-cymene, myrcene, borneol, and linalool. Thymol, is a clear crystalline solid and is an antiseptic. It is an active ingredient in various commercially produced mouthwashes such as Listerine. Before the advent of modern antibiotics, oil of thyme was used to medicate bandages. It has also been shown to be effective against various fungi that commonly infect toenails. Thymol can also be found as the active ingredient in some all-natural, alcohol-free hand sanitisers. A tisane made by infusing the herb in water can be used for coughs and bronchitis.

In the language of flowers, a sprig of thyme without flowers, signifies strength and courage. A sprig of flowering thyme means “rest well and sleep soundly”.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme,
and also part of the Food Friday meme.

POETS UNITED - CLIMATE

“Climate change is happening, humans are causing it, and I think this is perhaps the most serious environmental issue facing us.” - Bill Nye

For its Midweek Motif, Poets United has set the theme of “Climate”. My poem below:

Climate

The Earth shakes, shudders, sick

Covered in dark pall of smoke

Lost in hopeless contemplation

Of an uncertain future.

The moon looks on

And mirrors her sister’s fate

As stars impassively

Witness the decadence.

The Earth dejected, weeps

Black tears; coughs up polluted phlegm

Regurgitates poisoned food

And dies an ever-quickening death.

The oceans froth and spew up

Choking fish, dead algae,

Mercury-tainted jellyfish,

Suicidal whales by the score.

The Earth despairs, breeding

Sterile offspring, mutated monsters,

Dead plants, addled eggs,

Species driven to extinction.

The air is charred, ice melts,

Cyclones, bushfires, earthquakes

Vie with Tsunamis and errant climate

As to which will seal our fate.

The Earth remembers, wistful,

Past springs, all green and flowery;

Summers golden with ripening grain,

Autumns replete with bountiful harvest.

The Earth recalls, regretful,

A million birdsongs, playful fish,

Pure rain and limpid waters, 

With winters when snow was still white.

TRAVEL TUESDAY #19

“When he leaves (you) or attains authority, he rushes about the land to foment disorder and corruption therein and to ruin the sources of life and human generations. Surely God does not love disorder and corruption.” – The Noble Qur'an » SurahAl-Baqarah » Al-Baqarah-205, Surah The Cow Verse-205

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel!

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us! Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

Brussels (French: Bruxelles, Dutch: Brussel), officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels which is the capital of Belgium, the French Community of Belgium, and the Flemish Community. The region has a population of 1.2 million and a metropolitan area with a population of over 1.8 million, the largest in Belgium. Since the end of the Second World War, Brussels has been a major centre for international politics and has become the polyglot home of numerous international organisations, politicians, diplomats and civil servants.

Brussels is the de facto capital (or one of three capitals including Luxembourg and Strasbourg) of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions. The secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are also located in Brussels.

Historically a Dutch-speaking city, it has seen a major shift to French from the late 19th century onwards. Today the majority language is French, and the Brussels-Capital Region is an officially bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. All road signs, street names, and many advertisements and services are shown in both languages. Brussels is increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages.

The latest terrorist attacks in Europe have shaken Brussels. There were twin blasts hitting Zaventem airport at 07:00 GMT, killing 11 and injuring 81. Another explosion struck Maelbeek metro station an hour later, killing 20 people. Belgium has now raised its terrorism threat to its highest level. The attacks come four days after Salah Abdeslam, the main fugitive in the Paris attacks, was seized in Brussels.

We live in an increasingly more violent world where small numbers of radicalised individuals and groups are having major effects internationally on social, political, religious and ethnic levels. It is sad that at this stage of human civilisation we can be at the mercy of such barbarity. It is even sadder that religion is used to mask acts that have a clear economic and political agenda. When innocent people are killed to further this agenda, the whole of humanity sustains an injury. No God or religion can approve such slaughter of innocents. Whoever carries out such acts and perverts the meaning of holy writings to justify such acts is not a devout and godly person. They deserve the unyielding wrath of the God Whose Name they take in vain.

May the victims of acts of terrorism rest in peace. Lets us offer condolences to their families and friends and hope they find strength to persevere and carry on. To the refugee families who flee from violence, lets us offer safe havens. To all travellers, sincere wishes for safe travels.

MOVIE MONDAY - MR TURNER

“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” - Jonathan Swift

Joseph Mallord William Turner, better known as J.M.W. Turner, was born on April 23, 1775, in Covent Garden, London, England. A sickly child, Turner was sent to live with his uncle in rural England, and it was during this period that he began his artistic career. As a landscape painter, Turner brought luminosity and Romantic imagery to his subjects. His work, although initially realistic, became more fluid and poetic, and is now regarded as a predecessor to Impressionism. Turner died on December 19, 1851, in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, England.

Mike Leigh the British film-maker has directed several movies about life in England, but also made the Gilbert and Sullivan biographical film "Topsy-Turvy" (1999), a film that we enjoyed. In 2014, Leigh turned his attention to Turner and made a film about the last few years of the artist’s life. The film "Mr Turner" (2014) stars Timothy Spall, Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey and Karl Johnson.

The film begins when Turner was already in middle-age, already a famous artist. Turner (Spall) is revealed as a man of many contradictions, sharing his later life mainly with two women. For sexual favours he often sought his housekeeper Sarah Danby (Atkinson) while preferring the company of the widow Mrs Booth (Bailey) with whom he lodged part of the year in Margate, (Danby never knew of Booth’s existence until just before Turner’s death). This seemingly complex life is compounded by the tortuous personality of the artist and his varied actions, which range from the sublime to the ridiculous.

The acting is excellent and Spall gives a magnificent performance, for which he was awarded the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival. He plays Turner with the complexity his genius demands. Both Atkinson and Baily play their roles with wonderful mastery and they support greatly Spall’s acting. The remaining ensemble of actors is equally well-chosen and deliver performances that complement the main actors’ wonderfully well.

The film’s cinematographer Dick Pope does a wonderful job and it seems that almost every shot looks like a painting in its own right. The feel and look of 19th century England is recreated well and although the film doesn’t recreate Turner’s paintings and their delightfully luminous colours, what we see on screen is a marvellous canvas on which Turner creates his masterpieces.

We quite enjoyed this long film (it goes for 150 minutes), and although I would not class it as a masterpiece, I would quite easily say that it is an excellent film. Some viewers used to special effects, car chases and convoluted plots full of improbable twists will no doubt view this film and be bored to death. So be warned: This is a slow, deliberate and beautiful movie, that deals with complicated people and sometimes confronting topics. Well worth seeing if you are a thinking adult.

ART SUNDAY - DE KOONING

“Just as pure abstract art is not dogmatic, neither is it decorative.” - Piet Mondrian

Willem de Kooning, (born April 24, 1904, Rotterdam, Netherlands—died March 19, 1997, East Hampton, New York, U.S.), Dutch-born American painter who was one of the leading exponents of Abstract Expressionism, particularly the form known as Action painting. During the 1930s and ’40s de Kooning worked simultaneously in figurative and abstract modes, but by about 1945 these two tendencies seemed to fuse. The series Woman I–VI caused a sensation with its violent imagery and impulsive, energetic technique. His later work showed an increasing preoccupation with landscape.

De Kooning’s parents, Leendert de Kooning and Cornelia Nobel, were divorced when he was about five years old, and he was raised by his mother and a stepfather. In 1916 he was apprenticed to a firm of commercial artists and decorators, and, about the same time, he enrolled in night classes at the Rotterdam Academy of Fine Arts and Techniques, where he studied for eight years. In 1920 he went to work for the art director of a large department store. In 1926 de Kooning entered the United States as a stowaway and eventually settled in Hoboken, New Jersey, where he supported himself as a house painter.

In 1927 he moved to a studio in Manhattan and came under the influence of the artist, connoisseur, and art critic John Graham and the painter Arshile Gorky. Gorky became one of de Kooning’s closest friends. From about 1928 de Kooning began to paint still life and figure compositions reflecting school of Paris and Mexican influences. By the early 1930s he was exploring abstraction, using biomorphic shapes and simple geometric compositions (an opposition of disparate formal elements that prevails in his work throughout his career). These early works have strong affinities with those of his friends Graham and Gorky and reflect the impact on these young artists of Pablo Picasso and the Surrealist Joan Miró, both of whom achieved powerfully expressive compositions through biomorphic forms.

In October 1935 de Kooning began to work on the WPA (Works Progress Administration) Federal Art Project. He was employed by this work-relief program until July 1937, when he was forced to resign because of his alien status. This period of about two years provided the artist, who had been supporting himself during the early Depression by commercial jobs, with his first opportunity to devote full time to creative work. He worked on both the easel-painting and mural divisions of the project (the several murals he designed were never executed). In 1938, probably under the influence of Gorky, de Kooning embarked on a series of sad, staring male figures, including Two Men Standing, Man, and Seated Figure (Classic Male). Parallel with these works he also created lyrically coloured abstractions, such as Pink Landscape and Elegy.

This coincidence of figures and abstractions continued well into the 1940s with his representational but somewhat geometricised Woman and Standing Man, along with numerous untitled abstractions whose biomorphic forms increasingly suggest the presence of figures. By about 1945 the two tendencies seemed to fuse perfectly in Pink Angels. In 1946, too poor to buy artists’ pigments, he turned to black and white household enamels to paint a series of large abstractions; of these works, Light in August (c. 1946) and Black Friday (1948) are essentially black with white elements, whereas Zurich (1947) and Mailbox (1947–48) are white with black. Developing out of these works in the period after his first show were complex, agitated abstractions such as Asheville (1948–49), Attic (1949), and Excavation (1950; Art Institute, Chicago), which reintroduced colour and seem to sum up with taut decisiveness the problems of free-associative composition he had struggled with for many years.

In 1938 de Kooning met Elaine Fried, whom he married in 1943. She also became a significant artist. During the 1940s and thereafter he became increasingly identified with the Abstract Expressionist movement and was recognised as one of its leaders in the mid-1950s. He had his first one-man show, which consisted of his black-and-white enamel compositions, at the Charles Egan Gallery in New York in 1948 and taught at Black Mountain College in North Carolina in 1948 and at the Yale School of Art in 1950–51.

Whereas de Kooning had painted women regularly in the early 1940s and again from 1947 to 1949, and the biomorphic shapes of his early abstractions can be interpreted as female symbols, it was not until 1950 that he began to explore the subject of women exclusively. In the summer of that year he began Woman I (Museum of Modern Art, New York City), which went through innumerable metamorphoses before it was finished in 1952. During this period he also created other paintings of women. These works were shown at the Sidney Janis Gallery in 1953 and caused a sensation, chiefly because they were figurative when most of his fellow Abstract Expressionists were painting abstractly and because of their blatant technique and imagery. The savagely applied pigment and the use of colours that seem vomited on his canvas combine to reveal a woman all too congruent with some of modern man’s most widely held sexual fears. The toothy snarls, overripe, pendulous breasts, vacuous eyes, and blasted extremities imaged the darkest Freudian insights. The Woman paintings II through VI (1952–53) are all variants on this theme, as are Woman and Bicycle (1953; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York) and Two Women in the Country (1954).

The deliberate vulgarity of these paintings contrasts with the French painter Jean Dubuffet’s no less harsh Corps de dame series of 1950, in which the female, formed with a rich topography of earth colours, relates more directly to universal symbols. By 1955, however, de Kooning seems to have turned to this symbolic aspect of woman, as suggested by the title of his Woman as Landscape, in which the vertical figure seems almost absorbed into the abstract background. There followed a series of landscapes such as Police Gazette, Gotham News, Backyard on Tenth Street, Parc Rosenberg, Suburb in Havana, Door to the River, and Rosy-Fingered Dawn at Louse Point, which display an evolution from compositional and colouristic complexity to a broadly painted simplicity.

About 1963, the year he moved permanently to East Hampton, Long Island, de Kooning returned to depicting women in such paintings as Pastorale and Clam Diggers. He re-explored the theme in the mid-1960s in paintings that were as controversial as his earlier women. In these works, which have been read as satiric attacks on the female anatomy, de Kooning painted with a flamboyant lubricity in keeping with the uninhibited subject matter. His later works, such as …Whose Name Was Writ in Water and Untitled III, are lyrical, lush, and shimmering with light and reflections on water. He turned more and more during his late years to the production of clay sculpture. In the 1980s de Kooning was diagnosed with Alzheimer disease, and a court declared him unfit to manage his estate, which was turned over to conservators. As the quality of his later work declined, his vintage works drew increasing profits. At Sotheby’s auctions Pink Lady (1944) sold for $3.6 million in 1987 and Interchange (1955) brought $20.6 million in 1989.

The painting above is his “Abstraction” of 1950.

MUSIC SATURDAY - DALL'ABACO

“If we were all determined to play the first violin we should never have an ensemble. therefore, respect every musician in his proper place.” - Robert Schumann

Evaristo Felice dall’Abaco (12 July 1675, Verona, Italy — 12 July 1742, Munich, Bavaria) was an Italian composer and cellist. Dall’Abaco was born in Verona, the son of renowned guitarist Damiano dall’Abaco. His father, after seeing his son’s musical talent in school, let him take on violin and cello lessons. He is thought to be Torelli’s pupil from whom he would have learned violin and cello.

He launched his musical career as a violinist with Tommaso Antonio Vitali in Modena, and in 1704 he joined the court of Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria as Kammermusiker. Dall’Abaco was only a few months in Munich, when he was forced to flee with the court to Brussels, following Maximilian’s defeat at the Battle of Blenheim. On Maximilian’s restoration and return to Munich, in 1715, dall’Abaco was appointed Concertmeister. He continued to compose chamber music at the French and Dutch courts until 1740 when he retired.

While in Brussels, dall’Abaco fathered a son named Joseph Abaco (1710–1805). Dall’Abaco’s music is especially indebted to Vivaldi and Corelli. However, when he went into exile with the Munich court, he spent time in France and absorbed some of the influences there.

Here are his 12 Concerti à più Istrumenti Opera Sesta, indirizzata all’Arcivescovo Ellettore di Colonia Clemente Augusto [Amsterdam, 1735]:

1. Concerto No.12 in D major [Allegro-Grave-Allegro ma non troppo] 0:09

2. Concerto No.4 in B minor [Allegro-Adagio-Allegro] 6:53

3. Concerto No.2 in E major [Allegro ma non troppo-Aria. Cantabile-Allegro assai] 14:33

4. Concerto No.3 in F major [Allegro-Largo sempre piano-Allegro e spirituoso] 22:26

5. Concerto No.1 in C major [Allegro-Largo-Presto e spiccato] 29:34

6. Concerto No.8 in D major [Allegro-Largo-Allegro] 36:48

7. Concerto No.7 in A major [Allegro-Grave-Presto] 41:58

8. Concerto No.11 in E major [Allegro-Aria. Cantabile-Allegro e spirituoso] 47:25

9. Concerto No.10 in C major [Allegro-LargoAllegro] 56:49

10 Concerto No.9 in B-flat major [Allegro ma non troppo-Largo assai-Allegro assai] 1:03:00

11. Concerto No.5 in G major [Allegro e vivace assai-Aria. Adagio cantabile-Allegro] 1:12:10

12. Concerto No.6 in F major [Allegro-Adagio-Allegro ma non troppo-Allegro assai] 1:19:39

They are performed by Il Tempio Armonico under the direction of Alberto Rasi, with solo violin played by David Monti.

FOOD FRIDAY - APPLE CHARLOTTE

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” - Martin Luther

Autumn is coming in the Southern Hemisphere and Melbourne has just experienced a few cool, grey days with lots of rain. The kitchen is becoming an attractive place to spend some time in and do some cooking. Meanwhile in the markets, new season apples, pears and nuts are making their appearance. This dessert recipe is just perfect for this kind of weather!

Apple Charlotte

Ingredients

500 g apples – half Granny Smith and half Jonathan

2 tablespoons caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Ground cinnamon and cloves

120 g butter

6-7 slices bread from a large loaf, cut about 5 mm thick, with crusts removed

2 egg yolks

Method

Peel, core and thinly slice the apples. Rinse them in cold water and put them in a saucepan with the sugar and 25 g of the butter. Cook them over a low heat until they are soft enough to beat into a purée. Beat them and leave on one side to cool. Stir in the vanilla essence.

Meanwhile melt the remaining butter gently. Brush with butter the inside of a 600 mL ovenproof pudding basin.

Cut each slice of bread into rectangles. Brush each piece of bread with melted butter (both sides), being careful not to leave any unbuttered patches, then line the pudding basin with as much bread is needed. Don’t leave any gaps between the pieces, overlap them if need be and press firmly. Lightly dust the inside of the bread shell with ground cinnamon and cloves and also a little sugar.

When the apple purée has cooled, beat the egg yolks into it, mix well and fill the lined basin with the mixture. Finally seal the top with overlapping slices of the remaining bread. Place a suitably sized ovenproof plate on top of the pudding and weight it down with a heavy weight. Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 200°C.

After 30 minutes place the basin (with the weight still on it) in the oven to bake for 35 minutes. Then, with an oven cloth, remove the plate and weight, and bake the pudding for another 10 minutes to brown on top. Leave the pudding to settle in the basin for a minute after removing from the oven, then carefully invert it on to a warmed plate to serve.

Serve with clotted cream or ice cream.

Add your favourite recipe using the Linky tool below:

ALL ABOUT THE PINEAPPLE

“He is the very pine-apple of politeness.” - Richard Brinsley Sheridan

The pineapple (Ananas comosus) is in the Bromeliaceae family and is a herbaceous perennial, which grows to 1.0 to 1.5 meters tall, although sometimes it can be taller. In appearance, the plant itself has a short, stocky stem with tough, waxy leaves. When creating its fruit, it usually produces up to 200 flowers, although some large-fruited cultivars can exceed this. Once it flowers, the individual fruits of the flowers join together to create what is commonly referred to as a pineapple. After the first fruit is produced, side shoots (called 'suckers' by commercial growers) are produced in the leaf axils of the main stem. These may be removed for propagation, or left to produce additional fruits on the original plant. Commercially, suckers that appear around the base are cultivated.

The pineapple plant has 30 or more long, narrow, fleshy, trough-shaped leaves with sharp spines along the margins that are 30 to 100 centimetres long, surrounding a thick stem. In the first year of growth, the axis lengthens and thickens, bearing numerous leaves in close spirals. After 12 to 20 months, the stem grows into a spike-like inflorescence up to 15 cm long with over 100 spirally arranged, trimerous flowers, each subtended by a bract. Flower colours vary, depending on variety, from lavender, through light purple to red. The ovaries develop into berries, which coalesce into a large, compact, multiple accessory fruit. The fruit of a pineapple is arranged in two interlocking helices, eight in one direction, thirteen in the other, each being a Fibonacci number. The pineapple carries out CAM photosynthesis, fixing carbon dioxide at night and storing it as the acid malate, then releasing it during the day aiding photosynthesis.

The plant is indigenous to South America and is said to originate from the area between southern Brazil and Paraguay; however, little is known about the origin of the domesticated pineapple. The natives of southern Brazil and Paraguay spread the pineapple throughout South America, and it eventually reached the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico, where it was cultivated by the Mayas and the Aztecs. Columbus encountered the pineapple in 1493 on the leeward island of Guadeloupe. He called it piña de Indes, meaning “pine of the Indians”, and brought it back with him to Spain, thus making the pineapple the first bromeliad to be introduced by humans outside of the New World. The fruit is said to have been first introduced in Hawaii when a Spanish ship brought it there in the 1500s. The Portuguese took the fruit from Brazil and introduced it into India by 1550. The Spanish introduced the plant into the Philippines, Hawaii (introduced in the early 19th century, first commercial plantation 1886), Zimbabwe and Guam.

The pineapple was brought to northern Europe by the Dutch from their colony in Surinam. The first pineapple to be successfully cultivated in Europe, is said to have been grown by Pieter de la Court at Meerburg in 1658. In England, a huge “Pineapple stove” needed to grow the plants had been built at the Chelsea Physic Garden in 1723. In France, King Louis XV was presented with a pineapple that had been grown at Versailles in 1733. Catherine the Great ate pineapples grown on her own estates before her death in 1796.

Because of the expense of direct import and the enormous cost in equipment and labour required to grow them in a temperate climate, using hothouses called “pineries”, pineapples soon became a symbol of wealth. They were initially used mainly for display at dinner parties, rather than being eaten, and were used again and again until they began to rot. By the second half of the 18th century, the production of the fruit on British estates had become the subject of great rivalry between wealthy aristocrats. John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore built a hothouse on his estate surmounted by a huge stone cupola 14 metres tall in the shape of the fruit; it is known as the “Dunmore Pineapple”.

The flesh and juice of the pineapple are used in cuisines around the world. In many tropical countries, pineapple is prepared, and sold on roadsides as a snack. It is sold whole, or in halves with a stick inserted. Whole, cored slices with a cherry in the middle are a common garnish on hams in the West. Chunks of pineapple are used in desserts such as fruit salad, as well as in some savoury dishes, including pizza toppings and a grilled pineapple ring on a hamburger. Crushed pineapple is used in yogurt, jam, sweets, and ice cream. The juice of the pineapple is served as a beverage, and it is also the main ingredient in cocktails such as the piña colada and in the drink tepache. In a 100 gram serving, raw pineapple is an excellent source of manganese (44% Daily Value) and vitamin C (58% Daily Value), but otherwise contains no essential nutrients in significant content.

In the Caribbean, Europe and North America, the pineapple became associated with the return of ships from extended voyages, and an emblem of welcome and hospitality that made its way into contemporary art. In the language of flowers, a pineapple flower means “welcome” and “you are perfect”. In the television series “Psych”, the writers have included a pineapple in every episode as a running joke, and there is a website dedicated to compiling a list of every pineapple shown. During the Chinese New Year, the pineapple represents wealth, luck, excellent fortune and gambling luck.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

POETS UNITED - SAINTS & THE SYRIAN REFUGEE CRISIS

“We live in the age of the refugee, the age of the exile.” Ariel Dorfman

The Midweek Motif for Poets United this week is “Saints”. It seems that saints are distinctly lacking in our modern and increasingly secular society. But even those in the bosom of the Church seem to be more sinners than saints. My poem started going in one direction, but very quickly gravitated towards another. I threw it out and started again… Here is the final version:

The Saints and the Sinners

“I am no saint…”, he said,

And blocked his ears.

“My life is hard enough

Without self-sacrifice.”

He switched channels

Finding more pleasant things to watch

Than dire news from distant lands.

“I am no saint…”, she said,

And closed her eyes.

“The world has axes enough

To grind for my own neck.”

And she went away

To hide in her own dark place

Where none could find her.

“I am no saint…”, he said,

And smelt no more.

“The smoke is more acrid

When your own house is burning.”

And he lashed out and he burnt other houses,

And he maimed, and killed

Even the most innocent.

“I am no saint…”, she said,

And tasted no more.

“The kisses that they buy

Are bitter poison.”

But she took their money,

Giving them flesh and fake sighs

And hated them more than her sins.

“We are no saints,” we say,

And our souls become numb.

“It’s their fault for leaving home and country,

They are not martyrs, but opportunists…”

And we ignore their plight,

Shrug off their pain and sorrow,

Hear not their cries for help.

“We are no saints,” we maintain,

As we go to church and pray:

“From all evil, deliver us, O, Lord!

From all sin, deliver us, O, Lord!”

We are no saints, we know…

But we contest a place in Paradise,

Even though we are blind, and deaf,

Devoid of smell and taste, mute,

Uncaring, unfeeling, untouched

By the hell our fellow humans live in.

Syria’s civil war is the worst humanitarian crisis of our time. Half the country’s pre-war population (more than 11 million people) have been killed or forced to flee their homes. Families are struggling to survive inside Syria, or make a new home in neighbouring countries. Others are risking their lives on the way to Europe, hoping to find acceptance and opportunity. Harsh weather makes life as a refugee even more difficult. At times, the effects of the conflict can seem overwhelming.

Anti-government demonstrations in Syria began in March of 2011, part of the Arab Spring. But the peaceful protests quickly escalated after the government’s violent crackdown, and rebels began fighting back against the regime. By July, army defectors had loosely organised the Free Syrian Army and many civilian Syrians took up arms to join the opposition. Divisions between secular and Islamist fighters, and between ethnic groups, continue to complicate the politics of the conflict to this day.

Almost five years after it began, the full-blown civil war has killed over 220,000 people, half of whom are believed to be civilians. Bombings are destroying crowded cities and horrific human rights violations are widespread. Basic necessities like food and medical care are sparse. The U.N. estimates that 6.6 million people are internally displaced. When you also consider refugees, more than half of the country’s pre-war population of 23 million is in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, whether they still remain in the country or have escaped across the borders.

The majority of Syrian refugees are living in Jordan and Lebanon, the two smallest countries in the region. Their weak infrastructure and limited resources are nearing a breaking point under the strain. In August 2013, more Syrians escaped into northern Iraq at a newly opened border crossing. Now they are trapped by that country’s own insurgent conflict, and Iraq is struggling to meet the needs of Syrian refugees on top of more than one million internally displaced Iraqis. An increasing number of Syrian refugees are fleeing across the border into Turkey, overwhelming urban host communities and creating new cultural tensions.

Yet, thousands of Syrians continue to flee their country every day. They often decide to finally escape after seeing their neighbourhoods bombed or family members killed. The risks on the journey to the border can be as high as staying: Families walk for miles through the night to avoid being shot at by snipers or being caught by soldiers who will kidnap young men to fight for the regime.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees are also attempting the dangerous trip across the Mediterranean Sea from Turkey to Greece, hoping to find a better future in Europe. Not all of them make it across alive. Those who do make it to Greece still face steep challenges -resources are strained by the influx and services are minimal. Europe initially accepting of the refugee influx has closed its doors…

How you can help:

https://www.unrefugees.org.au/donate/syriabanner#monthly

https://www.redcross.org.au/campaigns/syria-five-year-anniversary.aspx

http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.7998857/k.D075/Syria.htm

Please, help as much as you can, in every way you can, even if it is by talking to others and making them aware of the real issues and the enormity of the tragedy. We may be no saints but we are capable of doing great things and good deeds.