I have messed around for more years and months than anyone can imagine regarding my writing of a book I felt I must compose.
FINALLY I screamed at the universe:
"TELL ME WHAT TO DO? WRITE A BIO OR A BOOK OF ESSAYS?"
Last night I needed something to read... I read every night before I fall into La La Land.
Mary Oliver is one of my favorite poets. She and Edna St. Vincent Millay. Just for the hell of it I did a search on Kindle and sure enough Mary has a new book since I researched her creative genius.
I began reading her new book and suddenly I found what is pure inspiration and guidance. I must not waver from the vision I felt when I was reading her words. "USE WHAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN!"
I will edit and assemble my blog entries into a book of my many thoughts and it will leave enough space inside one's brain for imagination... and they can fill in the blank passages!
My Dearest Friend Diviana told me two years ago: you have already written the book just edit it and proof read it... why did I not follow her wisdom and devine light?
Tomorrow is supposed to be a gorgeous day full of sunshine and autumn light. I will begin pulling apart all the blog writings and assemble them into a book of simply insights and essays on what my wandering mind sees and loves. What my inner soul understands as truth and reality.
Sweet dreams.
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
The love of asparagus
Every since I can remember I loved asparagus! In the early spring my mother would take a Perry Knife and we walked along canal and ditch banks searching for the precious stems. She would gently cut them and then boil them in a very little bit in water.
Asparagus is a beautiful vegetable because it has nutrients far beyond many veggies. Do not worry about the fear YOU MUST PURCHASE Organic Raised Asparagus. You will live and not drop dead on the gorgeous asparagus you purchase in your super market.
Asparagus are loaded with Vitamin A, C, E and K. It is an excellent source of balancing Diabetics blood sugar! It actually contains many other nutritional elements.
I learned years ago that a good chef does not CUT the stems off of asparagus. The stems must be touched and "snapped" meaning each stem was worthy of a breaking point! Also do not buy asparagus that has mold or moss on it!
I know people that will not touch asparagus. They actually hate it! The French eat it and they seem to be extremely healthy as well as Italians. Italians live long lives. When I was in Iceland 1969 we ate asparagus. They raise it in hydroponic farms.
In my honest opinion today most things should and can be grown in hydroponic gardens!
The environment is full of all kinds of shit I breathe and seem to indulge beyond the limit of consciousness.
I destroy the atmosphere more than anyone... I fly in air planes to places so far away and they fill the air with???? think about it.
I also drive many times a year polluting the air. I use
all kinds of chemicals on my plants and myself!
Asparagus is a wonderful vegetable and I top it with a Hollandaise sauce or simply butter. Lots of ground sea salt and ground pepper. I save the stems that break away from the ripe portion and make cream of asparagus soup or use it in a egg pie with bacon and spinach.
I am so happy to live on a planet that allows me to indulge in asparagus all through the year! Avocados are another thing I love and I know a hell of a lot about.
I eat a half of an avocado every morning. Pour lemon juice into the cavity then drop brown sugar into the cavity. You will not believe what your tasting. I like avocados with salsa and sometimes I fill them with tuna or shrimp salad.
In England and NZ they make an asparagus roll up. Take a piece of sandwich bread which is thinly sliced then place a bit of Mayo, salt and pepper. Lay the asparagus on the bread and then roll it up and you will have a delicious snack.
Enjoy all vegetables. Paleo diet is quite amazing. It uses veggies and proteins.
Asparagus is a beautiful vegetable because it has nutrients far beyond many veggies. Do not worry about the fear YOU MUST PURCHASE Organic Raised Asparagus. You will live and not drop dead on the gorgeous asparagus you purchase in your super market.
Asparagus are loaded with Vitamin A, C, E and K. It is an excellent source of balancing Diabetics blood sugar! It actually contains many other nutritional elements.
I learned years ago that a good chef does not CUT the stems off of asparagus. The stems must be touched and "snapped" meaning each stem was worthy of a breaking point! Also do not buy asparagus that has mold or moss on it!
I know people that will not touch asparagus. They actually hate it! The French eat it and they seem to be extremely healthy as well as Italians. Italians live long lives. When I was in Iceland 1969 we ate asparagus. They raise it in hydroponic farms.
In my honest opinion today most things should and can be grown in hydroponic gardens!
The environment is full of all kinds of shit I breathe and seem to indulge beyond the limit of consciousness.
I destroy the atmosphere more than anyone... I fly in air planes to places so far away and they fill the air with???? think about it.
I also drive many times a year polluting the air. I use
all kinds of chemicals on my plants and myself!
Asparagus is a wonderful vegetable and I top it with a Hollandaise sauce or simply butter. Lots of ground sea salt and ground pepper. I save the stems that break away from the ripe portion and make cream of asparagus soup or use it in a egg pie with bacon and spinach.
I am so happy to live on a planet that allows me to indulge in asparagus all through the year! Avocados are another thing I love and I know a hell of a lot about.
I eat a half of an avocado every morning. Pour lemon juice into the cavity then drop brown sugar into the cavity. You will not believe what your tasting. I like avocados with salsa and sometimes I fill them with tuna or shrimp salad.
In England and NZ they make an asparagus roll up. Take a piece of sandwich bread which is thinly sliced then place a bit of Mayo, salt and pepper. Lay the asparagus on the bread and then roll it up and you will have a delicious snack.
Enjoy all vegetables. Paleo diet is quite amazing. It uses veggies and proteins.
Sunday, February 26, 2017
Friday, February 10, 2017
The antique French KEY!
A friend that I have known for years here in Queenstown is a master maker of
beautiful jewelry. Saw him at the Arts and Crafts Fair a few weeks ago. He no longer creates
jewelry. He said China has taken over the market they can make any design of a ring, necklace and
ear rings for nothing.
That did not stop Ross from being creative! He has been importing very old Vintage Keys from places in Europe. I was fascinated by the various interesting shapes, ridges, grooves and size of so many keys. He has attached them to a ribbon of tapestry with a brass clip securing the key so it does not slip loose allowing the mystic key to fall into some hidden space!
I have "alters" to certain people that influence my life every day. This old print of Debussy hangs inside my QT studio. Over the many years I have attached sentimental bits and pieces to the image.
I have a 50 dollar franc pinned to it. You can glimpse the corner of the money on the left side of the
picture. A bunch of red roses from France hang on the right side and then I pinned the mysterious
antique key to the right side above the roses.
The key is rather large. It is very interestingly made. I fantasize that could this be the key to one of Debussy's apartments? A key to some place he frequented in France? Old keys are haunting. People
that carried them around their necks, in their pockets and the "locks" that only one particular KEY could OPEN!
All things hold energy. I have always been amazed how a Blood Hound Dog can be given a piece of clothing from a person who has been missing for months, even for years and that dog can follow a
scent for miles and miles until it discovers the subject!
Years ago I read a novel that I love "PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER by Patrick Suskind. I wish he would write more stories!
Possibly why I love rocks is: they are made of stardust as well as we are. Stones speak in a language of water, air, fire and the universe. I have certain items from people I love from many years ago and
I can hold these small treasures in the palm of my hand and sense and feel vibrations.
My mother gave my father a beautiful ring 3 months before they were married. I have looked at that ring since my first breath of life. When I was a young man and would accompany my father's voice
He would sit calm with his left hand resting on his knee. That ring was my "center" because I knew
he was not afraid or concerned about my ability to enhance his voice with my playing piano.
Before his funeral a few short years ago just before they closed his casket my brother stunned me when he removed the ring from my father's
left hand and said "we are giving this to Brent..." My BEACON! MY LIGHT HOUSE in the darkest storms...
I have miss placed keys at times in my life! There is not a more distressing feeling. You have lost
the KEY to enter the place you live?
Now I have two antique keys... My God, the rate I'm going they will have a truck full of rocks, keys, musical manuscripts, journals, recipes, meditations, STUFF! That is a most untrue statement. I
clean my spiritual house every 6 months. I rid my spirit of STUFF that is no longer needed...
Here is the strange mysterious thing: I have and always will save OLD tarnished keys. I even have the key to my house at 620 28th St. 1969!
If you want something unique let me know and I'll have Ross Haywood fix you up with a KEY as a most interesting gift to someone who's heart and soul you'd like to OPEN!
Well, Debussy is grinning
because I doubt this key has anything to do with a door and the Franc is? the roses he does love
and when I play Perfumes of the Night I KNOW he loves those red roses!
Many keys??? now we use PASS WORDS AS KEYS! It seems everything I love has a certain pass
word into my heart!
Saturday, December 10, 2016
Living with two different but similar instruments!
A stove and working oven are as important to my well being as having a tuned piano with all of it's parts working properly. I have and still can make music on old battered pianos that are dinosaurs. I can usually walk into a kitchen and find certain tools I need to create something to eat.
In my restaurant I bake and cook on a "REAL STOVE." It is WHITE! It is not a electric range, it cooks with propane and it is has a large oven. It is the kind of stove people with large families cook and bake with. (the oven in Alpine bakes at least 14 hours a day on and off...)
A few years ago this kitchen in the QT house was remodeled and many things about the "do up" job
are good. Drawers that hold dishes, canned goods, spices and one that I store flour, sugar, pasta,
rice and other dry goods for baking and cooking.
I am making a comparison between musical instruments and the instruments one requires cooking
a meal. The refrigerator is fine. The dishwasher, Microwave oven... then the COOKING RANGE.
If a stove and oven are not functioning properly you can ruin a meal that BTW took hours to plan and prepare all the ingredients only to discover at the last moment the most important necessity the STOVE AND OVEN are dis-fucking-functional.
The hours a pianist spends alone practicing is something ONLY a musician can relate to. When I was performing professionally the worst problem was: You are excited to share what you have dedicated hours perfecting and then discovering the piano on the stage, in the venue your performance will take place is absolutely horrible beyond imagination!!!
Worse situation: IF A KEY IS NOT WORKING! A BROKEN STRING... (this IS why god made drugs and other elements so that someone would not die by the hands of a pianist.)
This morning I awake excited to have things ready for the arrival of my brother from the USA come Thursday. I KNEW there were problems with the oven because during the Thanksgiving baking of a turkey as well as pumpkin pies... Today I wanted to bake cookies, possibly a cherry pie and a chocolate cake. All these things can be baked and after cooling frozen for later eatables.
I have a 'no fail' peanut butter cookie recipe. Pre heat oven. It is ready, I place the cookies inside the JAWS OF HELL. I'm talking with a friend and suddenly I smell this rather over done oder. I grab the oven mitts, sling open the glass door and pull those cookies out as fast I can! I did save them BUT? I am not happy. I will RE-READ for the 9th time the manual that came with the stove.
The black glass? (I do not believe this one is the glass kind) is a pain. Black is not ever a color you want in a kitchen! It gives life to every particle of dust, pollen and endlessly needs to be scrubbed. I even have a certain scraping blade you use on the surface. If you so much as boil
a pan of eggs the rim of the pan is on the ring. I have excellent stainless steel pans! If you open the windows and allow air to flow through the room the stove top will be 'dusty' not shinny!
I have VENTED! I feel better about my helpless situation. I will conquer this beast of a black demon! It's cavern, the oven from hell and the top burners that cannot balance energy properly.
I may go back to something I used years and years ago. I was given a electric frying pan in the 70's.
That damn thing was fantastic. The lid kept grease out of the room. You could cook steaks and the reduction from the juices were perfect by adding some butter, a squirt of tomato sauce and red wine.
PERFECTION. I even made scalloped potatoes in that fry pan. You could make stews, meat loaf, the list was endless but the same applies to "slow cookers"....
Screw the glass top, fan forced oven stove range! I will have a glass of wine and make a tuna casserole for dins tonight.
In my restaurant I bake and cook on a "REAL STOVE." It is WHITE! It is not a electric range, it cooks with propane and it is has a large oven. It is the kind of stove people with large families cook and bake with. (the oven in Alpine bakes at least 14 hours a day on and off...)
A few years ago this kitchen in the QT house was remodeled and many things about the "do up" job
are good. Drawers that hold dishes, canned goods, spices and one that I store flour, sugar, pasta,
rice and other dry goods for baking and cooking.
I am making a comparison between musical instruments and the instruments one requires cooking
a meal. The refrigerator is fine. The dishwasher, Microwave oven... then the COOKING RANGE.
If a stove and oven are not functioning properly you can ruin a meal that BTW took hours to plan and prepare all the ingredients only to discover at the last moment the most important necessity the STOVE AND OVEN are dis-fucking-functional.
The hours a pianist spends alone practicing is something ONLY a musician can relate to. When I was performing professionally the worst problem was: You are excited to share what you have dedicated hours perfecting and then discovering the piano on the stage, in the venue your performance will take place is absolutely horrible beyond imagination!!!
Worse situation: IF A KEY IS NOT WORKING! A BROKEN STRING... (this IS why god made drugs and other elements so that someone would not die by the hands of a pianist.)
This morning I awake excited to have things ready for the arrival of my brother from the USA come Thursday. I KNEW there were problems with the oven because during the Thanksgiving baking of a turkey as well as pumpkin pies... Today I wanted to bake cookies, possibly a cherry pie and a chocolate cake. All these things can be baked and after cooling frozen for later eatables.
I have a 'no fail' peanut butter cookie recipe. Pre heat oven. It is ready, I place the cookies inside the JAWS OF HELL. I'm talking with a friend and suddenly I smell this rather over done oder. I grab the oven mitts, sling open the glass door and pull those cookies out as fast I can! I did save them BUT? I am not happy. I will RE-READ for the 9th time the manual that came with the stove.
The black glass? (I do not believe this one is the glass kind) is a pain. Black is not ever a color you want in a kitchen! It gives life to every particle of dust, pollen and endlessly needs to be scrubbed. I even have a certain scraping blade you use on the surface. If you so much as boil
a pan of eggs the rim of the pan is on the ring. I have excellent stainless steel pans! If you open the windows and allow air to flow through the room the stove top will be 'dusty' not shinny!
I have VENTED! I feel better about my helpless situation. I will conquer this beast of a black demon! It's cavern, the oven from hell and the top burners that cannot balance energy properly.
I may go back to something I used years and years ago. I was given a electric frying pan in the 70's.
That damn thing was fantastic. The lid kept grease out of the room. You could cook steaks and the reduction from the juices were perfect by adding some butter, a squirt of tomato sauce and red wine.
PERFECTION. I even made scalloped potatoes in that fry pan. You could make stews, meat loaf, the list was endless but the same applies to "slow cookers"....
Screw the glass top, fan forced oven stove range! I will have a glass of wine and make a tuna casserole for dins tonight.
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Thanksgiving
I do not know if the word THANKFUL is what I feel. GRATEFUL is possibly a better word? I am forever "in love" with the miracles I experience every day and night.
In my 20's 30's and 40's I did not comprehend and appreciate many parts of my body, mind and spirit.
I am a "sensitive". I FEEL and SENSE VIBRATIONS. The vibrations can be COLOR, or SOUND.
I am a 70 year old man who is now discovering so many miracles about myself. These miracles are the things I am so very grateful and thankful for.
SIGHT. I can see! I can read, write and draw. I can see mountains, trees, people's faces...
HEARING. I can hear wind, rain on the roof, foot steps, breathing, music, human voices and the voices of animals. The music of the spheres.
TOUCH. I can feel rose petals. rocks, food, piano keys, skin, hair, leaves, soft, smooth, hard, wet, hot, cold, sharp, dull and I can touch the sky with my own two hands.
TASTE. Sweet, sour. Smooth and creamy harsh and tangy. Salty, rancid, fresh, stale, tender, tough.
SCENT. To be able to "smell" a forest, the brine of the sea. baking bread and chocolate. A garden in full blossom and it's sensuous perfumes. To smell what is rotten and what is fresh. Grilled onions and beef, oregano, rosemary, curry. Cinnamon, nutmeg and milk. Rain on fallen leaves. I was once told that the last SENSE you loose upon your death is your ability to smell.
DREAMS. THE ETHERS. THE INVISIBLE!
An entire universe within the mind and every cell of one's DNA.
My Thanksgiving for once in my life was just THANKING ALL THAT HAS BEEN GIVEN TO ME!
In my 20's 30's and 40's I did not comprehend and appreciate many parts of my body, mind and spirit.
I am a "sensitive". I FEEL and SENSE VIBRATIONS. The vibrations can be COLOR, or SOUND.
I am a 70 year old man who is now discovering so many miracles about myself. These miracles are the things I am so very grateful and thankful for.
SIGHT. I can see! I can read, write and draw. I can see mountains, trees, people's faces...
HEARING. I can hear wind, rain on the roof, foot steps, breathing, music, human voices and the voices of animals. The music of the spheres.
TOUCH. I can feel rose petals. rocks, food, piano keys, skin, hair, leaves, soft, smooth, hard, wet, hot, cold, sharp, dull and I can touch the sky with my own two hands.
TASTE. Sweet, sour. Smooth and creamy harsh and tangy. Salty, rancid, fresh, stale, tender, tough.
SCENT. To be able to "smell" a forest, the brine of the sea. baking bread and chocolate. A garden in full blossom and it's sensuous perfumes. To smell what is rotten and what is fresh. Grilled onions and beef, oregano, rosemary, curry. Cinnamon, nutmeg and milk. Rain on fallen leaves. I was once told that the last SENSE you loose upon your death is your ability to smell.
DREAMS. THE ETHERS. THE INVISIBLE!
An entire universe within the mind and every cell of one's DNA.
My Thanksgiving for once in my life was just THANKING ALL THAT HAS BEEN GIVEN TO ME!
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Happy 70th Birthday1
far too rich of a cake. I've managed to munch down most of!
I never in my wildest dreams imagined I would live in this dimension of existence for 70 years!!!!!!!
I'm loving my down time in QT. Rutha from USA flew into QT this morning. She will spend Thanksgiving with us! I have the turkey ready to be popped into the oven before bed time. Rutha is
making REAL PUMPKIN Pie. She is baking REAL dinner rolls and I'm making potatoes and the gravy. Karina and Jimmy will drive to QT from CHCH tomorrow and return our many plants. Karina can rescue any plant from death. Can't wait to have the house full of living plants. They love music and plants reveal a lot about how a person's emotional life plays itself out day by day.
I'm still plugging away at my book?!?!?! but I think this blog has been enough of a book for the past many years. Thus, I am returning to blogging and writing about my everyday walk a bouts. The interesting people I encounter and most of all the thoughts that wander inside my mind and heart.
More later. It's nice to be back on this site!
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