31-AUG-2008
I have a dream...
I have a dream.....
Dreams are part of the texture of reality in a way, because when we dream of something we really carry it inside us and make it evolve and grow.
So maybe my dream is already real and I have really met this person exactly in the place where I would like to meet him.
We spoke of many things, actually, but one of our main topics of conversation was the meaning of happiness and the paths to get to that.
Happiness is like a quiet lake made of serenity and consciousness where we can arrive following many different paths, but the lake is only one and it’s always the same.
It’s not that important which path we might have taken if we manage to arrive by the lake at the end.
Then, when we are there, we can sit on a log or a small rock and look at the lake surface, which will reflect our image and will make us understand that happiness is an inner matter after all and, even though we often take a long tour to get it, then, when we find a glimpse of it, it will be our innermost thoughts we’ll find.
17-AUG-2008
“I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”
Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot.
In your soul are infinitely precious things
that cannot be taken from you.
You have your way.
I have my way.
As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way,
it does not exist.
Someone wrote to me asking for other recipes...
VIOLET'S SUBLIME APPLE TART
For the pastry you need:
1 ½ cups of white flour
A little more than ½ cup of butter (let it out from the fridge for a while so it will be soft)
1 egg
2 ½ tablespoons of very cold water.
For the filling you need:
½ cup of fresh cream (also half- skimmed one is good, even better...)
½ cup of sugar
1 cup of ground almonds
1 whole egg + 1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons of white flour
2 tablespoons of Calvados (apple brandy).
You still need:
4 apples, of a kind which gets soft after cooking, without melting completely
1 teaspoon of honey
1/3 cup of apricot jam
In a bowl mix together carefully the flour with a pinch of salt; add the butter, egg and water.
It should look like big crumbs. If it’s too dry add a little bit of water.
Don’t knead too much.
Make a ball with the dough and wrap it into a plastic film. Let it rest in the fridge for ½ hour at least.
Prepare the filling ingredients mixing them together, adding the Calvados at the end; you should get a kind of thick cream consistency.
Roll the pastry on a floured surface and put it into a round pie pan of about 25 cm diameter (for my American friends I’d say about 10 inch). Flute the edges and prick the bottom with a fork.
Put pastry into the fridge for a while.
Heat your oven at 200°C (400°F).
Take your pan with the pastry out of the fridge and add the filling by spoon, make a regular layer with it.
Peel and core the apples, cut them into quite thin slices, and arrange them in an overlapping spiral all over the filling.
Put the tart into the oven and bake it for about 20 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 175°C (350°F) and let it bake other 10 minutes at least.
Then take it out and add a lot of cinnamon on the top and put into the oven again for other 10 minutes.
Cool your tart on a wire rack, this is very important!
A little before serving warm up the apricot jam with a little water and brush it on the tart surface.
Add a last touch...some honey drops!
18-AUG-2008
How lovely are the portals of the night...
When I was very young I thought that one of life's bitterest truths was that bedtime so often arrived just when things were really getting interesting.
Now I could stay up all night and do all what I’d feel like, but I have realized that what makes things really interesting depends on our attitude to them.
Sometimes friends ask me if I don’t feel a creepy loneliness, living on my own in my country cottage, while my only relative, my beloved nephew Frimpong is always absent, too busy with his compulsory trips.
My answer is always the same, I don’t feel alone, because when one has a good and well balanced relationship with oneself, one is never alone; maybe it depends on age and I don’t want to consider it as a general and absolute certainty, but this is the way I feel.
When I go to sleep here in my cosy bedroom (maybe I was a little too cheeky in showing you this so intimate time of my life and my night outfit as well...) I feel in good mood, I read a book for a while, I think of all the positive experiences of my life, but, even though I’m a very old lady, I refuse to live retrospectively.
Maybe this is another little secret to be well... Thinking over about the past, remaining totally ready for the future.
What will tomorrow bring to me? I’m looking forward to that!
Anyway being serene doesn’t mean being constantly happy, I think that showing a never-ending happiness is very close to foolishness.
Ernest, one of my friends, an American writer I met in Paris many years ago, used to tell me:
“Violet, happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.”
Ah, Ernest...my nephew Frimpong reminds me a little of him, the same love for life, women, trips and drinks, but also the same intelligence and independence.
I trust Frimpong will have a different life from Ernest in his old age anyway...
When I was in Paris with Ernest he was a very lively and hectic person and he asked me to go with him to Pamplona, Spain, then he wrote a novel about our trip there and....
But this is another story.
18-AUG-2008
Do you like Mr. Puccini's Opera?
What’s better during a summer evening than sitting in one’s own garden, listening to music and enjoying the warm light of sunset?
Without music life would be a mistake, music is what feelings sound like; music is the poetry of the air.
I have my own particular sorrows, loves, delights, and you have yours. But sorrow, gladness, yearning, hope, love, belong to all of us, at all times and in all places. Music is the only means whereby we feel these emotions in their universality.
This evening I’m in the mood for opera, Italians are the masters of opera in my opinion, even though I don’t want to neglect composers from other countries.
I have always had a liking for “La Bohème” by Giacomo Puccini.
Here is Mimi, the delicate little seamstress who lives in a tiny chamber near the roof....
Do you know the subject of this opera, the “libretto” as Italians call the plot?
17-AUG-2008
Out for dinner with a couple of friends...
It’s a matter of fact that I don’t travel anymore, mostly because of age and then also because one traveller in the family is largely enough.
But I’m not necessarily a gloomy and sedentary person without any social life!
I have some good old friends I like meeting for a dinner every now and then.
Yesterday evening, for instance, I was invited by a couple of them.
They are really nice, but a bit formal, so I had to dress properly too.
I was a close friend and confidant of Charlie’s Granny; in spite of our different social classes we had a lot in common and she was very happy when she had a chance to come to have a Gin & Tonic with me in my kitchen in a very spontaneous and easy going way.
Don’t ask me to tell you more anyway, I’m a devoted friends and I deeply respect the privacy of my dear ones.
Everyone’s secrets are safe with Violet Bear!
17-AUG-2008
It's perfect! What a pity you cannot smell it....
I hope my dear readers realize that expert cooks, such as myself, often do not measure the ingredients for their recipes.
They just "know" how much to use of each item.
It is for that reason that this recipe might seem a bit lacking in content.
(I grew the long Asian aubergine from seed which a friend in the United States sent to me.
They call it "eggplant" across the pond.)
I like it very much because I can just slice it into bite-sized pieces.
The skin is very thin, so I don't have to peel it.
I also had a nice crop of small plum tomatoes, which you may know as "Roma" tomatoes, but there weren't enough for this dish so I added a large round tomato to it.
The peppers were mild yellow frying peppers, which I also grew.
I'm afraid that the borers got to my zucchini ( in French "courgettes", everything sounds so tasty if you say it in French, doesn't it?),
so I had to buy those in the market, where I also bought the mild onions I needed.
I have to allow at least an hour to prepare this recipe because it takes a lot of time to cut up each ingredient as well as to fry it separately.
You might be surprised that so much olive oil is used,
but that is a very healthful ingredient,
so I don't feel guilty using it - besides, it gives such a lovely sheen to my fur!"
VIOLET'S DIVINE RATATOUILLE
(about) 200 ml extra virgin olive oil (The aubergine, especially, will drink this up and you will have to add more)
500 gm zucchini (courgette) cut into 1/2 cm slices
500 gm aubergine (eggplant) cut into 1/2 cm slices
500 gm tomatoes, cut into bite sized pieces
about 300 gm frying peppers, sliced into bite-sized pieces (remove seeds and membranes from peppers)
3 medium sized mild onions cut into slivers
2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped or mashed through a garlic press
1 bay leaf
salt
pepper, freshly ground, of course.
The vegetables are browned separately, sauteed in oil over medium to high heat.
Start with the onions and peppers. Once each is browned, combine them together into one pan and continue to cook slowly, covered. Add bay leaf, salt and pepper at this time.
Cook eggplant next (in another pan), remove it and follow with zucchini, then the tomatoes with the garlic.
In a large pan, combine all the ingredients and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes. Serve warm.
My nephew loves eating this over pasta, so that's the way I serve it to him.
It is often served with a nice crusty loaf of bread.
Hint: Should you find that your pan is turning brown and the vegetables are sticking to it, add the tiniest amount of water while you are frying.
Don't add too much.
Ratatouille should not be mushy!
16-AUG-2008
Ratatouille has always a sweet taste of nostalgia for me...
Ratatouille is a simple but delicious and very healthy dish.
I learnt its real recipe many years ago, from a dear friend who was an American writer, but knew well Southern France cooking.
Actually Scottie and I had spent some unforgettable days in French Riviera, but this is another story....
Since I grow all the necessary vegetables in my own kitchen garden, I have often cooked this tasty recipe for my nephew Frimpong, to make him eat vegetables which are so very good for keeping his fur thick and shiny.
Frimpong adores my ratatouille so I wish he could be here to eat it in my company today.
Unluckily my nephew is somewhere else in the big world and Scotty, my dear American friend, died a long time ago....
I’ll have to savor my ratatouille on my own thinking of my dear ones...
By the way, I don’t know if I've already told you I’m one of the greatest cooks of the world; after all, I've worked as a refined cook for the most important noble families of Europe, so if you feel like knowing the details of my recipes, you can write to my email address and it will be my pleasure sharing my culinary secrets with you.
Now I must leave you because I have to clean these tomatoes. Then it will be the aubergines turn....
16-AUG-2008
There's no life without humour.
There's no life without humour. It can make the wonderful moments of life truly glorious, and it can make tragic moments bearable.
I have just received a message from a person who is going through a rather depressing period.
This gentleman honours me with his trust and he asks me to help him to see clearer inside himself to be able to turn the page and to start over again, possibly with a smile.
It’s a task I don’t take lightly, but I promise him that I’m doing my best.
He will have a chance to read my humble opinion in these pages very soon, if he will be so kind to give them a look.
He feels lonely at present and he regrets that his telephone doesn’t ring as often as before.
Well my telephone is here by me and he can call me, also metaphorically, if he feels like.
As Oscar ( Bearwilde, of course) said
"Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes."
It means we shouldn't be too self-indulgent, since making mistakes is human, but repeating the same mistakes more than once, or, let me say, twice..., is a form of useless masochism.
If we are able to learn from our mistakes, at least all the troubles we have had because of them were not for nothing.
Oh, really I am so clever
that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.
16-AUG-2008
“To listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well”
When one has lived a long and interesting life as I have it’s not too difficult to get a treasure of various experiences, which one can use to become more open-minded and understanding.
Very often, my neighbours come to visit me for a talk, when they have a problem.
I won't presume to solve their troubles, but I can assure you that often they feel relieved after opening their hearts to me and then they can find their own way to come out from a hard moment.
After all a psychologist, in my humble opinion, is a person who asks you for an hefty fee to do for you what a friend does for free....
That is listening to you with attention.
One of the greatest ancestors of our family, Socratesbear, who lived in Greece many, many centuries ago, was an extraordinary philosopher, he was familiar with many wise men of his time and met another philosopher, called Socrates, who unluckily was forced to commit suicide (but this is another story).
Anyway (I apologize for rambling about, with age I have taken this bad habit) we were talking of my ancestor Socratesbear who had developed a method of philosophical search based on dialogue and listening.
He didn’t inculcate his own ideas in others’ minds, but simply helped them think out their own ideas. In a way, he taught them how to use their own brains to find their answers.
That is the best way to help people who feel unhappy with their life or confused.
There is no miracle recipe to make them feel instantaneously well again, but the gentle art of listening and the consequent analysis of their situation can really relieve them.
15-AUG-2008
The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls
My nephew Frimpong and I are very proud of our ancestors, who have given honour and distinction to our family.
I carefully keep all their memories and portraits, and my abode walls are covered with paintings.
Of course it’s a bit of work to keep all tidy and clean, but I do it with joy. Since I retired I have a lot of spare time, and my nephew is always absent, so busy with his trips.
Here I’m dusting an ancient photo of Oscar Bearwilde in the company of his great friend Oscar Wilde, the Irish writer.
The two Oscars got on very well with each other, both were real dandies and appreciated refined pleasures and had a great sense of humour and a gift for wittiness.
My Frimpong has inherited many of Oscar Bearwilde's features, among them his natural elegance and love for art and literature.
We know for sure from many old letters I have in one of my chests, that Oscar Bearwilde was in reality the author of many witty aphorisms which are commonly considered to be Oscar Wilde’s.
14-AUG-2008
We are all a bit artist in the family....
Do you know this old English song?
"Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do
I'm half crazy all for the love of you
It won't be a stylish marriage
I can't afford a carriage
But you'll look sweet upon the seat
Of a bicycle built for two "
I often played it to make little Frimpong fall asleep.
I have a bit or arthritis in my paws now, so I cannot play as marvellously as I could do once, but I’m sure that Frimpong will be glad to hear this tune again, where he is in this moment.
Oh, by the way it’s nearly superfluous to tell you that this song was composed by Harry Dacre (I called him Frank, but this is another story...) for me.
He was crazy for me and he wanted to marry me, but of course I refused.
He tried to write the lyrics, after writing the music, and originally they were
“Violet, Violet give me your answer do
I'm half crazy all for the love of you ...”
But my name was a bit too long and didn’t fit the meter, then I refused to marry him and he changed flower...from Violet to Daisy.
This is the real story of the song.