Jocelyn Morlock & Rodney Sharman

A long time ago Andrés Segovia played a concert at the Orpheum. My young daughter, not yet a teenager was studying the guitar. I took her to the concert.

When the concert was over I told her to open the door on the left, near the stage, and to go and see Segovia. This she did. Segovia explained to her(in his lovely Spanish) that he had not said a word during his concert because he had a cold and could barely speak. He gave my daughter a hug. My daughter to this day plays the guitar and is a good sight reader.

For me that my daughter was able to see the great man without any security prohibitions at the time, was somehow one of the charms of a city that was not too big for its britches.

To this day, even though our city has grown, access to musicians in classical music or new music venues, is a given.

William Rowson - VSO Assistant  Conductor

For a while the Stalag guards at the Chan Centre prevented us from going back stage to chat with our musician friends. They have given up! And access is not denied.

What all this means is that going to concerts in Vancouver is a warm and personal endeavour where one is not separated by barriers except for that important one (for me!) where musicians can do that unfathomable task of being able to read music. But they all put on their pants, one leg at a time.

I have many friends in the musical community of the city and I have had many a privilege when going back stage for chats. One privilege I must boast about is that during a rehearsal of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra at St. James on 10^th Avenue, I was allowed by violinist and then Musical Director Marc Destrubé to lie on the floor under the harpsichord for the duration.

And there was this most unusual one!

And so last Saturday, May 18 I knew I could not miss Jocelyn Morlock’s (Composer in Residence at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra for five years) swan song performance at the Orpheum Annex.

The Orpheum Annex and the nearby Pyatt Hall represent the future of classical and new music in our city.

My blog on the Orpheum Annex & Pyatt Hall

These two venues are smaller and can adapt to all kinds of configuration and are ready for connection with any kind of complex electronic/digital music. The Annex has a small bar and foyer where more often than not you can hobnob with our city’s musicians.

Composer and digital guru Keith Hamil - necessary for the performance of Korndorff's Amoroso

On Saturday, before the concert, I was able to snap a photo (took many as the two were quite demanding) of both Morlock and a previous Composer in Residence, Rodney Sharman.

The concert featured two Sherlock compositions, Zart and Icarus, landing. It also lined up some music by a couple of composers who influenced and inspired her. One was Mozart’s Serenade No.10 for winds in B-flat Major, K. 361/370a III Adagio. The other was Nicolai Kondorf’s Amoroso. Who was to know that this Russian composer lived at one time in Burnaby and taught Morlock?

The orchestra was a small one featuring musicians from the VSO who got the short straw (they lucked out!) and did not have to play a big concert at the Chan on the same day.

One of the musicians, was a retiree from the VSO. This was harpist Elizabeth Volpé. Amoroso featured interesting and repetitive chords for her harp.

I was most happy to see my favourite VSO violinist, the dashing, lovely and redhaired Karen Gerbrecht.

Also in the orchestra was VSO violist Andrew Brown (the most handsome violist in town!).

At the interval I walked into backstage (nobody stopped me) and I had a chat with Gerbrecht.

It was explained to us that the position of Composer in Residence is not to promote the career of the composer (which probably does occur anyway) but to keep the VSO musicians on their toes with music that is brand new and may push the boundaries of musical conventions.

I am sure that after five years, Morlock wil not have any problem obtaining commissions and that both she and Sharman (born in Biggar, Saskatchewan) will go to bigger stuff.

Morlock's signaturer footware

My sister-in-law Ruth Brooks is in town for week’s visit. She came by train from Brockville, Ontario. The visit of a relative always provides us with the excuse of a family dinner. This time it was at our younger daughter’s house in Burnaby. It was a splendid occasion to celebrate 3 mothers' day.

I packed a portable lighting system in the trunk hoping to lure my two granddaughters, Lauren, 16, and Rebecca, 21 to pose after a group family photograph. I crossed my fingers and in the end the two did pose for me.

These family gatherings, as small as they may be bring me memories of gatherings in Buenos Aires with that ancillary branch of my father’s, the O’Reilys. There are lots of them and Rosemary and I are made welcome.

The two of us and our two cats in Kitsilano can be isolating sometimes.

Our Burnaby dinner was just right and driving home I felt glad that the granddaughters did consent to a few pictures.

Rosa 'James Mason' May 11 2019

You find a beautiful and rare rose at a nursery. You pay for it and put it into your car. For me it is almost guaranteed that damage will happen in the car trunk or in the back seat. A carefully grown and tended rose suffers on its way home.

We are preparing our little deck garden (and laneway garden) for a Vancouver Rose Society open garden on June 8. In these preparations of snipping black spot leaves or moving one of our plants from here to there, there are little accidents.

One such accident happened when I tried to tie back a very large modern Gallica, Rosa ‘James Mason’. It was falling over onto the deck from its narrow flower bed. A but broke off and I was about to throw it away when I noticed (something that I do know about) how handsome and elegant the unopened bud is.

We have been in Vancouver now a couple of months since we returned from our trip to Italy.

I have since experienced  malaise/weltschmerz/ennui/ with a generous touch of melancholy with a desire to do nothing and stare at the ceiling or at our two cats Niño and Niña.

My sister-in-law Ruth is arriving tomorrow via train from Ontario. Rosemary and I have been busy with a double spring cleaning in preparation for her one week stay.

In the middle of this pleasantly gentle turmoil, I have found comfort in the “I-am-here” stability of an Ikea solar lamp. Every evening it is a beacon in our garden that makes me smile. And consider that I spent $9. The other calming factor is Niño.

I am sure he would make an excellent hospital cat. I look at him and my stress dissipates. Both he and Niña must have never been faced with turmoil, fear or aggression. They don’t scratch, except the leather sofa that is now protected by a Hudson’s Bay wool blanket. They just stare.

They are not mal ojo but buen ojo. Could they be in cahoots with my Ikea lamp?

A Quonset hut /ˈkwɒnsɪt/ is a lightweight prefabricated structure of corrugated galvanized steel having a semicircular cross-section. The design was developed in the United States, based on the Nissen hut introduced by the British during World War I. Hundreds of thousands were produced during World War II and military surplus was sold to the public. The name comes from the site of their first manufacture at Quonset Point at the Davisville Naval Construction Battalion Center in Davisville, Rhode Island.

Wikipedia

Before Malcolm Parry left Vancouver Magazine I proposed to him that we do a story about the Quonset huts in Vancouver. Being English he corrected me and told me that the British had developed them in WW I. The story never came to fruition.

Today I went to pick up some glass on East Hastings. Half a block away is a Quonset hut that I have seen there for years. I could not resist snapping a photograph. I wonder with the hundreds of thousands of them that were built during and after WW II if these buildings could not be adapted as temporary shelter for the Vancouver homeless or even be adapted as quick and affordable homes for the very low income inhabitants of our city

Incredibly there are at least a couple of companies in Canada that manufacture Quonsets and variations of them.

Rosa sericea ssp. omeiensis f. pteracantha May 1 2019

The beginning of May is always that month when one goes to one’s garden there are surprises that seemed to have happened overnight. This is especially true with my hostas as they unfurl quickly with the warmish few weeks of spring sun.

But I must report that the biggest surprise today was seeing Rosa sericea ssp. Omeiensis f. pteracantha. It is then officially the first rose to bloom in my garden.

This species rose is unusual in two ways. It is the only one with four petals instead of the five found in all other species. The other unusual feature is that as the rose matures it has huge, translucent barbs that dazzle the eyes when seen in backlight.

I might have missed the blooming as the rose is in my alley/garage garden. Some five years ago I had a mature one but it died suddenly in the middle of the summer. My Rosemary tried to find it in many mail-order sites but to no avail. I found it last year at Garden Works in North Vancouver.

My original plant was used for a program for Early Music Vancouver in 2014.

It is nice to have her back.

She was first some years back Winged Dinosaur

Today, April 28 is the yearly plant sale at VanDusen Botanical Garden. For many years Rosemary and I braved the usual cold of the day and we would line up hours before the opening at 10:30. We would be there with a wheelbarrow, sipping coffee to keep warm. If asked what plants we were looking for we would be noncommittal as we did not want anybody on the line-up to rush and get our treasured plant. For quite a few years, Rosemary chose to help on that day as she is a Master Gardener. This gave her access to look at what was available on the day before.

Today I dropped and her off and rushed home. Our male cat, Niño, had not returned (he has yet to return as write this).

The VanDusen plant sale is full of memories for me. There was the excitement of finding the plant I was looking for or being exposed to a plant I knew nothing about.

Most of all my memories are full of the people who were there helping gardeners with information.

And then there was Marion McDonnell (pronounced with emphasis on that e). She was the Blue Poppy Lady. Every Meconopsis grandis or betonicifolia (they are just about identical) usually called the Himalayan (snobs put emphasis on that first a) blue poppy came from her greenhouse. The plant, legendary for its blueness, likes dappled shade but it was notorious as an almost impossible plant to keep after a first year. Some said it was a biannual so a new plant had to be raised from seed.

I told Rosemary to see if she could find a Meconopsis today.

McDonnell was in charge of taking people (elderly or folks unable to walk) in carts and giving them tours of VanDusen.

On spring and summer weekends I would visit her (unnanouced). She did not live far from our Kerrisdale home. Her garden was something like a bowling alley, narrow and long. In the garden you would always find Gretchen her Daschund at the gate. McDonnell would then loudly say (with her baritone voice),”How are you my friend?” She would offer me her excellent coffee and cookies.

There were many others like her at those VanDusen plant sales. One person that stood out for me was running into architect Arthur Erickson with a smile of excitement on his face. He was keen on the plant chase.

To this day I can look at the plants in our Kerrisdale garden and know where it came from. In many of those instances I can see the face of the person who handed it to me followed by sage advice on how to grow it and keep it.

Niño just sauntered in.