Last week we had the great pleasure of seeing Midsummer Night’s Dream (yes, the play by Shakespeare) in Rutgers Gardens. The play was low budget with wonderful acting, simple modern summer clothes for costumes, and a Starbucks cup was a prop. I am not sure which character was which, but the above female whom I think played a male was the first actor on the stage. The first scene was outside the log cabin. We the audience had to move around with the actors from scene to scene within Rutgers Gardens. It seemed OK at first, but by our tenth time moving, it was a little bit too much up and down. I went with my daughter who had never seen Shakespeare before. I think she might enjoy the kind where you sit in one spot, and the actors wear costumes. When I grew up in a Boston suburb, we used to watch Shakespeare plays by the Charles River (I remember The Tempest, for example). And when my husband lived in Manhattan, he had the opportunity to see Shakespeare in the park.
This is from the first scene – I am fairly sure the woman on the right is the Duke. The guy in the back is Lysander (the other main male lead was Demetrius – I get the two confused. One was in love with Hermia, and the other was loved by her). My daughter was even more confused – she had no idea what was going on at all. But she was happy to see one of her theater friends there. She said everyone was laughing at certain parts, and she did not know why. We figured some of the audience knew the play well (one of my friends did), and others like us were fairly clueless.
This actor was Nick Bottom. I enjoyed his antics. I think he was supposed to be putting on a play within a play. We never got to see the end of this production because it started to thunder and lightning at the end. But we did see a lot.
The actress on the left is Hermia (note the Starbucks cup). The one in the blue who is on her knees is Helena. And in the back is much of the audience!
Here is the Queen of the Fairies (Titania).
On the left is the fairy Puck (he causes a lot of trouble, putting people to sleep and having them fall in love with the wrong people). On the right is the King of the Fairies. I am pretty sure that is a woman dressed like a man.
Here is Puck, who causes (or seems to) a lot of the mix ups and inconveniences. Spraying fairy dust is a dangerous art form.
I believe Puck is one who turns Nick Bottom (above) into a donkey. That’s a pretty good donkey, isn’t it?
This is the finally scene we were able to see. After this, it started to rain. Soon came thunder and lightning. Hermia (the one with a Starbucks cup who is in love with Lysander and loved by Demetrius) is on the left; and Oberon, King of the Fairies, is on the right. I had to use my flash on my camera because it was getting dark.
Can you hear the band playing? This band was marching in the parade down Rue Ste. Catherine in Montreal on Canada Day. We had a great time watching the parade, although we left when it started to pour. Hope to post more pictures soon of the parade.
1 cup strawberries or blueberries (or try some other berries or fruit)
1 cup raw cashews or macadamia nuts
1 pinch of sea salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 Tbsp. maple syrup or honey (or to taste)
Soak the nuts for about 4 hours and drain. Blend all ingredients using food processor or blender until creamy and smooth. Serve immediately or chill. The original recipe suggests adding a little water, soymilk, or almond milk to facilitate blending if needed (I didn’t do this).
I’ve made this twice with blueberries (original recipe called for blueberries) and once last week with strawberries, as pictured.
Update in 2015: I made this again – it was delicious. This time I used frozen strawberries. Because they were frozen, my food processor took a long time to get them pureed. I then added some oat milk – that helped a lot with the pureeing process. I forgot the sea salt – I have no idea why they are in original recipe. I will ask Klara. And this time even my daughter liked this dessert – she has plans to serve it in beautiful wine glass topped with real fruit and bits of cereal (I will definitely skip that last one for me). Update on wine glasses: too tall. Next time we will try yahrzeit glasses (small little glasses of which we own an abundance). Note: the little glasses (we used yahrzeit glasses worked). Tip on using frozen fruit: let it defrost for about twenty minutes or more … that will help making the blending easier.
Last week my daughter performed in a show: Annie, Jr. at the Highland Park High School in Highland Park, New Jersey. She had the role of Miss Hannigan who runs an orphanage filled with girls. Does she like her job? No. I have to say I never cared much for the story of Annie: too sappy. But as I now see it from the point of view of Miss Hannigan, I enjoy it much more. She clearly is totally in the wrong, wrong role in life. Of course, just because she’s miserable, why should she have to be so nasty to everyone else as well? She is pretty darn funny – she probably should have been a comedian.
A favorite line:
Some women are drippin’ with diamonds / Some women are drippin’ with pearls / Lucky me, lucky me, look at what I’m drippin’ with / Little girls!
The day of the show I figured out how to use the movie mode on my camera. Maybe by the next show I will use a tripod, but I did manage to get six videos online. With my middle son’s help, I put them on YouTube in a playlist: Annie, Jr. – HPYTC 5/14/15.
I had hoped to do more watercolors, but the show got in the way. The holiday of Shavuot is coming this weekend: best wishes to all that celebrate. One week later is the Israel Day Parade in New York City. After that, a special wedding of someone who I’ve known since she was one. It’s nice to have many celebrations, but I like time to do creative work, too.
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What do you think of the Miss Hannigan character? Does she have your sympathy at all? Or perhaps she bothers you a lot? Regarding video, have you done any videotaping? How have you gotten better at this task? Do you have a YouTube channel?
Every year in early May there is a wonderful plant sale at Rutgers Gardens. I went with a friend on Friday and met another friend there. I bought: snapdragons, petunias, Rutgers tomato plants (I’ve been growing those for the past few years – not too big, not too small, and they are developed at Rutgers!), two kinds of rosemary and some broccoli plants. Here’s to praying that the broccoli plants do not get eaten by a ground hog or by deer. A friend sent a link to wolf urine packs – should I try those? Another idea was sticking garlic near them. We shall see. One friend bought swiss chard and eggplant; another friend purchased a variety of cilantro. All the plants at the sale are top quality. Last year I bought a hydrangea plant – the leaves got eaten by a deer before it flowered, but happily this year despite being only sticks in the winter it is now full of green leaves again.
Here is one of the snapdragon plants now in front of my house. I got a mix of yellow and magenta/pink snapdragons.
My petunias are now planted in a sunny corner of my yard, at the edge of the sidewalk and the driveway.
This tulip is growing in front of my porch. No, I did not get at the Rutgers Plant Sale, nor did I plant it last fall. The tulips that are growing on my block seem to be the ones that survived being eaten up by deer.
Finally, my strawberry plants (which I planted about ten years ago?) have those white flowers. Next step: juicy red strawberries! No more hunting for half decent organic strawberries in the store. For two weeks, we get a marvelous treat. Must make sure to pick them – last year we were too busy and neglected to pick the last bunch (they turned to mush on the plant).
Good news! I got my watercolor paints out again today (they’ve been away in the closet far too long). I did a quick painting of my garden using an exercise from One Watercolor a Day. Soon enough, I will have a watercolor that I will post on this blog. Stay tuned!
