Monthly Archives: December 2011

New Year Stuff

31 Saturday Dec 2011

Posted by in Friends, Oonah in Fact

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Of course everybody does this but maybe it’s not such a bad idea to review the year a little bit – not too much in my case because I get maudlin – friends gone – my little cat too… BooHooHoo – You get the general idea.

On the other hand; old friendships renewed and I made some new friends in 2011.

I suppose my main breakthroughs this year were the publication of Every Day Poets Anthology ONE and my reprise of reading poetry for an audience – plus at a SLAM no less (I didn’t even know what a slam was this time last year…) and several local venues and on You Tube. I had Poem of the Month in Diamond Twig in April. I got my work into 3 Quarterly Reviews at BwS again, I helped judge Microhorror again and I won my second Binnacle Shorts Prize for prose poem “Death of the Father.”

There is much to look forward to in 2012. Every Day Poets Anthology TWO is in process. I hope to meet my co-editor in person before the year is out as well as other colleagues and friends from my cyberlife – my Parallel Oonahverse. I have joined a gym and I will lose this weight and hope to be fitter on Dec 31st 2012 than I can claim to be at present.

Thank you to all my friends everywhere for your support despite the fact that you know me.

Keep writing, reading, smiling and
STAY SCARY!

December 2011 Reading

26 Monday Dec 2011

Posted by in Friends, Oonah's Poetry, Oonah's World of Fiction

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My Measuring Stick – some things shadow our lives. It’s only when we confront them that we can recognise that perhaps we give the past more importance than it deserves. To see the photo that inspired this story go here.

In Apollo’s Lyre for the first time this month and so is my friend John Ritchie so check out both stories

http://apollos-lyre.tripod.com/id345.html

http://apollos-lyre.tripod.com/id348.html

Now update yourself with the rest of my Christmas reads:

At The Linnet’s Wings, which is a superb mag based in the auld country, I have a little story that might bring back memories of Christmas past and I don’t think mine were the only parents who found this solution to the problems of Christmas Eve. Can you finish the logo? – I’d Love a…

Crumpled Note is up today at Postcardshorts and I notice that there a couple by my friend Sandra Crooks too so do go and have a read st that site – each story is post card length but they are little gems (if I say so myself).

Elf Day Santa embraced capitalism along with the whole commercial ethos in the C20th – to the detriment of his “elf” it seems 😉 Nathan tells me this is my 72nd Microhorror and one of his favourites thus far. My husband laughed – hopes I haver ordered pork for Christmas Day.

A Final Seal – poem at Bewildering Stories

Next up, a little unexpectedly, this very short short in Postcardshorts Public Transport You know the scenario – it a familiar one. So glad to be in this little gem of a writing site for the first time.

Department Store  Friends who have been out with me know that I hate shops unless they are on the High Street – and I loath Department Stores and Shopping Malls because I have no sense of direction. I get lost and panic. Once, having passed the same rail of dresses in Fenwicks in Newcastle for the 4th time, I asked a total stranger how to get out of there… I was within sight of the exit but it led into an arcade and so I couldn’t see the difference. “Just past those hats” – she said. Another time I was on the wrong floor but I couldn’t find the escalator. I’m the kind of person whom store detectives watch and assistants ask if I need any help – I always look a bit lost I suppose or up to something – looking around me to try to ascertain where I am. And have you ever walked into one of those damned mirrors they use to confuse the hell out of you? Well maybe it just seems that way… I have. Bump – sorry madam – oh! it’s me! 😦 Nuff said.

In this week too are my Writewords friends, Sandra Crooks and David Harper – well done you two! What a romantic pair you are ;).

Don’t forget to read these too
http://www.everydayfiction.com/biting-the-hand-that-feeds-you-by-sandra-crook/

http://www.everydaypoets.com/believers-ground-by-james-graham

’tis the season for Friends, old and new

21 Wednesday Dec 2011

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What’s great about Christmas is that sometimes friends decide to pay a visit and this year has been a really good one in that respect for us. So far we have had visits from cousins, local friends and today, the icing on the cake mon ancien professeur de français (he’s not really that old) and his lovely wife Isabel. Lots of chat and memories and food and a wee nip of something homemade to warm the cockles – spiced chai tea 🙂 On the menu today, Old Bay Chicken thighs, cheese and potato whirls, sausage rolls, shortbreads, 15’s and mince pies Yummmmmmmmmmmy


Trevor and Isabel

More visitors after Christmas – I’m looking forward to it.

Hope you are all having a great time with your friends and family too.

Vegetarian Christmas • Brazil Nut Roast en Croute

13 Tuesday Dec 2011

Posted by in Foodyverse

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This delicious roast comes from Rose Eliot’s Vegetarian Cookbook and it serves 8 people. Accompany it with vegetarian gravy (recipe to follow) sprouts, cauliflower, roasted root vegetables, shallots and peppers, and in fact if you want you can use non-vegetarian accompaniements for other guests – stuffed bacon curls, chipolattas etc. Cranberry or redcurrnat sauce also go well.

Brazil Nut Roast en Croûte

Buy 1lb puff pastry
Beaten egg to glaze – optional
Preheat oven to 200c

For the Nut Roast
2 lge onions (I add 2 cloves garlic as well )
2 oz butter
1lb brazil nuts ground or finely chopped (I like them with a bit of bite left)
8oz fresh breadcrumbs (can be wholemeal)
½ tsp thyme
3tbs lemon juice
2 eggs (optional) (but it does help bind!)
A good pinch each grated nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon (½ tsp of each) )
Salt and ground black pepper to taste (it needs a fair bit)
For the Stuffing
8oz white bread crumbs
1 oz chopped parsley
Grated rind of 1 lemon
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp each thyme and marjoram (I prefer thyme and sage)
1 tbsp grated onion (I use half a chopped onion)
3 oz butter
Season to taste

To Make Nut Roast
Fry onion in the butter for 10 mins ‘til soft not brown
Remove from heat and Add the rest of the nut roast ingredients
Season and taste.
To Make stuffing
Mix everything together and season to taste. (It has to hold together so I mash it with my hands.)
To Assemble
Roll out the pastry to about 12 x 15 inch rectangle. Advice – roll it on a piece of parchment paper otherwise when you start putting the fillings in and you have to move the thing… you know like trying to move a pizza after putting the topping on??? Heehee!
1. Form the stuffing into a sausage shape 10 inches long and place down the centre.
2. Pile the nut roast over the top of the stuffing covering it.
3. Wet the edge of the pastry. Fold the pastry up sides and ends to enclose the ingredients completely and seal using water or beaten egg. Lift your pastry parcel onto a baking sheet (I use a roasting tin) folds underneath.
4. Mark a lattice on the top.
5. Make two steam holes.
6. Brush with beaten egg.
7. Bake 30 – 40 minutes until crisp and golden.

Gravy

Saute an onion, a piece of celery stalk finely chopped and a garlic clove in butter or olive oil ’til really tender. Add a dessert spoonful of flour and stir. Gradually pour in 400/500 mls of liquid (depends how thick you like your gravy) made up with a vegetable stock cube and two tsp dark soy and a tsp tomato puree. Place back on the heat and stir until thickens and browns.

Pantoum for the present

08 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by in Oonah's Poetry

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Pantoums follow a specific pattern of repetitions and  therefore come back to their beginning so they suit contemplative verse. This is one I composed recently.

If ever

There was a star
perhaps a comet
but that was a long time ago
in a land without winter snow.

Perhaps a comet
sang hallelujah and shone out hope for all
in a land without winter snow;
without even a shopping mall

sang hallelujah and shone out hope for all.
They sold the poor the tale of an oxen stall
without even a shopping mall
throughout history to keep us humble.

They sold the poor the tale of an oxen stall.
We bought it shit and all and they got rich
throughout history to keep us humble.
It’s time for a switch now if ever.

We bought it shit and all and they got rich.
He said, Give to the poor. He’d say
It’s time for a switch now if ever
there was a star.

© Oonah V Joslin 2011

Nostalgia for all things Christmassy

02 Friday Dec 2011

Posted by in Oonah in Fact, Oonah's Poetry, Oonah's World of Fiction

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December 1971 Can you spot little Oonah Kyle amongst this angelic choral throng? Yes I am there.

Ballymena Academy Senior Girls' Choir

That gentleman in the back row was Mr Thomas Greenwood, a Cambridge graduate and much feared and reviled Latin Master. He devoted endless time to training us not only to sing but to annunciate. He came from Culleybackey himself, but you’d never have known that when he spoke. And whilst I know other students detested him, and despite the fact that I was no Latin scholar, I really adored the man. His erudition and dedication were unquestionable and I admired those qualities.

He used to sneak in at French Society meetings if my sister Esme came to sing (she was at adifferent school but her singing was always welcomed everywhere) and he told me I was the only true contralto in the choir. I was certainly the only one who could reach the bottom note in Benjamin Britten’s “Ceremony of Carols”, which is what we had spent all term learning for this particular concert. And I learned an appreciation for Britten from that experience that I do not think I could have come to in any other way than by singing his work. It’s levels of difficulty in both range and rhythm make Britten’s work extremely rewarding to sing. ‘This litle Babe’ was the piece I found most challengeing because it’s so very quick and one has to sing against the other parts not with them – it took such concentration!

I listen to “A Ceremony of Carols” every Christmas and I can still sing along to some of it, even now.

This December I am in Bewildering Stories, Apollo’s Lyre, The Linnet’s Wings and Every Day Fiction where I took the Boxing Day slot and colleague Sandra Crooks has Christmas Day. I’ll place links as they come up.

Join us a EDP every day too – we have some great poems this month.