Scandinavian Cyber-Posten

Welcome to the Scandinavian Cyber-Posten!

The Scandinavian Cyber-Posten is my blog for the band. Ever since I started reading The Machine's Pump on the Brave Combo website I've wanted my own blog. After all, I'm a creative and intelligent person and I have thoughts on a lot of things. Here's a place where you can read what I think about a variety of topics. I hope you enjoy what you read. If you have any feedback on what I've written, email me at toby@smilinscandinavians.com

Sunday, July 13

Summertime, and the livin' is easy...

Greetings, Scandinavian Fans!

Summer is indeed here in the Pacific Northwest and I'm living the good life. My wife and I
put a container garden in our yard along the driveway. We used old abandoned tires to make the containers. That keeps tires out of the landfill. The black rubber of the tires keeps the dirt warm which helps the plants grow. It's doubly good.

In those containers we have planted several different kinds of tomatoes (beefsteak, cherry, brandywine, san marzano, juliet), green peppers, cucumbers, onions, Brussels sprouts, zucchini, sunburst squash, carrots, lettuce, peas and beans. We also have an herb garden with basil, chives, spearmint, oregano and a bunch of other stuff I always forget.

The vegetables are just starting to form. There are some good tomatoes on the vine, one of which is starting to ripen, and the peppers are just starting to form. Those are the closest things to being ready. The herbs, however, are ready and are getting heavy usage in our kitchen. My wife Danna has been using them for almost every meal. In the last few weeks she's made chicken parmesan, chicken Kiev, chili con carne, cornbread, pulled pork sandwiches with fresh-baked buns, barbecue roasted chicken and smoked pork roast– and those are just the meals I can remember at this moment. All of the food has been amazing. It's like living on the Food Network.

Good food is, to me, one of the greatest joys of life. Food is sustenance but it's also art. It's a way to show caring and love and my wife has all of that in spades. To say that she's a skilled chef is an understatement. She's amazing. She can bake, cook and can all with superb facility. Just before the 4th of July we bought some fresh Puyallup valley strawberries and she made some of the most flavorful canned strawberry preserves. All of this high-end food makes every day a culinary adventure. I look forward to what we're going to eat each evening.

We haven't played much music recently. From Memorial Day to mid-July we haven't had any gigs. The break has been nice. Don't get me wrong– I love playing with the band. However, it's nice to get away from some of the pressure of going to gigs and getting music and set lists together for each performance. It's relaxing to get away from that for a while.

So what was I doing if I wasn't playing music? Well, I was playing music, just not with the band. For part of the time I was playing solo gigs. For part of it I was judging the accordion competition in Leavenworth. For part of the time I was at the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Grand Lodge session. As a Past Grand Patriarch (I look great in a fez!) it's important for me to participate in the session. Participation means bringing the accordion and playing a lot of music, everything from the ceremonial music during the session to entertaining at the banquet to just playing a few tunes during the breaks.

Now, however, the band is back to work and I'm seriously starting to think about doing more recording. We've done some live tracks at a couple of our gigs but we haven't reviewed all of that material yet. I'm leaning toward another studio album; there are a lot of things I'd like to record and get absolutely perfect. I can focus in the studio in a way I can't on the job. I'd like to do a really well-polished studio recording where I can show off my skills.

In the meantime, I have some tomatoes to tend to. Enjoy your summer!

--------------------

Archives

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?