Chocolate Mint Swirl

A classical combination of flavours stylishly swirled together in a sophisticated dessert perfect for special occasions

½pint/300ml double cream

¼pint/150 ml creamy fromage frais

1oz/25g icing sugar

1 tbsp crème de menthe

6oz/175g dark chocolate

Chocolate, to decorate

Place the cream in a large mixing bowl and whisk until standing in soft peaks

Fold in the fromage frais and icing sugar, then place about one-third of the mixture in a smaller bowl. Stir the crème de menthe into the smaller bowl. Melt the dark chocolate and stir into the remaining mixture

Place alternating spoonfuls of the two mixtures into serving glasses, then swirl the mixture together to give a decorative effect. Leave to chill until required.

To make the piped chocolate decorations, melt a small amount of chocolate and place in a piping bag.

Place a sheet of baking parchment on a board and pip squiggles, stars or flowers with the melted chocolate. Leave the chocolate to set then carefully remove from the parchment.

Decorate each dessert with piped chocolate decorations and serve.

Next Time: Chocolate Hazelnut Pots

Call of the Wilderness

Curbar Edge by Les Wilcockson

Brief conversations in wild arias sung in ancient voices where grass and heather whisper the echoes of the wind on the horizon.

The lothario lover used to stand on that rock recalled heather aromatically

Even stone can smile in thoughts of love when the young alpha chased his damsel for a kiss.

Their pups would frolic in twilight, their play watched only by the wild hills grass murmured in its memory

And the stone sighed, recalling the coming of Man in a stench of death and extinction.

Winds howled, their sorrow too much to bear

Yet ears that do not listen only hear silence.

© JG Farmer 2013

Prompt: http://theboipoet.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/words-at-weekend-12-13-october.html

Muse to the Music 14 November

The idea of these challenges is to use the given prompts to create a piece of flash fiction (100-500 words) or a poem

The prompt for this challenge is a piece of music, the idea being to share where the music takes you.

This week’s piece is: Himalaya by Malcolm Brown

If you use this prompt please link back

Classical Piece of the Day 14 November: Christoph Bernhard, Aaron Copland and Yiannis Hryssomallis

A triple bill, starting with the death of the German composer Christoph Bernhard on this day in 1692. The first video is Bernhard’s Aus der Tiefe sung by Veronika Winter with the Kleine Konzert Orchestra under the baton Hermann Max

On this day in 1900 the American composer Aaron Copland was born. The second clip is Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, a piece composed as a homage to the common man premiered on the 31 March 1943, income tax time.

On this day in 1954 the Greek pianist and composer Yiannis Hryssomallis was born. Better known as Yanni the final clip is the composer and his orchestra performing Rainmaker at the Acropolis.

Haiku

ancient thoughts rising

into the warming sunset

of dark frontiers

© JG Farmer 2013

Whimsical Wednesday 13 November

The idea of these challenges is to use the given prompts to create a piece of flash fiction (100-500 words) or a poem

As a poet I read a lot of poetry and some more on top. I also find one line taken out of context can lead to a whole new dimension of creativity. The idea of this challenge therefore is to create what comes to mind from lines of poetry.

This week’s lines of poetry are:

• discussing the eternity of art in that Sardinian restaurant – Quite Frankly by Mark Halliday

• dark and mysterious like a song only time can sing – Ode to Lil' Kim in Florence by Barbara Hamby

• But the watchman over an abandoned mine – Found Poem by Howard Nemerov

If you use this prompt please link back

Classical Piece of the Day 13 November: Gioachino Antonio Rossini

On this day 1868 the Italian composer Gioachino Antonio Rossini died. The video is Rossini’s William Tell Overture performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker under the direction of Robert von Karajan

Haiku

metal and leather

thunder in the distance

high speed rebellion

© JG Farmer 2013

Classical Piece of the Day 12 November: Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin

On this day in 1833 the Russian composer Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin was born. The video is Borodin’s String Quartet No.1 performed by the Moscow String Quartet

Tuesday’s Thinking 12 November

The idea of these challenges is to use the given prompts to create a piece of flash fiction (100-500 words) or a poem

Today’s prompt is:

What scares you most about travelling alone?

If you post a write from the prompt, please post a link in comments or pingback

Haiku

still pools reflect

upon a floating bloom

then fade in ripples

© JG Farmer 2013

Classical Piece of the Day 11 November: Andrea Teodoro Zani

On this day in 1696 the Italian violinist and composer Andrea Teodoro Zani was born. The clip is Zani’s Concerto da chiesa a quattro in A minor performed by Compagnia de' Musici

Monday’s Masterpiece 11 November

The idea of these challenges is to use the given prompts to create a piece of flash fiction (100-500 words) or a poem

Today’s challenge is to take inspiration from a work of art and write from it.

The masterpiece choice for today is:

Dark Night of the Soul by Alana Lake

View more of  Alana's work at:

https://www.artfinder.com/artist/alana-lake/

Please leave a link in comments or pingback if you join in the challenge

Haiku

lost hues

captured in crystalline

and the mind’s gone

© JG Farmer 2013

Classical Piece of the Day 10 November: François Couperin and Ennio Morricone

A double feature today with the birthdays of two composers.

In 1668 the French composer François Couperin was born. The first video is Couperin’s Les Lis naissans .

In 1928 the Italian composer Ennio Morricone was born. The second clip is Morricone conducting the performance of his Theme for the film The Mission

Summer

I watched you chase the shadows out to sea
while we played in borrowed time
against the odds we felt the summer sun
in those hazy days we thought we had won
the prize of life
of love
I heard your laughter trip across the waves
and dared to dream the impossible
unable to face the inevitable
saying goodbye
but it came anyway
so now I treasure those summer days
precious and free
when I held you
and you loved me.

© JG Farmer 2013

Dedication:

For my beautiful Gabbie
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Interpretations

Thoughts of love in random images
displaced yet making sense
in the randomness of dreams
a touch
a word
but are they the same
and what do they mean?

Deepest terror in a wedding dress
as the heart leaps from joy to fear
and a kiss becomes the venomous bite
of love
and hate?

Complex confusions
as opposites interact in chaos
and the mind jumps to another dimension
where all is lost in waking up



© JG Farmer 2013

No Reason

Black eyes crowded in mystery shield the magical imaginations of an old man. Each furrowed line of his ancient skin a different path in his destiny of transformation.

Alchemy is an odd thing he mused for no reason in particular, since no one cared to listen.

Oh he knew they heard him and how they assumed he was just a wittering old man. The higher perceptions of the old ways were no use to them with their smart shiny computers. 

A harmless old man practicing a long dead craft, he couldn't hurt a fly they said.

Arcane wisdoms whispered into the wind just an old man’s mutterings but how they wailed when the power went down for no reason in particular.

© JG Farmer 2013

Inspired by: 

http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.com/2013/11/trifecta-week-102.html

Elegy for Himself by Chidiock Tichborne (1558-1586)

written in the tower before his execution

Chidiock wrote this the night before he was executed for treason as a Roman Catholic, to write so eloquently under such circumstances amazes me. He was 28 years old.

My prime of youth is but a frost of cares;
My feast of joy is but a dish of pain;
My crop of corn is but a field of tares;
And all my good is but vain hope of gain:
The day is past, and yet saw no sun;
And now I live, and now my life is done.

My tale was heard, and yet it was not told;
My fruit is fall’n, and yet my leaves are green;
My youth is spent, and yet I am not old;
I saw the world, and yet I was not seen:
My thread is cut, and yet it is not spun;
And now I live, and now my life is done.

I sought my death, and found it in my womb;
I looked for life, and saw it was a shade;
I trod the earth, and knew it was my tomb;
And now I die, and now I was but made;
My glass is full, and now my glass is run;
And now I live, and now my life is done.


Chidiock Tichborne

Haiku

whispering blades

lost in the mowing of men

silence remembers

© JG Farmer 2013


Inspired by: