Monday, 10 November 2014

Wondering Where the Lions Are Blues: Monday, November 10th!

Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except the best. -Henry van Dyke, poet (1852-1933)
 
Hi Zircon! Trust you are well. Had, (October 28th), what I believe is some spam from you so thought I'd let you know that you might have a compromised address book. Just back from California this past Friday. Rosie the Riveter and Coat Hanger have been here since the 30th of October and are both well. We had a lovely dinner with them last night but no bridge yet. Fondestos from Cora lee. She is off shortly to do some painting at Heartwood. Cheers, Patrizzio!

Hi Pat, Not sure I need to re-up with Aunt Leah's, as they should have me on their list from last year, but please let Chloë know I'm interested.

Hi Marcus! Thanks very much! Will pass along to Chloë. Cheers, Patrizzio! 

Hi Chloë! Mark is willing to volunteer! Cheers, Dad! Perfect. Thanks D
 
Hi Michelle! Trust all goes well. Just back from California wine-tasting, cycling. Any chance of VWF interview clip?


Movember at it's best!!!

Yikes! Sorry about that! Will send it right after the show. What's your email?

Hi Michelle: Not a big deal. Sorry to bother you with your busy life! Email to follow. Thanks again. Cheers, Patrizzio!

Here you go!Thanks again for the chat, Patrick. All the best!  Michelle 

Sent! Sorry again for the delay, and no bother... By the looks of it, you're the one with the busy life:)

Thanks again for clip! Two more VWF events, Bruce Cockburn, tonight, and Alan Doyle on Thursday. Social merry-go-round continues. Cheers! 

[Does he use all of his allowance on razor blades?]

As the sun was shining I knew I needed to get outside and go for a ride, to take advantage of the sunshine while it lasted.  Didn't suit up and leave until 12:30 pm but it was a glorious day when I emerged. Not much of a wind and English Bay was almost flat with numerous freighters outlined against the horizon. I had decided that I'd go for a 100 km ride so that meant I needed to do 7 Prospect Hill Loops. Park was busier than I had expected but I suppose many people had taken the day off to make the weekend an extra long one.

Chloe Alexis Dunn

Heading into the hot tub with this view! Oh and some lovely white wine.
Anyway, I enjoyed being back on familiar turf and felt pretty good on each of the first four rounds but as I entered the parking lot at the bottom of the hill, I heard a distinct pop! My heart sank as I assumed I had lost a spoke. Nothing to do but touch the Dreaded Burning Ground and confirm my suspicion. Found the broken spoke and wrapped it around another one. Stats for ride before broken spoke:

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/630708634#.VGGjk8bPUAE.email 

Needed to release my back brakes as tire was out of true and I had difficulty pedaling.  As it was, wheel would rub on forks but I managed to limp home, via Burrard Bridge. Back by just after 3:00 pm. Stats for ride after broken spoke:

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/630708645#.VGGjyzkKHMY.email 

Cora Lee had car at Heartwood where she was painting with other volunteers. I wasn't sure when she would be back and I didn't want to interrupt her so I decided I'd have  shower and see if she was back by the time I was out. I wanted to take the bike into Westpoint Cycles. Knew they would probably be closed on Remembrance Day but hoped that if I could get it in they might be able to have if repaired by mid-day on Wednesday.

 As things turned out she was back when I emerged from shower so I was able to drop it off. Put some chicken in the oven before I left. Was back in little more than half an hour. Time enough to make a simple tomatoe and onion salad and zap a sweet potatoe in the microwave. Enjoyed the tasty meal in time to be ready for Glasgow at 6:30 pm. We had complimentary tickets to hear Bruce Cockburn at St Andrew's Wesley at 7:30 pm. Cora Lee was unable to go so I'd asked Matt to join me. We walked over to the Aquabus and hoofed it to the church in plenty of time to obtain very good seats, on the side. Coriandre and I had sat there to hear Louise Penny and the sound/line of sight were excellent.

Same turned out to be true for this event. Hal Wake interviewed Bruce and he did a wonderful job of framing questions, quintessential Hal. I knew next to nothing about Bruce except a passing familiarity with some of his better known songs. I must admit I do not own a copy of any of his CD's although I think I own a vinyl album. At any rate, I was deeply impressed with him. He is quite unassuming and very articulate, very well spoken. As he himself admitted he is not a person to speak in "sound bites" and all of his answers were thoughtful and as lengthy as the situation allowed. Much of what he said struck deep chords. In particular, he said that he learned the most about himself and life, in general, from the women around him at different stages of his life. His discussion of Christianity, (He considers himself a Christian.), and how his attitude to the religion and his beliefs in it or relationship to it changed over time were fascinating and refreshingly honest. 

He also spoke about how he writes his lyrics and the process he described was remarkably similar to many accounts given by numerous authors I heard at VWF a few weeks ago. Certainly pleased that I had the opportunity to listen to such a gifted individual yet someone who is nothing but genuinely modest, someone whose very qualifications and elucidations of the experiences and thoughts he has suggest they are not pronouncements for others to follow but rather struggles for self-knowledge, struggles we all must deal with as we learn to be human, learn to love. 

Brisk walk back to the foot of Hornby and the Aquabus was there at almost the same time as we were. Said goodbye to Glasgow at the entrance to the Market as his car was parked nearbye. Home by 9:30 am just in time to brush and floss before sitting down to watch the next episode of Blacklist! 

Hi everyone Its been awhile since I provided an update on our collective investment so here it goes..


Our Cask # 188 has now reached its third anniversary and technically it can now be properly referred to as a "whisky" as it continues to age and mature for two more years at Shelter Point. At that point it will be bottled at cask strength and upon the payment of all remaining excise & provincial taxes ( estimated at $ 250 from each of the 5% shareholders) it will be made available to us for distribution. We will have to provide instructions on our desired labeling.

To give you an idea of how things are going the distiller Patrick Evans forwarded us the attached copy of a recent nosing analysis conducted by a California lab on vatted samples of their three year old product. The cover letter stated " you really have something quite special developing with this whisky. I am very pleased with the overall health and maturation progress of the vatting components, although they do need to go through some oxidation cycles and lose some of the immature grain character. However, once they've lost some of that immature character, you are going to end up with a world-class, quite complex whisky. Very well done! "

The lab results very much confirm the summary of tasting notes collected from the SOWTS tasting of two cask samples held at our Sept 21 event which were forwarded to Shelter Point. One sample was extracted from an average of Casks #1-100 and the 2nd sample was drawn from an average of Cask # 101-160. Our SOWTS members were quite impressed with how both samples of this young whisky have developed to date and look forward to tasting the initial release of Shelter Point early next year.. 

I still have two "heels" remaining from the Sept 21st event along with a 375 ml bottle extracted from our own Cask # 188 in March 2014. I propose to host a small informal tasting event for members of our SOCOG caskowners group next Tuesday November 25th at 5:00 PM in the Amenity Room of Lakeshore Towers located adjacent to the entrance to Tower # 2 on Winnipeg Street. Please let me know via email who will attend and in the case of multiple owners sharing a 5% ownership holding  please let me know which designated taster can attend so I can ensure there are sufficient tasting glasses. Cheers, Kevin Ritcey





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