![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
bardics, baking, sewing, and solving problems
When the car didn't start in the -30 C temps on Thursday I didn't worry about it--it was my own fault for not having changed the timer on the engine heater to run for longer than usual that morning. Therefore I changed the timer so that the engine heater would have more hours to run on Friday before I tried. Sadly, that turned out to not work either, and I drained the battery trying to start it (it got close to starting, which is why I kept trying).
At that point it felt like an easy problem to solve--just get the battery charger from the basement. However, I didn't know that the car I bought last month doesn't come with a lever inside to open the hood--instead there is a key hole under the logo. Or, rather, there is supposed to be! This is what I saw when I opened the logo:
If one pokes one's key in there, one feels nothing. I contacted the previous owner for a hint. He said use a screwdriver, press, twist left first, then right. I still couldn't feel anything in there to press with the screwdriver in as far as it would go before the handle hit the edges of the hole. Went into the shop a found a narrow metal rod about the same length as a screwdriver, but no handle, and tried again. Still couldn't find anything in there to press.
So I gave up for Friday and decided to ignore the problem till David came over on Saturday.
Friday evening I attended Dharian's zoom bardic, which started at 19:00 my time. I got sleepy around 02:00 and said goodnight to those still present at the bardic and went to bed.
On Saturday David tried opening the hood using the screwdriver, and he was able to find a protrusion that was just at the end of the reach of the screwdriver, but he couldn't actually follow the advice to press and turn and accomplish anything. So he went to the shop, got a scrap metal rod and used the angle grinder to shape one end like a screwdriver. This worked, and we were able to open the hood. The tool now lives in the car, so I will always be able to open the hood if I need to.
Then it was a simple matter to plug in the charger, and a couple of hours later the car started up just fine, so I used to go pick up my package (a Viking food cookbook) and some fresh veg and fruit.
Sunday morning I woke up to a message letting me know that the Avacal Bardic was still on, so I hopped into Zoom and spent a couple of hours singing and sewing, till I saw a reminder that it was time to host the zoom crafts afternoon session for the Shire of Reengarda, so I switched meetings.
The part of the weekend I wasn't at zoom bardics I mostly spent playing with NoteworthyComposer. I had had sheet music for Gaudete on my computer from years ago (no memory if I entered it in from sheet music, or if someone had given me the file, but the music matched the paper print out I had for that song in my choir notebook), and I thought to use the tune for a new project. However, when I shared a printout with my co-conspirator she said "That isn't the music I am used to for the verses".
So I went and looked, and the sheet music I had has copyright information, which let me find the pdf online, and see lots of other versions, too. The one I had is version number 03071 on this page of the Choral Public Domain Library.
So I asked her for her version, and she sent me a jpg of the music that agrees with this pdf. Because I only have music as a translation language (and can't even manage that without a tool like Noteworthy composer) I couldn't tell if these versions were the same or not--since they are presented in different keys, and different length notes. So I typed her version into Noteworthy on a new staff line, and then went through and edited my music to make the notes the same length as hers (mine had had quarter notes where her's had half--so that she needed twice as many bars for the same amount of words). Then I transposed mine so that both were in the same key so that I could see how the two compared. In the meantime she looked at them, could tell at a glance that we had the same chorus, but that the verses weren't compatible. I played both together, and thought they sounded fine (but remember, I can't tell if an instrument is in tune or not without a tuning computer to tell me), so she printed them together and circled the notes she thought sounded bad together.
Somewhere in there I posted a poll to the SCA Bardic Arts FB group asking which version people think is more common (she thought hers was, but wasn't certain). In that conversation we shared her marked "these notes aren't good together" photo, and someone else pointed out that if one changed my version to the same (or an octave off) as hers then it would make a lovely harmony. So, of course I had to try doing that, too. It sounds ok to me, and I now have a noteworthy file that contains all of the different voices from my music, plus her verses for the soprano and tenor lines but my (modified) verses for the alt and bass lines. Now I am just waiting for my co-conspirator to tell me she is happy with the result (or suggest further changes), and we can go on to phase two of the project.
My other accomplishment of the weekend was yummy!
A caramel-almond pear tart:
1 recipe joulutorttu dough (see below)
Filling:
1 l chopped pears
2 T brown sugar
2 dl water
36 g butter
1 dl almond meal
84 g brown cheese, grated
2 T rice flour
a little cold water
Chop the pears and cook on the stove with the water and brown sugar. When it is boiling add the almond meal and the grated brown cheese. When the pears have started to soften mix the rice flour with just enough cold water to make a liquid, and stir that in.
Line a large pie plate with just over half of the dough, pour in the filling, and cover with the remaining dough. Bake at 150 C with the fan running. If you let it cool before slicing you get nice pretty cut edges. If you are impatient (like me), the filling oozes out into the empty part of the pan. Either way it is yummy.
Joulutorttu dough
1 c flour
1/3 c water
Mix the flour and water to make a soft dough and chill in the refrigerator.
1 c flour
1 c butter (226 g)
Soften the butter, mix with the flour to make a soft dough, and chill in the refrigerator.
Roll out water-flour dough to a large thin rectangle.
Roll out butter-flour dough to the same size rectangle
Stack the butter-flour dough onto water-flour dough and fold the combined dough in thirds. Roll it out again, and fold in thirds again. Repeat enough times to make lots of layers of with and without the butter. Take breaks to chill the dough again as often as needed to keep the butter from softening too much (how often depends on your kitchen temperature).
At that point it felt like an easy problem to solve--just get the battery charger from the basement. However, I didn't know that the car I bought last month doesn't come with a lever inside to open the hood--instead there is a key hole under the logo. Or, rather, there is supposed to be! This is what I saw when I opened the logo:
If one pokes one's key in there, one feels nothing. I contacted the previous owner for a hint. He said use a screwdriver, press, twist left first, then right. I still couldn't feel anything in there to press with the screwdriver in as far as it would go before the handle hit the edges of the hole. Went into the shop a found a narrow metal rod about the same length as a screwdriver, but no handle, and tried again. Still couldn't find anything in there to press.
So I gave up for Friday and decided to ignore the problem till David came over on Saturday.
Friday evening I attended Dharian's zoom bardic, which started at 19:00 my time. I got sleepy around 02:00 and said goodnight to those still present at the bardic and went to bed.
On Saturday David tried opening the hood using the screwdriver, and he was able to find a protrusion that was just at the end of the reach of the screwdriver, but he couldn't actually follow the advice to press and turn and accomplish anything. So he went to the shop, got a scrap metal rod and used the angle grinder to shape one end like a screwdriver. This worked, and we were able to open the hood. The tool now lives in the car, so I will always be able to open the hood if I need to.
Then it was a simple matter to plug in the charger, and a couple of hours later the car started up just fine, so I used to go pick up my package (a Viking food cookbook) and some fresh veg and fruit.
Sunday morning I woke up to a message letting me know that the Avacal Bardic was still on, so I hopped into Zoom and spent a couple of hours singing and sewing, till I saw a reminder that it was time to host the zoom crafts afternoon session for the Shire of Reengarda, so I switched meetings.
The part of the weekend I wasn't at zoom bardics I mostly spent playing with NoteworthyComposer. I had had sheet music for Gaudete on my computer from years ago (no memory if I entered it in from sheet music, or if someone had given me the file, but the music matched the paper print out I had for that song in my choir notebook), and I thought to use the tune for a new project. However, when I shared a printout with my co-conspirator she said "That isn't the music I am used to for the verses".
So I went and looked, and the sheet music I had has copyright information, which let me find the pdf online, and see lots of other versions, too. The one I had is version number 03071 on this page of the Choral Public Domain Library.
So I asked her for her version, and she sent me a jpg of the music that agrees with this pdf. Because I only have music as a translation language (and can't even manage that without a tool like Noteworthy composer) I couldn't tell if these versions were the same or not--since they are presented in different keys, and different length notes. So I typed her version into Noteworthy on a new staff line, and then went through and edited my music to make the notes the same length as hers (mine had had quarter notes where her's had half--so that she needed twice as many bars for the same amount of words). Then I transposed mine so that both were in the same key so that I could see how the two compared. In the meantime she looked at them, could tell at a glance that we had the same chorus, but that the verses weren't compatible. I played both together, and thought they sounded fine (but remember, I can't tell if an instrument is in tune or not without a tuning computer to tell me), so she printed them together and circled the notes she thought sounded bad together.
Somewhere in there I posted a poll to the SCA Bardic Arts FB group asking which version people think is more common (she thought hers was, but wasn't certain). In that conversation we shared her marked "these notes aren't good together" photo, and someone else pointed out that if one changed my version to the same (or an octave off) as hers then it would make a lovely harmony. So, of course I had to try doing that, too. It sounds ok to me, and I now have a noteworthy file that contains all of the different voices from my music, plus her verses for the soprano and tenor lines but my (modified) verses for the alt and bass lines. Now I am just waiting for my co-conspirator to tell me she is happy with the result (or suggest further changes), and we can go on to phase two of the project.
My other accomplishment of the weekend was yummy!
A caramel-almond pear tart:
1 recipe joulutorttu dough (see below)
Filling:
1 l chopped pears
2 T brown sugar
2 dl water
36 g butter
1 dl almond meal
84 g brown cheese, grated
2 T rice flour
a little cold water
Chop the pears and cook on the stove with the water and brown sugar. When it is boiling add the almond meal and the grated brown cheese. When the pears have started to soften mix the rice flour with just enough cold water to make a liquid, and stir that in.
Line a large pie plate with just over half of the dough, pour in the filling, and cover with the remaining dough. Bake at 150 C with the fan running. If you let it cool before slicing you get nice pretty cut edges. If you are impatient (like me), the filling oozes out into the empty part of the pan. Either way it is yummy.
Joulutorttu dough
1 c flour
1/3 c water
Mix the flour and water to make a soft dough and chill in the refrigerator.
1 c flour
1 c butter (226 g)
Soften the butter, mix with the flour to make a soft dough, and chill in the refrigerator.
Roll out water-flour dough to a large thin rectangle.
Roll out butter-flour dough to the same size rectangle
Stack the butter-flour dough onto water-flour dough and fold the combined dough in thirds. Roll it out again, and fold in thirds again. Repeat enough times to make lots of layers of with and without the butter. Take breaks to chill the dough again as often as needed to keep the butter from softening too much (how often depends on your kitchen temperature).