Norooz eggs on Easter
Posted: 7 April 2012 Filed under: Memories & Events, Uncategorized | Tags: Easter, Norooz, Painted_eggs 2 CommentsEgg decoration is a popular craft in many cultures and traditions. Easter of course is probably the most renowned one in Christian world, but the painted eggs you see here are the ones that my husband and I have painted over the years for the Persian New Year, Norooz, which is celebrated in some 15 countries just a few days before Easter, on the first day of spring.
Each year we paint several boiled eggs, but keep only the prettiest of them. Well, that “winner egg” is usually the one painted by my husband – to the testimony of all the friends and relatives who pay us Norooz visit! Here is how it goes, I boil 5-6 eggs and let them cool and meanwhile get whatever painting tools we need. We start at the same time. I finish painting five and go about preparing dinner or something. He is still working on one. He takes a break and continues working on it after dinner until he gets off the chair with a bad back and happy face: A work of Art, if you ask me! Look at some of them below.
Vase ideas2
Posted: 7 April 2012 Filed under: Photography, Uncategorized | Tags: flower_and_object, vase_ideas Leave a comment
Black Pelican
Moment photography21
Posted: 30 March 2012 Filed under: COZY CORNER, Photography, Uncategorized | Tags: moment_photography; whiskey Leave a comment
Afternoon nap
Kiosk – “Morteza”
Posted: 23 March 2012 Filed under: COZY CORNER, Poetry & Music, Uncategorized | Tags: Kiosk_music, Morteza_lyric, poetry_translation, youtube Leave a comment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FRA1zKUPgw
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- Album: Outcome of Negotiations
- Uploaded on Youtube by kioskband on Dec. 2011
Kiosk is one of my favorite Iranian Music bands. This Album/song is not new but I just heard it and like dit a lot, so I transcribed the Persian lyric and translated it into English. “Morteza”, the song’s title, is a Persian male name.
“Kiosk’s stinging political satire is hidden within its blues and folksy sound… Their lyrics are a social commentary on the issues that affect the daily lives of Iranians all over the world” BBC World cited in Kiosk’ facebook page.
It never rains here, but streets are wet/ Optimist cows are lining up in sausage factories, Morteza… Morteza… it won’t rain here Morteza. Only the dead are alive, while the living must die/ The chess champs are condemned to play with chimps/ Morteza… Morteza, it won’t rain here. Read the rest of this entry »
Happy New Year
Posted: 19 March 2012 Filed under: Memories & Events, Uncategorized | Tags: Norooz_1391, photography, sofre_haft_sin, Spring 2 Comments
Happy Norooz Everyone! Have a year full of peace, health, love and prosperity!
Norooz is around the corner
Posted: 14 March 2012 Filed under: Memories & Events, Uncategorized | Tags: Iranian_tradition, Montreal, Norooz, Persian_ New_Year, Spring Leave a commentThis is a rather lengthy general introduction and personal note on Norooz the deeply-cherished. Persian New Year which occurs at the exact moment of the start of spring, this year on Monday March 20th at 01:11 AM (Montreal) 08:44 AM (Iran).
My new header shows a Norooz table setting “sofreh”, which should contain certain items, as I will explain below. The contents as well as the arrangement of sofreh items vary according to individual’s taste and beliefs. I love my sister’s artistic “sofreh” shown in the header. Don’t you!? And let me confess, I am dying to share mine with you once I set it – probably sometime on Sunday evening
For now, let’s just turn this music on and listen to Simin Ghadiri, a Persian folk singer, while you’re reading my account of Norooz. You don’t really need to understand her words, her voice alone is spring on itself! (Lyric describes spring days, the mountains, and fields covered with flowers)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGNLwkm5wes “Yek gol, Sad gol….” 
Iran’s Fire Festival
Posted: 12 March 2012 Filed under: Memories & Events, Uncategorized | Tags: Chaharshanbeh_suri, Iran, Iran_Fire_festivals, people_activism Leave a comment
If you are a non-Iranian and have been following my blog so far, it would probably mean that you already know Iran and Iranians well enough to have heard of chahrshanbeh suri, the Iranian Fire Festival – the one which is held on the last Tuesday night before the Persian New Year. The New Year starts March 21st, which makes chahrshanbeh suri tomorrow night. If you don’t know about it, look it up here. This is a pre-Islamic and much loved tradition, with lots of special events and OF COURSE special foods, such as sour soup, aash-e reshteh and mixed nuts which go with it!
Revelers in Iran celebrate chahrshanbeh suri by jumping over bonfires in the streets while the Islamic state fumes with vigorous loathing of the tradition, but fights a losing battle against it. We outside Iran, however, rarely manage the bonfire part of the night due to our cities’ fire regulations, but some of us at least observe the aash-e reshteh part.” [excerpts from my upcoming book]
Marching with Women of Diverse Origins in Montreal
Posted: 8 March 2012 Filed under: Montreal related, Uncategorized | Tags: International_Women_Day, Iranian_Women_Association, Montreal, Women_Diverse_origins 1 CommentFor the past 11 years, each year on March 8th, the Montreal-based Women of Diverse Origins has been celebrating the International Women’s Day by calling upon women of various ethnic backgrounds, indigenous communities, Trans-Women and all other “minority” women groups. The common goal is to “convey solidarity for feminist struggles of liberation across the world and to celebrate our resistance!”
Tonight about 500 women and men, some with baby carriers marched the streets of downtown Montreal for over an hour, while shouting the slogans, singing with the music, and carrying placards. Unlike last year, which many different groups of Iranian expatriates had attended the march, tonight the only group present with placards and leaflets was the Iranian Women Association of Montreal. Their demands: Free political prisoners, Abolish discriminatory laws against women, No to death penalty NO to war with Iran. See the two short videos I uploaded on Youtube. Quality is not great, but will give you some ideas of the mood.
Happy International Women’s Day!
http://youtu.be/SWzqDg6EkqY http://youtu.be/cwbygD5UqII
Vase ideas1
Posted: 5 March 2012 Filed under: Photography, Uncategorized, YARD, for gardening | Tags: flower_and_object, photography, vase-ideas Leave a comment
Flower arrangement and photography ideas while awaiting the gardening season!
One small window and a hundred big joys
Posted: 28 February 2012 Filed under: COZY CORNER, Inspired Writing, Photography, Uncategorized | Tags: birdfeeder, bird_watching, kitchen_window, wild_birds 9 CommentsI am blessed with a lovely kitchen window which opens to a jasmine tree, standing between me and my neighbor.
The tree embodies as many seasons as Montreal has to offer: short-lived purple blossoms; dense long lasting green leaves; colorful falling leaves; and snow covered bare branches, at times decorated with long icicles, in the whole duration of our long winters. I guess my kitchen’s window is partly responsible for my cooking passion! What makes spending time in the kitchen all more enjoyable however is the bird feeder I bought a couple of years ago. It feeds many birds and it creates a world around it which feeds my soul as well.
My Caldron 