Stockholm Gingerbread event

YOU can be struck with a great idea anywhere, and Stockholm at Christmas provided the spark to introduce a Swedish tradition into our own Christmas. A visit to the Stockholm architecture museum had a surprise in store. It was the 20th year of the Gingerbread house competition. Over a hundred bakers, architects, children and enthusiastic amateur bakers had created gingerbread houses for the competition in different categories. On entering this building there was no need to ask for directions to the room where the entries were displayed – all one needed was a nose. The aroma of gingerbread was just a delight and the Gingerbread houses on display were inspiring.The entries ranged from very simple houses built and decorated by young children to some extremely complex constructions by master bakers. In the architects section some had copied famous buildings in Stockholm whilst others had exhibited somewhat futuristic designs. Classical buildings were also on display with a wonderful reconstructed coliseum getting many admiring comments. (Three practice coliseums before the final submission apparently )Entrants had also let their imaginations run freely when it came to decorating the exhibits. Only edible confection is allowed in assembling the houses (honey, toffee, marzipan etc) and sweets featured prominently in gardens & roof terraces.The winners in each category had been chosen by a committee, but there was also the opportunity for all visitors to cast their vote to give a “peoples” choice winner.As a lead up to the Dolgellau late night shopping event, Mawddach Rotary Club decided to introduce such a gingerbread house challenge at the Free Library in Dolgellau on 21 November.Schools, WI, Merched y Wawr members, mums, cooks, chefs, and bake off addicts are all invited to bring their creations to the Free Library. If you want inspiration, just google Gingerbread houses. There are several sites (including Stockholm) to fire your imagination.Details of the Dolgellau event are given below, and our supermarkets have been warned that ground ginger powder may be in demand.

Music club

FOR the second time the club has been lucky enough to receive sponsorship from the Oxford Lieder Festival, making possible a superb recital from Young Artist Platform winners Alison Rose, soprano and Matthew Fletcher, piano in Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor on Friday, 6 November.Delivering almost her entire programme from memory, Alison Rose showed complete command of her material and presented it with animation, warmth and a wide range of colours. Her voice is clearly focused, and very pleasurable to listen to. Immaculate French carried her securely through the first half of Fauré, Messiaen and Debussy, music to which pianist Matthew Fletcher also seemed perfectly attuned. (His many achievements include the Maggie Teyte Prize for French Song from the Royal Academy, whilst Alison won this year’s Maggie Teyte Prize at the Guildhall.)German-language repertoire was to the fore in the second half, and here again Alison Rose showed fluency, precision and expressive skill, ably supported at all times by her accompanist. Strauss’s Mädchenblumen are not often programmed, perhaps because of the non-PC nature of their texts (comparing flowers to different types of women, ‘the minx’, ‘the elf’ etc). No composer loved the soprano voice more than Strauss, and his flowing melodic lines were beautifully realised here. Six songs (in German) by Grieg provided effective contrast and were readily accessible; five arrangements by Benjamin Britten of English folk-songs, plus a lively Rossini encore in Venetian dialect, brought the evening to a close with panache and won an enthusiastic reception.The next concert will be a recital by Siry Rashkovsky (viola) and Robin Green (piano) in Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor at 7.30pm on Friday, 4 December.