JAMIE ANN MAURO returned to Vancouver and took up urban farming in her backyard after more than 20 successful years as a jazz performer in Germany and Spain’s luxury hotels.
The vivacious musician says she is just as happy now – digging in the dirt and producing a wide array of organic vegetables for her family and friends – as she was then, performing and living in Berlin and Hamburg’s 5-star properties such as the Kempinski Hotels, and in the Schloss Hotel Kronberg near Frankfurt, which was originally built for the dowager German Empress Victoria.
“It’s music and it’s food,” says Thunder Bay born Jamie, who first moved to the west coast in her 20s. “Singing makes you healthy, and so does fresh garden food.”
She got her start in the 1980s at Nat Bosa’s New Westminster Fin’s Waterfront Restaurant, where she was the house musician for five years.
When her personal life took her to London, she ran into Vancouver’s jazz great, Hugh Fraser, who was teaching at the Royal Academy of Music, and who connected Jamie to the music agent responsible for launching her European career.
She says she is grateful that as a pianist and vocalist she was able to see and experience much of the world.
“Now I’m following my Italian roots and growing and harvesting food,” she says, mentioning 35 kale pies, 20 cans of tomato sauce and mounds of pesto that will nourish her and musician husband Eric Kalaidzis and their friends through the fall and winter.
RED HATS SOCIETY Ladies just want to have fun!
The Marquis Marauders (also known as MnM’s) is the Surrey Chapter of the international social organization that was founded in California 20 years ago and now has 70,000+ members in over 30 countries.
These ladies love dressing up in their signature Red Hats and purple accessories when they venture out.
They get together regularly to sightsee, have picnics and Strawberry Teas, do lunch at various venues, cruise, take train trips, attend live plays and music concerts. Occasionally, they even organize overnight pyjama parties!
“It’s a great way for women to reconnect after big life changes, to just have fun participating in many different activities, and to make new friends while doing that,” they echo.
To be a Red Hats participant, you must be 50 or over. Younger women can join and wear pink hats.
“We are one big happy family,” says Nori MacDonald of the MnM’s with a radiant smile on her face.
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