Tuesday 2 June 2009

It's been very hot for the last few days, so the wildlife around here has been showing itself in different ways. Dunnocks on the ground, and lots of chattery coal tits in the trees ...

a fox having a snooze at the bottom of the garden ...

and some picturesque flies in the house.

While I've been preparing our Edinburgh concerts, I reckoned that it was high time I learnt how to read lute tablature fluently. Either I could do this the boring way, sitting at a desk working out what each note is, or I could do it the far more sensible and fun way, which is with instrument in hand, playing the music. So I tuned my Westbury's 3rd string down a semitone, and have been having great fun getting to grips with Rowallan, Wemyss and Jane Pickering, even if it still sounds pretty dreadful. Tonight I practised out in the garden.