My birthday week...
Am loving my birthday week. So far it has felt very balanced. I am working hard at everything, doing my best in the garden, trying to be kind to my hands and fingers. Am enjoying playing my piano.
And am really enjoying the subtle changes in lightness and length of day, and the growth of new greenery. Even the forget-me-nots have started flowering. The new daffodils are gorgeous. What a good idea, planting new daffodils. The flowering spring shrubs are gorgeous too - beautiful pinks and reds in the Camellias.
Had to sing alto solo this morning in a Mozart Mass, accompanied by a rather large orchestra. Did my best to bellow beautifully, even tried to do some slightly wobbly vibrato, hee hee. Am not a proper solo singer, usually get the job by default, because I am low-maintenance in rehearsal. Hmm. Need to cultivate my inner diva?
Trim me!
Three hours work...
Then I worked in the garden for three hours. I weeded in the Dog-Path Garden, trimmed the huge Miscanthus grass (almost finished) and generally picked up mess. Meanwhile Non-Gardening Partner mowed the lawns. Burnt my rubbish. Feel very good.
Tuesday 4th September
Yesterday instead of gardening I did three hours piano practice on my Albeniz pieces. This morning I completely chickened out - decided that it would be far too discouraging if I wasn't instantly better (ha ha). So I went swimming instead. Came home, spent three hours in the garden doing a circuit, a bit of this, a bit of that. I plodded from place to place with my wheelbarrow - a load of manure, a load of weeds, a load of firewood logs, etc.
It was one of those gardening sessions where one contemplates rather too deeply the issue of finishing off something rather than wandering off to do something else. One then decides that nothing can ever really be finished in a garden. Except possibly the pruning of the hydrangeas, which I reckon I've done now. And I forgot to finish off the Miscanthus grass. Oops.
Albeniz apres-gardening...
And now I am going to go apres-gardening, sort out the evening meal, and play my Albeniz. I don't care if it's no better than yesterday. It's beautiful music and I have such fun trying to play it.