Thursday 14 May 2020

On Becoming a Hermit, Sort of ... Day 58


Day 58
(Wednesday, 13th May 2020)

Up first this morning ... well, I am every other morning, as B and I take it in turns to give the dogs their breakfast, open up and feed the chickens - who are now producing more eggs than we dare to eat! - and make a cuppa.

In the garden, Spring is in full swing, heralding the rapidly advancing Summer. At 7 am, It is cold and the air has a bite at my bald head, but it’s a lovely feeling with the air so fresh. So much in flower now, especially the Wisteria, with its purple flowers dangling over the Blue Room windows. The Apple trees promising much and the fruit bushes also. The beds are looking cared for, even on the slope down through the the trees is looking as if it’s being loved, all thanks to B. Lord knows what would happen if it were left to me. She brings small poses of flowers in to the house regularly to provide nature’s decoration; to bring a little of the garden inside to comfort the soul. 

Tai Chi class this morning at 10 am. Another chance to plot the progress we’ve made over the past few weeks, since we connected with our old (well, not old old, he’s younger than me) teacher, whose reaching reminds us how good he is. 

Tomorrow, my lie in, but Guide Dogs Puppy class at 10 am, so early Tai Chi session. And on we go.

Today’s music from the “Year of Wonder” is Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op.44 1: Allegro by Robert Schumann (1810-1856). He produced this in what Clemency describes as Schumann’s ‘Chamber Music Year’ (1842). Perhaps this was Schumann’s Year of Wonder, in which he produced a considerable quantity of chamber music. He’d never composed chamber music before this time. Burton-Hill describes this particular piece of chamber music as “a cracking example” of music “that feels conversational rather than contrived; that creates a mood of exchange and dialogue between autonomous musical voices”. For its first public performance in 1843, the “fiendishly difficult piano part” was played by Clara, his wife. Fitting.


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