Quietly and resignedly, because nothing much of significant creativity has been going on lately. We’re about at the 6-month mark with buying this house and finally it seems like we may be able to set a completion date and exchange and we’ve already started doing what we can to make it better. Yesterday I cleared a quarter of the garden of hip-height stinging nettles (if you click through you’ll get to a link so you can see how it was before):

On the music front, however, all is quiet. Barely even listening to anything, although a lovely friend gave me Gidon Kremer & Martha Argerich’s recording of the complete Prokofiev violin sonatas for my birthday (yes, I had a birthday) and I accidentally bought myself a CD of Rautavaara orchestral works from the Oxfam Sound and Vision shop (mantra: “It’s all for a good cause”). I desperately need to get back in touch with Trinity Laban and book in a couple of trial composition lessons so I can work out who to study with – don’t want to end up with just a random teacher, but my brain’s so out of the loop with dayjob stuff I’m having trouble thinking about it. I don’t mean to be ungrateful – it’s fantastic that my business has taken off in the past couple of months, but it does rather do my head in for composing. Really need to find a way to force myself back into it. Might try to plan something over the weekend.

Oh, and today I made a batch of brownies for D who is moving out to his student accommodation tomorrow. I used the Hummingbird Bakery’s recipe and I think I do very much prefer it to the Nigella, which is amazing but rather too rich. The Hummingbird one is rich and fudgy but somehow less overwhelming. Possibly because it’s thinner so there’s a better crust-to-goop ratio…