I can't believe it's February already.
Christmas was busy. One of the highlights was again playing for 'Contact the Elderly'. The Edinburgh branch of this charity has now expanded so much that to accommodate all their guests they needed two separate parties, on consecutive Sundays. If you haven't come across contact the elderly before, it does great work, organising regular tea-parties for folk who live on their own. This often results in firm friendships.
Each year they have a Christmas extravaganza (although this year it was two!). I have been lucky enough to be going along to play for these parties every year since December 2012. It's lovely to see the familiar faces again, and to have fun entertaining the guests with my harp and singing some carols together.
More recently, it was great to play at the Playfair Library (Old College, University of Edinburgh) again last week. The scale of the room, and of the whole place, still surprises me, even after all this time (my first gig there must have been well over a decade ago).
In the library itself, it's always fun (but also slightly nerve-wracking) to imagine that I am being scrutinised by various eminent professors and thinkers from the past. In fact, it's hard not to have this sense, as throughout the vast hall there are busts on plinths of various noteworthy scholars. They all look rather imposing!
At the Playfair Library, January 1017
On the composing front I have been busy. The mini-musical now has a name: 'The Legend of King David and the stag'. Now I need to get on with organising the first performance!
In January I also wrote a piece for 'cello and harp called 'Rondeau', which has (as all rondo's do!) a theme that recurs throughout the piece, interspersed with different musical material. My main theme is supposed to sound a bit like a child's wind-up musical box.