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  • A Little Bit Excited

    I’m about to go and meet a friend for coffee (well, in my case, tea) to discuss trying to put together a pnael for the EMREM symposium on Birth, Sex and Death (http://emremforum.wordpress.com/).  I have no idea if I’ll even be able to get a babysitter to let me get to the conference, but the fact…

  • My painting of the day

    My favourite painting from this afternoon’s quick walk round parts of the National Gallery was Schedoni‘s portrait of the Holy Family, a little painting of the Virgin Mary teaching the infant Jesus to read, with Saint Joseph in the background.  I will pass over my puzzlement over why Mary is attempting to teach a child…

  • A new one on me…

    As I write this (a day late – yes, I know), I have just passed through Stafford on the Pendolino, on my way back from London, where I attended the Historical Association’s Branches and Members Committee Meeting.  It’s going dark outside the windows, and in the last quarter of an hour I’ve been watching lights…

  • Panel 3

    I was a bag of nerves on Tuesday evening, ahead of my panel meeting on Wednesday morning, as those who saw me that evening could testify.  I go giggly when I’m nervous, and it makes people who don’t know me think I’m not taking things seriously, which is not the case.  Terror doesn’t quite have…

  • Floundering…

    It’s always like this at the start of a new piece of work. The floundering. I’m starting to investigate the music, and I have spent the last day or two looking at modal theory, finding out about hexachords, looking in to the life and times of Archbishop Matthew Parker and playing with ballad tunes.  I’ve…