Tinkling The Ivories

Happy St David's Day! or “Dydd Dewi Sant Hapus!” as it should really be said.

Happy, especially if you like freezing blizzards and howling winds. We are hunkered down with the wood burner, having only dared to step out of the house to run across the road to the Co-op for supplies. Tonight we'll be celebrating St David with a warming meal with our landlords who conveniently live in the same house as us, and then we might brave the weather to head down the high street to catch the vibes at the Open Mic night at the Quarry Cafe.

Snow and music have been the themes of my week.

Yesterday Anna and I were on my land which was doing its best to audition for a remake of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. The soft whiteness transformed the place, and then the sun came out to make it all sparkle. We sawed and chopped the three big Christmas trees I felled last week to make the veg garden less shady. It was bitterly cold but we were quite toasty with the exertion. Pushing wheelbarrows of firewood up the steep track to the car certainly kept me from freezing.

After that I gave the weekly piano lesson to my neighbour's young daughter as I've been doing for a year and a half now. For the first time she tackled a C major scale with both hands! Playing the piano is so good for young people's manual dexterity. A recent news report lamented children's lack of ability to write with a pen since they are so used to tablets and phones. Pianos are an effective antidote.

And then back to Machynlleth in time for a bewitching Chopin event around a piano in the Museum of Modern Art. A local musician in his 20's, Tom McMahon, gave us renditions of his waltzes, mazurkas and nocturnes, interspersed by scholarly reflections on Chopin's musical influences. Now I know to play his mazurkas more in the style of jaunty Polish folk tunes! Oom-pah-PAH! Oom-pah-PAH!

We discovered in the pub afterwards that he and his friends have jam nights at the Friendship Inn in Borth once a month so we hope to head down there later in March. And we've also been invited to join a totally improvisional soundscape-style music event, where pieces are conducted and given a theme, but there is no tune, let alone sheet music. We could break new musical ground.

So the apple crumble's nearly ready. Stay safe and warm! Till next week...

Spring cleaning!