Spring sunshine

In amongst lots of showers of course. 

Katie had her mock piano exam this morning. Typically, the only morning we have an appointment she slept in. So she didn't get to have a warm up practise at home so her first run through wasn't quite at her usual standard. She passed with a merit but is well able to pass with distinction, and played to distinction standard after the exam. She has a month to go until her exam so that is still brilliant, and B was really pleased with her. She then went on to work very hard on her clarinet, learnt a new note, listened carefully. She did some amazing clarinet sightreading. B gave her grade 1 standard pieces and she's playing them perfectly straight off. Not bad for 3 months learning. She's skipping at least grade 1, possibly grade 2. Barbara asked her if she wanted to play her recorder and they had fun doing that too. She concentrated brilliantly for over an hour, before she went off with a bit of chocolate and the toy she snuggles when she's at B's to watch some trashy TV while I had my lesson. 

We then went home and did a couple of hours painting in the lounge. After lunch, we popped out (in our painting clothes!) to get the paint for the kitchen and fence. Katie had a play in the new park by the shopping centre before we came home, via the beautiful daffodils near the station. We finished off the day's painting and had some tea with a movie. 

After tea, Katie had a brilliant clarinet practise with her new work and a new showtunes book that B has lent her. Disaster struck as she passed me her clarinet - some of the keys popped off the clarinet and fell to the floor. She was of course devastated and I had no idea where to start. I text B an "argghhh, please help!" kind of message. She lives very near to us and was coming out anyway, so very kindly came round as it turns out its a simple fault, but requires a very fundamental tiny screw that if lost would be a pain. She came equipped with the appropriate tools, we located the tiny (minuscule!!) screw thankfully, and she managed to fix the clarinet within an hour of it breaking. She said it was nothing that could have been avoided, on Katie or I's part, but that there are a couple of things she can do next lesson to help it not happen again. Stressful, these musical instruments!!