Playing it by ear

After a long night listening out for Tess, and (wrongly) thinking every house crack and tummy rumble was her, I've been tired all day.
I've been feeling stressed and emotional anyway, so I decided to expect nothing of today.

Tess was, in fact, absolutely fine, and much better, healthier and bouncier today. And very, very, very, very, very talkative! That girl just does not shut up!

It was Richard's day off so we treated him to some garden centre joy.
We went shopping for coarse grit to put on the path around the veg beds. Slugs are still doing a bloody ridiculous amount of damage to our veg beds. Tonight some beer traps have gone in and tomorrow I'm putting cabbage rings round any remaining crops.

Yesterday I had got out one of the learner's piano books that I used to teach from years ago and left it on the music stand on the piano and told Tess she was very welcome to have a look.
I've had no luck getting any of our own kids to let me teach them the piano, but Tess has seemed interested in playing as long as she is completely in charge. I've sat with her and given her 2 or 3 minutes of guidance in a fun way regularly and made a hasty exit every time she's seemed bored.
Today she flicked through a few pages alone while I did the wages and I could hear her talking herself through it.
She's picked up rhythm really quickly and has a really lovely touch. It seems the technique with Tess is to pretend it's a game and she is definitely doing it for herself and no one else.

I wish there was more opportunity for children to "play" with music and musical instruments in schools. It was the one thing (apart from writing stories) that made me feel alive when I was young.

No doubt the emphasis on the benefits of competition will be heightened instead now. Gah!

We had a trip to the beach before tea and I took my camera but I was pretty sure all day that this would be the photo.

PS Comments are currently off. Just having some head space