Recapitulation

A day of tidying, sorting and throwing out. In the course of which I came across the violin I have owned since I was eight, and only ever played badly. So badly that when I was 15 and failed Grade 4 my teacher told me I didn't deserve it and I should sell it to her. 

I didn't. I worked bloody hard for Grade 5, got the pass mark and not one mark more, then stopped having lessons. For a few years I played fiddle instead because folk musicians were kinder about wrong notes, then I stopped playing altogether. 

I got it out, tuned it, felt the strings under my fingers, still familiar after all these years, and played. Badly, still, but in tune.

I've been meaning for years to pick it up again but I had no idea today would be the day. 

As a cadenza, I have also upgraded the operating system on an old iMac (and Java so that I can use Photoshop on it), put into recycling lots of papers that I don't want to spend any more of my life thinking about, and have dumped three bags of stuff by the front door to take to the charity shop.