City and country

My knitting fellowship started up again today, after the summer break, with lots of prayer shawls, Linus blankets, baby hats and a few scarves waiting to be blessed and passed on to people in need in the church, the local hospital or charities. I haven’t actually done a great deal of knitting over the summer, so I just had a prayer shawl nearing completion to take along and work on. We apparently have plenty of prayer shawls “in stock” at present, so I shall probably start on a scarf next. I left a little early so I could be home for 11.30, so Roger and I could drive down to Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati for their Music Live at Lunch, today featuring guitar, piano and soprano, playing music by Joaquin Rodrigo, marking the 20th anniversary of his death.
Rodrigo is probably best remembered for his guitar concerto, Concierto de Aranjuez, and that is how I knew him, but today’s program also featured some of his piano and vocal works. What I hadn’t realised before today, was that he lost his sight at the age of three after contracting diphtheria. Despite this, he began to study solfège, piano and violin at the age of eight; harmony and composition from the age of 16. Although distinguished by having raised the Spanish guitar to dignity as a universal concert instrument and best known for his guitar music, he never mastered the instrument himself. He wrote his compositions in Braille, and they were transcribed for publication. It was a wonderful varied program, with very talented musicians, three of them being on faculty at different universities, one locally, one in Texas, and one in Georgia.
After the concert, we went for a short walk downtown, where I took the top photograph of Proctor and Gamble headquarters, then we returned home, and after enjoying an iced coffee, went out cycling on the Little Miami trail, from Kings Mills. It may have looked a little like the beginning of autumn in places, with patches of fallen leaves on the trail, but it felt more like the height of summer, with a high temperature today of 92F (33C)!! We’re having a mini heatwave this week, with four days at 90 or above! My lower photo is taken from the bike trail in Morrow