If music be the food of love : play on!

T’s violin resting between melodies on our dining room table caught my eye this morning. No staging of this Blip by me. This is just how I found it. The soft autumn sun dappled the rosewood. The leaves on the table await their imminent pressing. An almost ageless scene and one untainted by any contemporary digital technology - apart from that used to capture and subsequently disseminate this image and accompanying journal entry!

Out of shot our late 19th century grandfather clock has creaked back into life. It suffered trauma in the move. It has stood silently for almost a year. Now. thanks to some judicious levelling with cardboard by T the clock has decided to keep time and chime again.

We went for a long walk from the house this afternoon. We wondered where the smaller birds had gone. Hawks, crows and magpies were much in evidence.

T took her litter picker with her and only filled half a bin bag in 5 miles. Littering here is very light compared with our walks around Portobello.

Miriam Margolyes woke up BBC R4’s Today’s audience with some very un R4 language this morning at the end of her warm eulogy about the late Robbie Coltrane.