To everyone who made it out to the wilds of the West Island to hear me play last night – a heartfelt thank you! The concert was smashingly well received. Two notes: Next time, I will wear my glasses, no matter how hot it is; and I will never share a stand with that particular partner again. The night was a challenge: I’ve never played in such extreme conditions (no, not even that freezer of a church in January where my hands were so cold), so the exhaustion produced by playing for two straight hours with no break was compounded by the exhaustion brought on by the heat and humidity. I’d take the chill of a January church over that humidity any day. In addition to the human response to heat, the instrument response was a nightmare as well; wood moves all on its own in humidity, of course, so everyone’s instruments were swinging in and out of tune wildly. Apart from a couple of rocky patches, though, we seem to have come through just fine, judging from the enthusiastic audience reaction (especially between the first and second, then the second and third movements of the Beethoven! Was the heat so horrible that you wanted the concert to end so soon?) and our conductor’s gentle smile at the end of it all, his hands pressed to his chest as he bowed ever so slightly to us. In light of my last post about singing in either official language, I also found it highly amusing that our soloist chose to begin her rendition of O Canada in French; threw everyone off, I hear. I also had the pleasure of showing off my early birthday present of a lovely backpack cello case. I adore it; it’s everything I wanted and more. (The pockets alone are worth it!) No more hefting and swinging and bumping the instrument into my legs; now I have hands free, and it feels lighter to boot. Thank you, o parental units!

Said parental units are on their way back to Oakville today; I’m extremely glad they have air conditioning in their car, otherwise I’d have told them to stay here and to call in sick from Montreal! We had a lovely day wandering around Old Montreal yesterday; I highly recommend the newly restored Chateau Ramezay for anyone who is interested in local history. (“There was a Battle of Chateauguay?” my husband asked in amazement, looking at a large map of local military movements.) I’ve forgotten how much I enjoy museums.

It’s just too darned hot today. (Yes; go and cue the Cole Porter.) I slept poorly, and had to get up way too early for an osteopath appointment. The last one was a bit aggressive, and I was in a lot of pain (modified, but pain nonetheless) last week, so today she took a much gentler approach and I feel pretty good. Lethargic, but good.

Been playing around with my template again… I figure this will be the summer edition of Owls’ Court. You know, like green leaves, and we’ll return to the autumny browns and reds in the fall? (Maybe?) My comments also seem to be on the fritz, and for some reason I can’t access my YACCS control panel to fix them. Maintenance will be ongoing, I promise.

Books I’ve read recently and have had no time to blog (let alone list in my reading box!): Fall of Neskaya by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Deborah J Ross (not bad, but not MZB’s Darkover); The Green Man: Tales of the Mythic Forest, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling; Good Night, Mr Holmes by Carole Nelson Douglas; Wicked by Gregory Maguire; and Deryni Tales, edited by Katharine Kurtz. I’ve been pretty voracious lately. It’s almost like I’m making up for lost time.

I wanted to sit down today and come up with some sort of rough weekly guideline for practice and writing and such, but my brain doesn’t seem to want to engage. Not that I’m trying to create a rigid schedule; on the contrary! This summer is about not having a schedule. I know, however, that if I just let myself drift, I’ll feel useless and get irritated with myself. I wanted to use this time to write and really work on my cello, and while a week of relaxation won’t kill me, a week can easily turn into two, then three, then it will be September.

Well, maybe not quite that quickly.

I’ll think about it tomorrow.