![No more bullfrogs […for now]](https://www.susantomes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_20210816_155540976-rotated-1-1080x675.jpg)
My readers will know that I hate people coughing in concerts. I don't mean the sudden cough that the person can't help and does their best to stifle - I mean the self-indulgent barking cough which rings out across the hall and seems to be targeted at specially quiet...
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Recently I've heard or coached a number of amateur pianists whose playing I haven't heard for 18 months, or before All This started. I had been afraid that everyone's playing would have fallen apart, but actually my impression was that lockdown has enhanced rather...
Update: if you've been trying to subscribe to my blog in the last day or two and have encountered problems, please note that the link is now working properly. I've just been writing to my subscribers to tell them that new blog posts, delivered to them by email, now...
The BBC's poetry season included a sweet programme last night about Wordsworth's poem ‘Lines Composed Upon Westminster Bridge'. Presenter and poet Owen Sheers shared his lovely insight that the poem has become more, not less resonant over the years. The surprise of...
A few days ago I wrote about our cat dragging her water bowl around the kitchen floor. It's a topic I never thought I would mention again. However, last night when we were giving the cat a bit of supper, we suddenly noticed that her pottery drinking bowl had gone. It...
Our tortoiseshell cat Tashi, now nearly 14 years old, has taken to dragging her water bowl around on the wooden floor of the kitchen. From a nearby room we'd occasionally hear a strange, effortful scraping sound from the direction of the kitchen, as though a small...
Every year I feel I have to update my wardrobe of concert clothes, which is a pain because each season I have less and less of a clear idea of how I should look. But what I wear has always been noticed by people in the audience, who comment on it enough to make me...
My trio's latest record came out recently. Friends were soon sending us reviews they'd found, in newspapers and magazines as well as on the web. I read them all and I started to realise something interesting: the best writing was often found in amateur publications,...
It's a funny thing, but when you spend hours of every day on something as intangible as music, you become very conscious that there's nothing to show for it at the end of the day. You may have twisted your brain into wild unruly shapes (shapes resembling Beethoven)...
Welcome to my blog. I thought I wanted a static website, but my website designer had other ideas. As I'm old enough to be his mother I tried to tell him not to be silly, but somehow I found myself agreeing to try a blog. I hope to give an insight into the world of a...