This is the view from our kitchen window. Hostas being very successful! I have thinned the set peach fruits twice all ready this year. The fruit is about 15 mm in diameter and I will have to thin them at least once more. The soft fruit is all underway and we look to have the usual glut of black and red currants and gooseberries.

 Last night I stayed up late watching  the first Opera program on Italian Opera on the Iplayer. Great stuff.  We had the privilege of seeing Danielle de Niesse on her third performance at Glyndebourne when noone had ever heard of her (She was a last minute stand-in). And she was stunning. Mind you, it is a great advantage to be a stunning looker and dancer as well as one of the top flight singers. And she can't be 30 yet!! But I look at opera houses and everywhere I went when I worked (and there was a lot of travel) I would go to the local opera house. On one famous occasion, I was in Munich with a high-powered technical group of about 25 people for a week. The first evening was spent in a beer garden but I have a limited enthusiasm for beery evenings with 24 males. So the second evening I said I had a head ache and would stay in and rest. As soon as they were out of the hotel, so was I - on my way to the Gaertner Opera House to see 'Cosi Fan Tutte'. It was played with a much younger caste than I had ever seen and played very fast and for laughs. Great fun. At the end, I went back to the hotel on the tram and walked into the hotel with the program under my arm, singing (inside you understand). To find the rest of the group milling about. Doh!! So I told the truth, had a night cap with them and went off to bed. The upshot was quite startling. The next day, five different people approached me very quietly and said the next time you go to the opera could I come too? It turned out that quite a few people cared as little for beery evenings as I did!!

Michael has not been well this week so not a lot of textile work. I have decided to make a major change in working methods. His room is what used to be our sitting room. It is the best room in the house and he can get a good view of the garden. Because I like to work where he is in bed, the Kombo sits in one corner and yes I am using it at the moment but that it is not always true since I have two other looms. So I have ordered a table to replace the Kombo. The crucial thing being that the top is variable  in height so I can work at bookbinding on it, use the sewing machine and also weave on the Voyager. This arrives on next Wednesday.