Today I was giving Edie her lunch (she's just fifteen months now), and Gary Cooper's wonderful CD of Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier was playing on our hi-fi (which is in the kitchen -- otherwise we'd never use it!). She didn't show any signs of paying attention to the music (though kids are like that -- and next thing you know they've practically memorised the thing you thought they weren't paying attention to!) until suddenly, when the B-flat minor prelude came on (which is just a series of beautiful chords), she stopped devouring her lunch, looked up at the hi-fi speakers, looked at me, and said thoughtfully: "play! lute!". I'm still shocked when she speaks, because it's so new. But this was even more shocking: she was noticing that the series of plain chords, played on the harpsichord, sounded rather like a lute. She was right. And I'm going to arrange it (down a minor third, I think, or maybe up a tone) for lute, since it was her advice that I should do so. And I think it'll be a gorgeous lute piece. Clever old Edie!

More text (and pictures) to follow soon. I'm aware that there's a huge gap to fill in since the last entry.

Last night, I drove 90 miles from home in South London to the village of Sutton, near Ely, in Cambridgeshire, to hear Robert Fripp play Soundscapes in Sutton Parish Church, as part of a Service of Thanksgiving, to celebrate the return to health of Stephen Tebboth, after a horrific accident. (Stephen is a close friend of Mark Graham, designer of my website.) It was a joyous occasion, and a huge treat to hear and see Robert Soundscaping close up in the intimate and beautiful surroundings of the church. It's fascinating to me as a lute player (just me and a responsive piece of wood producing an immediate sound) to experience the totally different way in which this music is produced. There were some very beautiful moments in the improvisations. The music resonated in my head all the way back to London, and still does so this morning. The first 8 miles of the outward journey took more than an hour, because of terrible traffic getting out of London, I began to wonder whether I'd get there in time, but in the end it wasn't a problem. It was certainly worth the five and a half hours spent in the car!

Well, in the end Jeremy Avis stepped in and was heroic in the concert, having had only a few hours to prepare. We were very grateful, and the audience loved it. Nice to have a full house. Banqueting House, Whitehall, with its amazing history, is a marvellous space to play in, even if the acoustic is not ideal.

And in the evening, Peter and Jamie and I enjoyed playing trios together in the corner of a room at the top of Ken's Egg, while the London Labour Group had its Christmas bash. But it's not all play. This annual party consists in part of people nobbling ministers and lobbying them. We heard Ruth Kelly give a speech about the Labour Party's many Great Achievements, and we heard the Mayor himself (with whom I shook hands!) give an impressive speech off the top of his head about his vision for London.

Tomorrow is a double performance day: a lunchtime concert with the Dufay Collective at the Banqueting House, Whitehall (which has been hit by chaos and confusion because our singer has had to pull out with laryngitis, and now our replacement singer may have to pull out as well because of a family emergency, and we're not quite sure what we're going to do tomorrow!), and an evening background music gig at a party. I don't do background music if I can avoid it, but this is partly a favour for a friend. And it's not just any background music gig: it's at City Hall, with stunning views of the river, and the mayor and several Members of Parliament will be there. So it might just be interesting.....

We've had a photography flurry in the last few days. Edie has been developing and changing so fast: lots and lots of words now, more and more teeth, more and more mobility.....

Here's Edie eating the waste-paper basket:

Edie with Daddy:

more:

Edie in her new trousers from Celia, and Eli (Edie's cousin in America) with three friends. (Eli is on the far right of the picture.)