The organist librarian

Woke early again so swam and looked up scores. Watered garden and did dead heading. To art and painted 3 sunflowers - very colourful. This will be my summer picture. To interfaith lunch and some support for vigil outside the cathedral on Sunday at 11.30 in view of the murder of the French priest. The imam in Rouen said he had lost a very good friend. Came home and then to Kensington library - only 1 out of 4 scores found in the store. Prom was Norrington and Stuttgart orchestra - no vibrato and strings sounded weak as a result. Berlioz, Beethoven and Brahms. Spoke to Ann. In Catena twice but wrote to editor as caption is wrong! The pre-Prom discussion was on Shakespeare and religion and I am afraid the comments about German Protestant influence got me commenting on the Catholic elements in Hamlet and I also asked about Malvolio. Bishop Chartres very impressive. 

Had a lie-in. Liz went to get her new Boots glasses (2 pairs) and I listened to Walton symphony No. 1 with score from the Prom and the Maxwell Davies Prom which was heavy going! I went to Clapham Junction to get my resized ring and said hello to Isabel Losada in the window ar Waterstone's for the Battersea literature festival. The discussion was about Singapore and I asked a question about our experience of the attentive mixed age audience and made the point that I had waited 10 years for them to play at the Proms. Glinka very fast, the Zhou Long concerto was attractive and Haefliger played a Berio encore which was quite bearable! Rachmaninov 2 very well played and a Walton march for industry as an excellent encore. To Acton. Wednesday Louise was home working and the lovely fireplace was installed. We went to Bekonscot which the boys loved. On the way back we went through Burnham Beeches - very pretty. The interview with Sir Roger Norrington was amusing. He spoke a lot about vi...

Woke at 4.30 a.m. and looked up Westminster catalogue for scores as suggested by John East. Watered garden as it was hot. To the hall and took photos of CBeebies characters outside hall and did some sketching Louise, Ciaran, Candy and Jonah arrived and I could see them in the box from the gallery. There were only 3 up there! BBC Phil conducted by Stephen Bell were excellent and the different presenters collected sounds. Surprised there were no characters but enjoyed it. Had an ice cream  and then to V and A to see modern Indian paintings and protest objects which was fascinating. Sketched a silver rosewater ewer. Had an overpriced sandwich and tea at RGS garden Travel photographer display and then to Mary King's workshop on St John Passion. More there this week and tenor next to me strong voice but behind. To M & S and saw Fr John VN's secretary. Told Fr Christopher there was a good photo of him in Lourdes. Told Alistair had met Master musicians lady. Present to Fr P...

Men arived at 8 a.m. to put in new windows in bathroom and back bedroom. Our bedroom tomorrow. Scaffolding arrived. I went to the library to pick up my reserved scores for the Proms and met Bola, Wisdom, Spanish lady, another reader and Zia all in 10 minutes visit - nice to see them all and some did not knwo I had retired! To tai chi - just 3 of us but the substitute teacher was good and we did various exercises and my balance was much better. Too late to go to Prom talk but we really enjoyed Mahler 9 with Norrignton conducting his last concert with the Stuttgart Philharmonic. Encore Elgar Elegy for strings which was just right. Convoluted way home via Green Park and East Croydon. Watched Question of sport and part of University challenge. Tuesday swam 40. Liz painting back of house. To see lawyer about mirror wills. Bought bird feeder.

34 lengths. Lovely in the park at lunchtime. Shredding lots of old material. Prom was Sir Roger Norrington conducting Purcell, Handel, Haydn and Mendelssohn 3. The last programme of "Desperate romantics" and the death of Lizzie Siddall movingly done. It has been a colourful series inaccurate but well done.