For the last two weeks my nose may have been kept to the grindstone editing music, but it has also been smelling fragrances from our back garden. I went out and took these photos of our clematis, which decided to bloom early this year. Spectacular! But again, after some days of reaching 80^o F outside, it’s been down in the 30’s this week. I’m ready to put my jacket away! The thing about perennials like these, in spite of these cold snaps, is that every year they seem to come back stronger and in greater numbers.

On Monday, as the sun was going down, a lovely doe sauntered into our garden to see what she might munch. She had been lounging in the field just beyond our yard all afternoon with a couple of her dear friends (or deer friends) and sat there staring at me as I took a break from work and had my late afternoon martini on a lounge chair out there, not more than 25 feet away from her. When I went indoors, she made her move, first eating the flowers off of all the clovers, and then, sure enough, over to the clematis leaves (lower left corner of photo on right). I got these snaps from a window indoors and then went out, lovingly shooed her away, and sprayed deer repellant on the clematis.

Last week I got all 500 or so pages of my string parts edited for the ballet, which is the thing orchestras are always most eager to receive first, because they want to check the bowing marks. For those who don’t know, those are the symbols over the notes that tell the string players whether to move the bow up or down, which (if you’ve ever noticed) is why you see all their bows moving together. Bowing up or down can also be a creative decision, because it can make a difference in the interpretation of the music. So, my job is to provide these symbols first. However, if the string players can see some better ways to get what I’m really after, I welcome knowing it and am always learning from them.

I hire a company that prints and binds the parts on heavy paper in the standard 9.5 X 13 part size. (The score will be 11 X 17.) It is not cheap to have the parts printed and bound into booklets. You can’t use coil bindings, because those make noise when they turn pages, so you have to have what they call a saddle stitch binding, nowadays using a couple of heavy staples on the spine rather than string stitches. They are to arrive today, and I will check them and send them right off to the orchestra.

This week and a few days beyond, I’m finalizing the remaining 42-player pit orchestra scores (some of which are done), which I am having to reduce from the 90-piece large orchestra originals. I prefer to compose the music first for the large orchestra. The string parts are exactly the same in both versions; it is only that fewer string players fit into the pit. And there are many fewer woodwinds and brass in the pit. Those players’ parts remain to be made, once the pit arrangements are all done.

Other events over the last two weeks have included my regular six-month doctor checkup and Oliver’s, too. Mine was fine. Our surviving cat, Oliver, our black kitty, is happily doing very well on his hyperthyroidism medicine. I think he’s about 17 years old now and very affectionate these days. With the recent loss of his big brother, Noah, Oliver is stepping up into his role as head cat (even though he’s now our only cat). He used to be so quiet but now talks up a storm! Before, he was letting Noah do the talking for them both. Now Oliver commands us around and tells us what he wants us to do, like Noah used to do. Usually it is to feed him or sit with him and cuddle, so he leads one of us to the sofa.  

Crystal has been cast in one new show (not yet announced, sorry) and has another audition lined up, and as a school music teacher she will be directing a kids’ version of Annie at her elementary school tomorrow night, reflecting no small amount of hard work to whip all the little rug rats into shape and teach them to act, sing, and dance some impressive routines. Can’t wait to see it.

I’ve been experimenting with yellow rice. My latest version two days ago had medium grained rice that you first toast in a skillet raw, in some butter until just browning slightly, then you add white wine, chicken stock, onion powder, fresh minced garlic, turmeric, saffron and paprika (the last three of which make it yellow), cooked chopped onion, fresh parsley or cilantro, a handful of peas and diced carrots, any kind of chopped fresh pepper (I used serranoes, a poblano, and an ancho), the juice and zest of a lemon, salt and pepper to taste, and roughly chopped shrimp or chicken pieces (I used shrimp, added toward the end). Then you put the lid on till the rice is done and has absorbed the liquid. I like that you only need one saucepan and just throw it all together pretty quickly. It ended up being all that chopping that took the most time. You also have to blister the skin off of the poblano on a stove burner (or don’t use a poblano) and soak the dried ancho (if you use it) in a cup of boiling water before chopping and adding both of them, and the ancho liquid.

Behind the scenes of our ballet (literally): I have been seeing scene/set sketches done by our set designer for the huge backdrop that will go on the entire back wall during the scenes at Lake Como. There will be buildings and set pieces on the stage in front of this mural, too.  Some of the buildings will have balconies that will be strong enough to hold dancers. Very impressive. Guess what, the performances are not until the end of June, and already well over 700 tickets have been sold! Wishing you well!