First, I hope you enjoy hearing my newest music, after the next paragraph! This Hilltop Diary entry is a special one for me. I’ve been writing this blog every two weeks for close to six years and have really enjoyed sharing my life and my music with you. However, after almost five hundred entries, I […]

For any newcomers to this page, I periodically explain that our “Hilltop” is at the top of a lane, just like the Hill Top (two words) house pictured below, which was the home where author Beatrix Potter wrote Peter Rabbit. It is in the Lake District of northwest England, amidst the most gorgeous countryside and […]

I’m pleased to share with you, below, hot off the press, the very first hearing of the first three minutes of movement three from my new (fourth) symphony. Here is the program note, describing the whole movement, and just below it a play button to hear the excerpt. Like a typical third movement, this is […]

Welcome back to Spring and redbuds in bloom at the Hilltop! We are in quite a cold snap this week, though! Also, our area did have something like Noah’s flood last week, not to mention a few of Noah’s tornados. However, it was only a miniature version at the Hilltop. Tornado sirens awakened us at […]

June is bustin’ out all over at the Hilltop – in March! We have an invasion of daffodils! Here (below) are a few of them in our front yard. There are still plenty of hyacinths in bloom, too, both purple and pink. But there was a cold snap a few days ago. Begone, coldness! This […]

Last weekend, I finally popped ‘round to see my friends in western South Carolina, which we’ve talked about doing for a while. This time, Crystal stayed home for her teaching and to take care of Oliver the cat, who has to have his medicine twice a day. I say “popped ‘round,” a British expression, because […]

Has spring sprung yet where you live? It usually boings up suddenly here, but this year it is dragging its feet, with snow at the Hilltop only a week ago. Since then, the temperature has been wildly up and down. We do have lots of bulbs’ leaves popping up. But it’s mostly been so frigid […]

Welcome back! After so many months composing and then recording my third symphony, it was wonderful when last Friday finally brought the release of the album. Parma/Navona Recordings has a page about my album (click or tap HERE ) with links to all the streaming services that have it (including YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music […]

Wow, our weather here at the Hilltop has been unseasonably chilly for the South! I confess to being a sunshine-and-warmth–ophile. In a spirit of hope, I have already obtained a couple of metal raised beds (shown here) to plant herbs and other small plants. These are to replace our two, now rotting, identical beds made […]