July – menorca

Life on the finca… how to describe it? like the curate’s egg, good in parts? I will cast a veil of forgetfulness over the bad bits and remember the good…

…a visit to Alexander’s studio in Mao – he’s a luthier who specializes in early (baroque) instruments, absolutely beautiful work. I only caught one of this year’s early music concerts that he organizes, but it was great, as always… a slowly burgeoning friendship, always nice… he and his upstairs neighbor often used to walk out to biniparrell of a spring morning, arriving unannounced but bringing pastries for breakfast – invariably I would still be in my nightgown, but it was always a lovely way to start the day…

… the opening concert in the Lithica this season, harp and galss armonica of all things – I was so excited… in the event it was a shock… two world class musicians (the harpist from the Berlin Philharmonic, a Swiss armonica player who did all the playing for the ‘Amadeus’ film, and many others) who individually played really well (tho’ I must say it was an awful lot of notes but not much music) – but when they played together I had to put my fingers in my ears – they were not in tune… whether they couldn’t tell or just thought the natives wouldnt’ notice, I don’t know, but I left at intermission…. BUT, a month later I went to another oncert there and this time was totally inspired: a 17-piece Catalan band called Coetus – 10 percussionist, 3 singers and 4 instrumentalists – wow… an incredible experience, and the perfect venue… they are mostly young, tho’ some veterans as well, and obviously a tribe – soooo great… I bought all 3 of their CDs!

… a great hike with June, who came for brief 4-day visit from seeing Annie in Torino… Christian had told me about this stretch of the north coast, just west of Fornells, that is supposedly the oldest rock in Europe – muy impresionante, and great to get in a hike with June, who has such a good eye for these things…

… and then of course the huerto, which has been incredibly fruitful, both literally and for my peace of mind, and the big blue bath tub, which is always the saving grace… thank you thank you thank you…