Littlest and the elephant song

Lovely friends to dinner yesterday - I made pudding (slightly odd orange and apple meringue pie on a gluten-free shortbread base - odd as in strange texture - "Different ... but not in a bad way! Maybe try a pastry base next time. Better with rhubarb? What happened to lemon meringue pie?" - so, varied comments, none rude but fitted the puzzling-to-the-mouth experience of eating it. Or was it Littlest's I'm-going-to-be-helpful-no-matter-what-you-say adding of just a little cinnamon to the meringue mixture, which had the colour of sand, and if cinnamon were hot and spicy would have blown our heads off?).

Lovely friends brought everything else. Fish kettle, new potatoes, carrots, beans, wine ... oh, and two beautiful trout, impressively caught by one of them. Yes, very lovely friends indeed!

Lovely friends are also musical friends and Littlest who is reluctant to perform solo was persuaded to play her latest piano piece - one that has, through repeated overheard practice over the past two weeks, become an earworm for most of us. It has words about an elephant and a grasshopper and one standing on the other's toes (obviously the grasshopper on the elephant's toes, as if the other way around, there wouldn't be much of the grasshopper left to sing about!) Anyway, she played while people sang. And her self-conciousness vanished.

Tomorrow, Littlest is due to play the same piece in a showcase concert at school - an hour's marathon of about fifty little people playing very short pieces on assorted instruments. Without the prospect of any singers tomorrow and just a proud mother and sister to please, she fretted all evening.She even threatened not to play.

Perhaps we could go dressed as an elephant and a grasshopper ...

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Colour, Delacroix, flochetage and why don't we all have a go at inventing words

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Walking The Dog

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