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Happy Easter! www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDMY...

Hot cross…blobs? Apparently they taste better than they look (not tried one myself as I’m vegan and they’re very much not).

Profoundly moving performance of Pärt's Passio by @thegesualdosix.bsky.social this evening. 'Enjoyable' is the wrong word for such a raw meditation on grief and suffering, but the performance was outstanding - time seemed to stop and condense into this moment of anguish.

At St Martin-in-the-Fields to see the @thegesualdosix.bsky.social. Or, as I explained to my teenager (who’s not into classical music), ‘They’re like a boy band for posh people’.

Bumped into the utterly charming @zackpolanski.bsky.social while out running in Westminster earlier, who was kind enough to overlook my general sweaty, dishevelled, tongue-tied incompetence and take a selfie for my 16 year-old (who'll be helping campaign for the local @greenparty.org.uk next month)

Feeling very blessed to live in a place where I can turn on the radio as I cook dinner and stumble across a discussion of Monteverdi's use of echoes, followed by a searingly beautiful performance of Duo Seraphim. Radio 3 is a treasure.

I know I'm very late to the party here, but I've just finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead, and god it's good. Raw, and beautiful, and angry, and hopeful, and with a narrative voice that just sings from the page.

More evil: yesterday I bought some secondhand Dr Martens, and my cat didn't even wait for me to take them out of the box before colonising the box in question (pictured below). I know Dr Martens have air-cushioned soles. This does not make them actual cushions.

Came downstairs this morning to find that this evil furry monster had vomited all over my glasses (which I'd left on the table overnight). Sometimes I wonder why I love her.

See also: Citrus fruit in red plastic netting, which sheds tiny bits of plastic when you open it, and loose citrus fruit generally costing more.

Loving this cello concerto by Dobrinka Tabakova on Radio 3 right now.

THREAD. A collection of excellent scarecrows I have met on walks in the countryside. You will find the all-important caption to each photo in the alt text.

Obligatory Dewi Sant photo from today’s run through Green (or should that be Yellow?) Park.

@jameshandscombe.bsky.social As the parent of a child at HSFW, I just wanted to say how much I appreciated your comments in today's newsletter. They were wise words in a divided world, and ones that some of the people working just across from you in Parliament would do well to learn from.

Third batch of the season, and I have reached the ‘I never want to see a Seville orange again in my entire life’ (or at least not until next year) stage of marmalade making.

My cat has never been fed by anyone in her entire life, and if there appears to be food already in her dish then you're merely imagining it.

Just saw my first Waymo driverless car on the streets of London. Call me a Luddite, but there was something very sinister-looking about it...

Tit Hall by (nick)name, bunch of tits by nature, it seems.

@tomshakespeare.bsky.social Happy New Year from my very sticky kitchen (I’ve just had a little lick of it, and I think it’s worked out ok)!

This afternoon I’ll be singing carols outside while freezing my bits off for at least 90 minutes. Wondering if I can take a companion for extra warmth.

Something a bit unusual for the season, from our new @peterhousecam.bsky.social Choir disc: Byrd's Ne irascaris, Domine re-arranged for Christmas, as heard in Peterhouse Chapel at Christmas in the 1630s open.spotify.com/track/51kurW...

Just managed to catch my cat in the nick of time as she was about to lick the brandy butter. Which would have been...interesting (if hilarious).

Top tip of the day: do not stuff your fridge so full of Christmas food that an entire tub of beetroot soup falls out and spills everywhere. Not unless you actually *want* your kitchen (not to mention your legs) to look like the scene of a particularly brutal axe murder.

I've just been catching up with @siglodeorovocal.bsky.social on the radio this morning www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/.... Wonderful stuff! Now Radio 3 needs to broadcast an entire Siglo concert.

Very chuffed to have won a copy of this beautiful book by @mattfromlondon.bsky.social and @thisismikehall.com (plus accompanying print). Looking forward to regaling my family with nerdy nuggets of Londonness.

Loving the BBC Singers performing the O antiphons set by female composers on Radio 3 right now. This is basically my idea of radio heaven.

Enjoyable carol service singing with Faire is the XI this evening (I'm not a cricketer - I merely got roped in), made even more enjoyable by this fabulous typo.

For years I was misled by 'misled' - it wasn't until I was in my late teens that I realised it didn't rhyme with 'bristled'.

Enjoyable evening belting out carols with the choir of @peterhousecam.bsky.social under @sjjackson32.bsky.social, whose timely arrival with copies of the music (no thanks to the trains between Cambridge and London) meant that we didn't all have to improvise our own interesting harmonies/descants.

Dead

For those of you in the UK, especially if you are a UK citizen, can you please take part in the consultation on changes to Indefinite Leave to Remain (Settlement) that were just proposed by the UK government. We need as many people as possible to reject these proposals. www.gov.uk/government/c...

You’ve seen Stir-up Sunday - now let me introduce Whirr-up Wednesday.

Genuinely affordable housing?

They could market a gluten-free version under the tagline 'Pleni sunt coeliac et terra gloria tua'.

Good to see there are still some decent Labour MPs out there. I just hope voices like Creasy's can prevail.

@patrickallies.bsky.social Apologies if I turn up tomorrow with a slightly hairy copy of the Manchicourt!

My mum (who, bless her, is well known for her malapropisms) yesterday kept referring to the Ministry of Sound (large nightclub in Elephant & Castle) as 'The Sound of Music', and I'm still silently laughing.

Very much a 'there but for the grace of god' moment reading this. My incredible daughter is thriving now, and training to be a doctor, but she's said that she's alive despite the system, not because of it.

So relieved to have bought a non-tickling teapot.

This week I'm tackling why creative women need to be allowed to fail. Women composers have been judged as women first and artists second for too long. It hampers creativity, and does nobody any credit to make gender such an important part of listening. leahbroad.substack.com/p/why-creati...

There has been a lot to despair of in the world recently, but a Christmas tree at the start of November in my local supermarket has clinched it for me. Complete abomination.

The Telegraph with its finger on the pulse of the nation once more.

This is excellent news! Armand is my cousin’s lad, and definitely one to watch.

Catching up with today's Early Music Show from @hannahcfrench.bsky.social while chopping up quinces, which seems a suitably 16th century pastime.

Local fox posing for his autumnal portrait.

While the perpetrators of Gaza’s genocide pose as its saviours, survivors return home – to a wasteland | Nesrine Malik

My second-year uni accommodation is number five on this list! Not the most beautiful building in Cambridge, but I loved living there. My ground floor room was surrounded by garden (or the 'Deer Park' as it was known, despite its complete lack of deer). www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...