Pollen trouble

I am feeling a bit better; sinus rinsing and gargling with saline, ricola and getting lots of sleep seems to be helping me manage my allergies to some extent.  The vocal folds are still obviously swollen in the morning and it takes a long slow warm up to get them phonating halfways decently, but I sang quite a lot yesterday aftenoon in the study, and felt a bit better better this morning, so the rehearsal this morning went quite well. Jurgen is happy with what I'm doing, and it is always a great pleasure to see so many familiar faces in the orchestra and choir.  The big challenge is going to be keeping them clear and warm in between the first and second baritone solos.  Lesley Bouza is the soprano soloist and she's really great... I've never heard her before but it's a well-produced colourful soprano with shimmering and powerful high notes, great legato, and some very sweet pianissimos.  Great to listen to!

Maggie has been enjoying a rather unusual period of three days completely alone in the house, something that almost never happens for her.  Malcolm was there for the weekend and stayed until Tuesday night because of the Mayday holiday, but with Duncan away she had only Kiki for company.

Duncan made it back home last night without any problems, although the school kept delaying the return from Ardeche because of the long distance bus trip to come home.  In the end Maggie had to get up at 3h15 to drive into Brussels to meet his bus at 3h45, so I expect that they both slept in this morning. 

Today they had some help from Bryan and Kiana, putting up a new canopy for the metal pavillion that we were given.  The original roof was gone, but Maggie devised and sewed up the new one using the side curtains: excellent work!

The tree in Bruce's backyard seems to have weathered the high winds without coming to any harm.  The rest of the street seems fine also.  I read that there were many places in central and southern Toronto that were without electricity yesterday late afternoon and evening, so apart from one briefy dimming of the lights around 21h we were lucky.  Here's hoping that is the last if the powerful wind storms.  It's cooler today, and I think this week will be more moderate.  Who knows, if the weather is okay this afternoon I might get out and run a bit, or at the very least go swimming to try to get my body moving again.