Experiment

The annual piano festival in Lagrasse is here, so expect more piano-based photos over the next few days. Amazingly when I set off to this 6 pm concert, it was raining -- the same scant drops as yesterday. The light under the covered market hall was terrible, and the camera didn't want to focus. Since I was struggling, I decided to go way over-exposed, and I rather liked this result. It makes a change from my more usual straight shots (extra 1).

Laurianne Corneille played pieces from her recent album Cosmosis, which she explained is entirely short pieces that she normally plays as encores -- none more than five minutes long. A request was made not to clap after each one, wisely! It was very much easy listening, but easy listening is fine sometimes, when you can just sit and relax in the open air. I recognised at least half of the pieces, though I couldn't tell you the names of all of them. A good mix, ranging from Bach through Rameau, Scarlatti, Satie, Philip Glass, and more.

Earlier, it was the first Sunday lunch of the summer, well attended of course (extra 2). A watermelon and feta salad, then rougail with rice -- a dish from La Réunion featuring smoked Montbéliard sausage and a surprisingly spicy tomato sauce -- much flapping of hands from French friends at the heat!

The temperature had dropped considerably overnight -- it was only 23C when I set off to Lagrasse, and the wind got up during the course of the concert. At home, all windows are flung open to cool the house. Thank goodness yesterday's fire was controlled before the wind got stronger. Still, nearly 500 hectares burned, much of it the same area that burned four years ago.