Suddenly, in spite of everything, the daffs are sprouting in front of my house.

We have absolutely no reason to believe that the snow is over until next winter, but there they are. Ain't nature grand?

Today I am writing a grant application for the concert choir (not the church choir), and editing applications for two other music outfits. Of course I plan to steal ideas from the documents I am editing; that's why I agreed to do them.

The provincial government is the new Prince Archbishop of Salzburg. The Stratford Concert Choir is no new Mozart, but let's hope some arts administrator thinks we're worthy of patronage anyway.

The concert choir's show is on Saturday night -- French Romantic music with organ. We're still struggling to round up an audience that's bigger than the choir. The sopranos sound a little less desperate than they did last week.