Well, lemme see . . . there is a recorder consort that gets together and practices one evening a week at a church about nine blocks from where I live. One man plays a harpsichord, but the rest (about half of the group are men) play recorders of various sizes. I've taken an occasional whack at the recorder myself, but I really stink at it. Still trying to master Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star.

For some reason, not very many people in my immediate klatch of folk-singing friends play 5-string banjo, but the one person who does is a woman. She also plays guitar, Irish harp, hurdy-gurdy, and a medieval viol of some kind. At folk festivals, I've seen quite a few female banjo players (the females are the players, not the banjos).

Is Hull a fairly small place?

Don Firth