A really old book

After sitting in as a casual observer at a music workshop last night, I decided to dig up some music books that I had to do a bit of reviewing on music notation and theory. One of the books I've had since the 1980s was a fragile copy of The Principles of Expression in Pianoforte Playing by Adolph Christiani which originally belonged to a grand aunt. According to my grandmother's inscription on the endpapers it was given to her sister in the 1920s by someone who I presume was her piano teacher. I opened it for the first time in more than a decade and was astonished to find that the copyright was dated 1885. That in all likelihood makes it the oldest book we have here at home!

The cat on the mat is back

Today was a rainy day and so it was no surprise when I arrived home earlier to see the large stray tom cat claiming the front door mat once again for himself . He looked pretty bad yesterday when I saw him under the car with his face all scratched up apparently from a fight with another neighborhood cat. But today he looked much better and was his usual sleepy self, meowing lazily and refusing to open his eyes when I talked to him before making my way into the house.