I think that this has been a cooler winter. The combustion heater in the living room has been in constant use in the evening and we have awoken to a number of frosts, which crisp the grass to a dull white. Today it is one of those glorious late-winter sunny mornings - the sun is growing unmistakably warmer. The bees have been haunting the front-window plum since daybreak, their buzzing like the sound of distant high-frequency saws.

Ann has been asking for a while if I could teach her English, which I have been busily doing anyway, though not in the way she wants me too. My approach is one of constancy with occasional stoppages at a point of need, such as when she confuses the use of she and her. I speak clearly and in shortish, properly-formed sentences whose subject and object are not too far apart. Idioms are out.

What she really means by being taught English is sitting down with a text and going through exercises and grammar points and so forth. I am familiar with this approach (Yes School made wide use of student texts) but I have thus far resisted doing so for largely philosophical and pedagogical reasons. But yesterday I relented and having apprised a number of different textbooks at an ESL shop in Sydney, made an order on Fishpond. I am unfamiliar with the Cutting Edge series but I am familiar with the style and layout of materials, so we will see how it goes.

Tomorrow my choir, Moo Choir, sing at the Blackheath Choral Festival. I hope to grab a picture or two for this blog and may get back to you. Meanwhile, here is the program.