We had a few days in sunny Folkestone working hard making a selection from the 86 pieces from MS 18 810 in preparation for next year’s project.

We had glorious weather for walking Diego on the cliff tops. It was a bit windy on the first day  but by day two we even managed a dip in the sea next to a few scary looking seals.

Choosing the pieces was quite straightforward really but then..

do we play on the high consort (treble, tenor, tenor, D bass) ?

or does it sound better on low (tenor, bass, bass, A bass)?

or how about playing up a 4th, or down a 4th and up a tone?

which way sounds best?

So many permutations to choose from and once decided, try remembering to do the same transposition on EVERY note of the piece!

And we ate sumptuously. Highlights were the tasty blackberries growing all over the cliffs and delicious tempura made from courgettes and nasturtium leaves from Asako’s new garden with soba noodles and sauce.

The new Linarol D bass by Richard Jones is sounding superb in the consort. Look how beautiful it is too!

And we met a quartet of trumpet marines on the sea front – is that the first time anyone has written that?!