Today is a wrapping day here at Firebird. At the moment this is my favorite stage of reedmaking, I think I just like how tidy and finished the blanks look all lined up on the rack. Jenn Grant is on my Spotify playlist, while in the background my flatmate is practicing the Bach Double.

Here in London the weather has been gorgeous and hot, up to 25C for almost a week-- that is, until about fifteen minutes ago. Now it's dark again, summer is over, the rain is back. Small consolation is that the reeds I liked last week are working again. Yay!

I've adjusted my gouge-- when the seasons change like this, from winter to not-winter and back, I find that the reeds just can't adjust enough to vibrate properly. The best way to make this transition is to change the depth of the gouge, and every year it's a little bit different. I have a few blanks that I've gouged to slightly different thicknesses-- we're talking less than half a hair's breadth here-- and later today I'll test them to see which is the winning gouge for the spring season.