Menlo, third day

The first Young Performers Concert, and the only one I'll get to this year. Also the only time at this year's festival I get over to the Menlo-Atherton CPA, usually the most frequent venue.

The performers are older than usual this year, mostly in their late teens, and sometimes a little more interpretatively wobbly than usual. Somebody needed to tell the violist and cellist in the Schumann that you really need to dig into that second melody. Best piece on the program is the least heard: Smetana's Piano Trio in G Minor, its three movements parceled out among three groups of performers. Dark and intense.

Came home to find that the bottlebrush bushes, which the gardeners for the complex never trim and which I've watched become huger and more top-heavy during the 7 years we've lived here, have finally toppled over and landed in my parking space. Happier that my car wasn't there at the time. Now to see how long they'll take to be cleared out.