On Monday I drove to Napa to pick up my oboe. Mark, of course, did a beautiful job fixing the poor thing. It was so wonderful to play some notes on it again … verifying that I DO love the instrument!

While I was there I purchased some new English horn staples. Janet Archibald, the wonderful English hornist of San Francisco Opera, had told me about them a while ago, and I knew I’d want to buy some while I was up at Mark’s shop.

They are fabulous! There is a rubber O-ring inside the bottom of the staple, so it is securely on the bocal. I love ‘em! He has them in bronze and gold. The part at the bottom unscrews and then you have the usual staple, which enables measuring as one always does when making the reeds. I now have 6 of the bronze ones and I look forward to using them quite soon. I really recommend checking out the “Chudnow – A English horn staples!