This morning, as I was passing a town-centre pub called The Old Bank – which was indeed a bank, back in the days when every high street had half a dozen or more, often in very grand buildings – I noticed a bit of butterfly activity around the trough of colourful flowers above the pub's main windows. Looking up, I was surprised and delighted to see that it was a Painted Lady – very much my first of the year, and probably the earliest PL I've ever spotted. I guess it flew in on the southerlies that have been blowing these past few days. I've no idea how this butterfly season is going to develop, but if the trains are still running I hope I'll be finding my way to my usual haunts.
Meanwhile, here is today's dose of beauty – a Spring song by Schubert. I love this video of an informal performance by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Sviatoslav Richter – particularly the way the camera lingers so long on Richter before Fischer-Dieskau appears. And the way the video ends...
A couple of years from the grave, and still sounding like a young man - and at 29 he was still young and dreaming of girls and liebe. What a magical few minutes this is, with three magicians doing what they do best.
Nige, who, like Mr Kenneth Horne, prefers to remain anonymous, was also a founder blogger of The Dabbler and a co-blogger on the Bryan Appleyard Thought Experiments blog. He is the sole blogger on this one, and his principal aim is to share various of life's pleasures. These tend to relate to books, art, poems, butterflies, birds, churches, music, walking, weather, drink, etc, with occasional references to the passing scene. His book, The Mother of Beauty: On the Golden Age of English Church Monuments, and Other Matters of Life and Death, is available on Amazon or direct from the author.
A couple of years from the grave, and still sounding like a young man - and at 29 he was still young and dreaming of girls and liebe. What a magical few minutes this is, with three magicians doing what they do best.
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