Sunday, January 10, 2021

Sunday and first flights.



In the odd corner they lurk or maybe in the dark recesses of your wardrobe waiting for spring to reappear.  But they are there, ladybirds or butterflies will appear one morning.

So yesterday, I turned the radiator on in my 'craft room' a rather refined term for an untidy room where I keep my bits and pieces. Abandoned by the way because Lucy cannot bear me being out of sight upstairs.  There on the sunny window in the warmth a butterfly fluttering to get out. I decided that it must stay, and my usual revival kit for bees and butterflies, is a piece of cotton wool soaked in water and a dab of honey which I duly did and the little one feasted. Since disappeared, hopefully behind the curtains.

Yesterday I watched the film' Black Narcissus' the story written by Rumer Godden, who wrote over 60 books in her lifetime.  The film was filmed in the studios of Pinewood, all the backdrops of the Himalayas painted and the strange palace reconstructed in the studios.  If you don't know the story it is about a group of nuns sent to teach local children at this palace. There is a dark undercurrent of eroticism that runs through the story, making it in 1947 a film that was somewhat censored. Here I might add the eroticism is beautifully concealed in the acting but since there is a new reproduction of the story by the BBC, it will probably be more explicit. What caught my eye is that it really looked as if it was taking place in a real palace in India.  

This must be the second or third time I have seen it, and the bell scene has always remained in my memory.  Films punch a fleeting memory every now and then.

Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Strauss on 'Simple Gifts' heard this morning on the Sunday programme 'Something Understood' which was on crafting.  In mentioning knitting as a very soothing craft, apparently the rhythm of the needles knitting the wool helps stop high blood pressure and strokes.  So is that why old ladies live longer than old men? No it is not thought for the day, only a wind-up. 


18 comments:

  1. I do like that idea of cotton wool and honey. I shall try it next time a butterfly appears. I inteended to watch Black Narcissus when it was serialised over three nights on the BBC recently but somehow other things intervened. Now might catch up on iplayer.

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    1. Hi Pat, see Tom's verdict below on the serialisation. Don't forget to soak the cotton wool in water, they need rehydration as well.

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  2. A promise of warm days to come. What a good idea to feed it. Hopefully will survive until Spring.

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    1. I often wonder how they come in without anyone noticing but they do.

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  3. I suddenly found myself confronted by a queen wasp the size of a machbox buzzing round me in the kitchen just before Christmas. (I exaggerate slightly but not a lot). It must have been lurking in there ever since the summer.

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    1. We had wasps set up a nest in the electricity meter outside the back door, every time you opened the door they were clustered on the door at the top but no one got stung.

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  4. I meant to say... Black Narcissus... Aren't Powell Pressburger films great? I especially like I Know Where I'm Going. A Canterbury Tale is good too, I think.

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    1. Not sure if I have seen either but I will hunt round for them..

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    2. I know where I'm going is on YouTube...

      https://youtu.be/jclsmUgyetc

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  5. Powell and Pressburger films are wonderful. My favourite is 'A Canterbury Tale'. Those mountain scenes were painted on glass by Alfred Junge, who was a bit of a genius. The latest version is ok, but I don't see the point of remaking it. I have just seen Carruthers's comment above. 'I Know Where I'm Going' is my second favourite!

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  6. I shall lookout for those two films. The fact that they could not afford to film in India says a lot for the genius of 'Black Narcissus' and its creators.

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  7. To prevent Lucy's outbursts when you are up in the craft room, may I suggest buying a baby monitor with attached mini-camera? Then Lucy will be able to keep an eye on you via her small monitor screen downstairs.

    Are you as kind to garden slugs as you are to butterflies?

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    1. Ha. Age has robbed her of her ability to get up stairs, she would just agitate in front of the monitor. I never kill, slugs are thrown over the fence into the copse. Snails have always been laid out neatly for the thrushes to .

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    2. ...for the thrushes to ? Tear apart and feast upon?

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    3. Of course, not before they go through the elegant motion of hammering the poor snail on an anvil stone though.

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  8. I have never found a butterfly in the house. I am glad that you knew what to do.

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    1. They sneak in unseen, but finding them on a spring morning is always welcome Debby.

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