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.