26-1-26

A very special day....

Q. What do Australia, Così fan tutte, Lucinda Gayl Williams, Lucky Luciano, Monica Lewinsky, Paul Newman, The Republic of India, and me, have in common?

A.  January 26th.

[Is  that it?  Ed]

It's just a selection..... Just a taster of some of the more significant things that happened on this day....

[Tell me more?  Ed]

Well, seventy-five years ago, not far from the boating lake in Southsea, Portsmouth, my dear mother gave me my first drink.....  And I haven't looked back.  And those other names are all somehow locked into my psyche through the chance of sharing a day....

[And, you think that is worth shouting about?  Ed]

I would say more, but I am a little horse:

[You can do better than that, surely? Ed]

Reed on.....

I am five years beyond my allotted years, living on borrowed time, enjoying what life has to give. It's tiring carrying seven and a half decades of memories around in my confused cranium.  If I'd known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself.....

[Eubie Blake?  Ed]

Probably Billy Noonan (1951), though Willy Nelson and Merle Haggard made good use of it in Live this Long on Django and Jimmie (2015)....

But we just keep on moving

And rolling along

Can't look back

We might turn to stone

But we we'd have taken much better care of ourselves

If we would have known we was gonna live this long

Anyway, to cerebrate (sic) my anniversary, we pay a visit to Jim and Helen Ede at their erstwhile home in Kettle's Yard (Cambridge):

Where twentieth century art and cool tranquillity nuzzle each other, bathed in gentle light from an otherwise nondescript sky:

I could have lingered.  I could almost have moved in.  

But the world turns, and nothing is for ever.  

When you reach a certain age, you have to treasure every moment, and then move on, to taste another moment, to occupy another space:

In the Fitzwilliam Museum I marvel at Jacopo del Sellaio's colourful, busy panel, entitled Cupid and Psyche, which illustrates the importance of marriage in fifteenth-century Florence. This was painted to decorate a marriage chest.  It shows the first half of an ancient romance in which the mortal princess Psyche is mysteriously married to the god of love, Cupid. 

But was life so very different six hundred years ago?  Was it so different seventy-five years ago?  Or in 1973 when Jim Ede took his ailing wife to Edinburgh to end their days?

The Fitzwilliam is so full; so strong.  

I begin to feel overwhelmed:

One can only take so much art. Just think of the human endeavour, the physical and mental effort, the hours, days, months, years that have gone into all this creativity.....

Just thinking that is exhausting!

And what have we learned? Shortly after Cambridge, we visit Walsingham, where Henry VIII was the last in a line of kings to make pilgrimage to the Priory in 1513, just 25 years before he sanctioned its destruction.....

[Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose?  Ed]

Yup, but out of the strong came forth sweetness (Judges 14:14), or something like that....

[Meaning? Ed]

Winter Flowering Aconites (Eranthis hyemalis):

And Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis):

Hard by where the River Stiffkey streams through Walsingham, 

The wintry woodland is currently carpeted with flakes of flowers:

Which take shape as you close in on the details:

Perfect drops of white on slender green stems.  The air hangs still above them, tasting almost of frost:

Some weeks perhaps before he spied a host of golden daffodils, William Wordsworth penned this:

Lone Flower....

 once more I see thee bend

Thy forehead, as if fearful to offend,

Like an unbidden guest.....

Nor will I then thy modest grace forget,

Chaste Snowdrop, venturous harbinger of Spring,

And pensive monitor of fleeting years!

William Wordsworth

To a Snowdrop

Others have written about the delights of these delicate plants. Here is D H Lawrence in poster vein, Craving for Spring:

It is so, so beautiful.....  Yes I crave the Spring, but each day has its delight.  Each moment its value....

But the day inevitably draws to a close. Early evenings and January clouds bring low light across The Wash:

The gleaming mudflats reflect the fiery sunset:

Another day is done. Never mind the clouds - they add something.  75 years and a day....  

One day it will all be done, but we have come too far to turn around.... (Thank you Lucinda).

And thank you, Lord, wherever you are, for giving me this day.  And thank you my friends and family for your love....

Fortunato l'uom che prende

Ogni cosa pel buon verso,

E tra i casi e le vicende

Da ragion guidar si fa.

Quel che suole altrui far piangere

Fia per lui cagion di riso,

E del mondo in mezzo ai turbini

Bella calma proverà.

Mozart

Così fan tutte

First performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria

Who would have ever guessed 

I would be here where

I am like this 

With you, my dear 

My sweet, sweet, sweet love 

To drink my words in 

And make each moment become 

A celebration

Lucinda Williams

Sweet Love

[And with special thanks to the one who gave me this day]