Summer in my garden and the bees are busy on my Lavender bush.
Time for the Beach:
This being UK, storms are never far behind though:
Off to Bristol to see Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part I and II. It was supposed to be an extravaganza with leading British actor Ian McKellan. Sadly, he fell off of the stage the previous week and was injured. So, his understudy took over. Still, pretty darn good, though:
Bath and some favourite country side of mine:
I went up on Solsbury Hill….
And, so too to the Proms: a concert of Ives, Debussy, Ravel and Tchaikovsky. A good programme in fact with a suitably dramatic conclusion from the latter. I treat myself with a glass in their Champagne Bar.
July 2024 also marked when I joined The Athenaeum Club. Founded in 1824 and situated in London’s Pall Mall, it provides a range of services: Hotel, Restaurant, Talks, Dinners, Library – and in fact, somewhere just to sit and chill out whilst in London. The ‘London Club’ is well known, but this one provides for a membership known for its achievement rather than social contacts. Put it like this, I now share a present and past membership with 51 Nobel Prized Winners. Members include Burnes-Jone, Churchill, Gore Vidal, J G Bennett, and indeed King Charles III.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athenaeum_Club,_London
Lammas – the first stirrings of the darkness – and harvest.
In holiday spirit, I have been listening to some 70s ‘Blues Rock’.
And reading Mike Love’s account of being a Beach Boy: another story of a creative groups tearing themselves apart. Shows art happens despite humans, very often rather than because of them.
So, one of their most sublime tracks: