For One As Beautiful As You

It's 9pm, Zulu time +1.

Ok so that's Alpha time, clever dick.

But all the clever dickery in the world cannot detract from the delight of my today. Awake with the dawn chorus and up and out into the garden shortly after, cup of tea in hand. The garden steps are almost finished. The blackbird that follows me around when I'm working in the kitchen garden is now feeding her chick beside the pond. The roses are all starting to split and both the irises and peonies are on the brink of blooming. My garden shortly after dawn in early summer.

And my Auntie came to lunch and I finally had the opportunity to make Elizabeth David's salted almonds. We chatted and laughed and gossiped and caught up with decades of news and jigsaw puzzling of childish memories and half remembered events. And she rather liked the curtains I'd made.

Afterwards I collapsed onto the sofa, opened another bottle of Prosecco and started to read the papers. Helen Yemm of course was on sparkling form. So sparkling I've reproduced the intro of her article here;

"Why is it that some gardeners cannot wait to go out of a morning to pick armfuls of long-stemmed loveliness for the house? Delphiniums? Off with their heads! And their arms and legs if you want a decent display in the dining room. Ah peonies... Perfect en masse on the hall table. And wouldn't those lofty white foxgloves look just gorgeous in the inglenook with a branch or two from the variegated pittosporum and some Solomon's seal? Snippity snip. Meanwhile, others of us flop out there at dawn in our jimjams to blink at the gloriousness of the splendid, dew-spangled tableau that is our pride and joy, that has taken us months to mastermind, weeks to weed, hours to prop up and now here it all is for a few short weeks of the English summer - untouchable, fabulous."

And because there was nothing else on the box we watched Dr Who, episode 10, Vincent and the Doctor. I can't stand Dr Who. But this episode began with an eye-catching cameo from Bill Nighy, so of course I watched. And Richard Curtis wrote this episode, so I knew we were in for a good-un. The scenery was brilliant. The light and the colours and the sunflowers and the mock-ups were really good.

And in the final scene the Doctor tardises Vincent from 1890 Provence to 2010 Paris and the Musee D'Orsay, to the Vincent Van Gogh galleries, where he asks Bill Nighy's character to describe the impact of Van Gogh on the art world. And what follows is the perfect, perfect combination of art, artist, writer, film maker, actor and audience. A perfect end to a perfect day.

And thanks to the wonder of the world wide web, you'll find THE scene here.

Reflecting Vincent's eyes of China blue.