The Prom, Prom, Prom! Where the brass bands play, "Tiddely-om-pom-pom!"

That great herald of the end of the Summer Season, the Last Night of the Proms is upon us tonight!

A highlight of our own "Social Calendar" every year, in the absence of the fab party Proms in the Park (RIP), Madam Arcati and I are settling in at home - with enough buffet food to feed the entire battalion of Grenadier Guards - flags at the ready, to sing along to all the old favourite patriotic songs that compse the finale.

Of course, there's lots to look forward to in the full concert, including a tribute to Dolly Parton(!), and also on the bill, this [here sung by Eric Herrero; our tenor for the evening will be Nicky Spence]:

Eric Herrero - The Prince's aria (Vidino divná, přesladká) [Dvořák - Rusalka]

I can't wait!

Why ask for the moon..?

We took a little trip out to the northern edge of London today - and not, for a change, to the "horticultural mile" of Crews Hill - to the grandiose pile that is now Capel Manor College, an agricultural campus with renowned gardens open to the public. Our pretext was to visit the Enfield Fuchsia Show - and, to be honest, we can truly say every one of our current collection of 33 varieties is more impressive than most of the prize-winners on show.

Regardless, the trip was definitely worth it, just to wallow in the beauty of the 30-acre site and its sixty different gardens/plots - everything from shady, woodland and wildlife gardens to formal, Italianate and Japanese styles, to meadow, sensory, and prairie-style planting. Wow.

That's the day sorted. However, continuing the 50th anniversary celebrations of the first moon landings, it is to the night we turn for even more sensory delectation - in the company of Miss Anna Netrebko and Mr Antonín Dvořák:



Sigh...

Gilding the Lily

“To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.”
- William Shakespeare, King John

Oh, the Lilies here at Dolores Delargo Towers (in pots, just outside the back door) have been such a joy of late...

I think these majestic purveyors of the most heavenly scent deserve a beautiful piece of music to accompany them.

How fitting that today would have been the 90th birthday of the great conductor Kurt Masur - and here he is conducting a sublime piece from Antonin Dvořák to soothe our troubled minds:

Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, cond. Kurt Masur - Dvořák: 8 Slavonic Dances, Op.72, No.2 in E Minor (Allegretto grazioso)

Kurt Masur (18th July 1927 – 19th December 2015)