Rare Moments of Beauty-
A glimpse in Time:
One evening I was walking from the library
to the shopping centre and between apartment
buildings there are lovely palm trees in pots
and water ponds. It was a cold windy night
without too many people about. Even so, I was
quite entranced by the little plays of water displays
from the little fountains with illuminated lights
glowing from the water. Just beautiful! As not
many people were around I thought that these
majestic little displays must be for the people
living in the apartment buildings.
Another time one evening not long before Christmas
I was walking through Aotea Square in Auckland.
This was also a cold wind-swept night with not too many
people there. I was surprised as there was a group
singing on a stage and the few people watching were
wrapped up against the cold. The music was so
wonderful and haunting, it remains with me even
today. A beautiful song which the group was singing
and the sound seemed to follow, one line from the song
of which
I remember: “from the cradle to the grave.”
Rare moments of beauty:
I have been looking at some of the wonderful images
from le bal de Versailles where people dress in costume.
After looking at some of these pictures I can readily
imagine how beautiful and magnificent it must have
been when the king, Louis XIV, would walk around the gardens
of Versailles with his courtiers.
I can visualise the magnificent colours of the ladies' dresses
in the picturesque and wonderful settings. Even in the
stifling hot of the summer weather (when sometimes the restricted
clothing may have become uncomfortable) these occasions must have been
rare and wonderful glimpses of beauty in time. The beautiful
fountain displays may have had a cooling effect with the spray
from the water jets. A softly blowing breeze from the direction of the trees
may also have
tempered the scene. On one occasion
the scent from the flowers was so heady that the king and his courtiers
had to leaved. This was in the vicinity of the Trianon.
I remember vividly a scene of Marie Antoinette in the gardens at Versailles
near her hameau from the film “Marie Antoinette.” At this time Marie
Antoinette had chosen white cotton clothing which may have been more
comfortable for her in the hot weather. She also had a portrait painted
dressed in this fashion which was unfortunately
not approved of as the clothing was not in keeping
with the expectations of how the queen of France
was supposed to be. However, even in this film,
the moments of beauty and truth did shine through.
This piece of music seems to me to reflect the quality
and beauty of time and its passing nature: Mary's Song
played by Nick Cave which I came across yesterday
on face book:
Elizabeth I must also have looked magnificent at times:
her rainbow portrait is a favourite and she lived up to to
her image of "the faerie queen" as depicted in the poetry
of Edmund Spenser.
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