Nigeness
Nice
Nige, who, like Mr Kenneth Horne, prefers to remain anonymous, was also a founder blogger of The Dabbler and a co-blogger on the Bryan Appleyard Thought Experiments blog. He is the sole blogger on this one, and his principal aim is to share various of life's pleasures. These tend to relate to books, art, poems, butterflies, birds, churches, music, walking, weather, drink, etc, with occasional references to the passing scene. His book, The Mother of Beauty: On the Golden Age of English Church Monuments, and Other Matters of Life and Death, is available on Amazon or direct from the author.
August 2026
September 2026
October 2026
Top Words
- tennyson
- birthday
- christmas
- life
- moore
- hardy
- painted
- butterflies
- right
- look
- poet
- machine
All posts (238)
It's World Poetry Day today (though it should be World Music Day, as it's Bach's birthday).To mark the occasion I've assembled a little collection of poems in which one poet addresses or encounters or hails another – thereby doubling the poetical headcount. Or even tripling it, as here, where Keats encounters Homer...
Another glorious spring day, and this morning I took a walk in hope of seeing more butterflies. There was much to enjoy – birdsong (including chiffchaffs now), flowers and early blossom – but, as it turned out, the slight touch of chill in the breeze was enough to deter the butterflies, fussy creatures that they...
And the birthdays just keep on coming – this time it's John Sebastian, of Lovin' Spoonful fame, and he's 82 today. I loved the Spoonful from the first time I heard them, and still regard Sebastian as a fine songwriter. Here is one of my favourites – a good-time song with some very clever lyrics...
A proper spring day at last: blue sky, a warming sun and a drying wind – and butterflies! Peacocks flying or basking everywhere, including two at once in the garden, one nectaring at length on a primula. I can't say I've noticed any burnished doves, but...."In the spring, Jeeves, a livelier iris gleams upon the...
It is an oft lamented fact of modern life, at least in 'Broken Britain', that nothing seems to work any more. Lord knows, I've lamented it myself often enough – so it is good to be able to report that I've found at least one thing that still works, and actually works far better than it used to... Some time last week...
Born on this day in 1593, in the Duchy of Lorraine, was the painter Georges De La Tour, a somewhat mysterious figure of whom little is known, and who was quite forgotten until his work was rediscovered in the early 20th century. He's generally classified as a follower of Caravaggio, but that influence came...
The month of March really should have been called January, after the double-faced Janus, looking both backward and forward. March looks back to winter, giving us frequent reminders of its cold and gloom, and forward to spring, offering tantalising glimpses of what is to come. It is the true hinge of the year, a...
Last night Call the Midwife – the BBC's cosy, corny, sentimental, occasionally brilliant Sunday-night drama – finally came to an end, after 14 years. Well, it might be back with a prequel or even a spin-off, but it's certainly over for me, because Sister Monica Joan – the oldest nun and by far the most interesting ,...
A few weeks ago, I lamented the lack of finches and other songbirds in the garden. Since then, happily, the goldfinches have returned in good numbers, along with chaffinches and – a particularly welcome return – greenfinches. No blackcaps or siskins, alas, but they were only occasional visitors at best. I don't know...
You can say what you like about Facebook – and many of my acquaintance won't go near it, indeed flinch at the very name – but I find that it does throw up some unexpected gems from time to time. Here's one that popped up today – 'Enough already of Lacan, Derrida, and Foucault poured like ketchup over everything....
Here, to lower the tone, is a little something that Philip Larkin wrote on the, er, challenges of personnel management...AdministrationDay by day your estimation clocks upWho deserves a smile and who a frown,And girls you have to tell to pull their socks upAre those whose pants you'd most like to pull down.It seems...
Page 11 of 20