Tuesday 3rd February - beauty and books

 Frittering away a bit of time on YouTube I came across this

'O salutaris hostia' by Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds, sung by Voces8. 

TEXT

O salutaris hostia,

Quæ cæli pandis ostium:

Bella premunt hostilia,

Da robur, fer auxilium.

Uni trinoque Domino,

Sit sempiterna gloria,

Qui vitam sine termino,

Nobis donet in patria.

Amen.

TRANSLATION

O saving victim,

Who opens the gate of heaven:

Hostile wars press upon us,

Give strength, bring aid.

To the one and triune Lord,

May there be eternal glory,

Who gives us life without end,

In our heavenly homeland.

Amen.

Just, just glorious. Even without the video you can hear the joy in the sound.

I've finished reading 'The Egg and I" by Betty MacDonald. I got it because of a mention in Jane Brocket's newsletter (you can follow her on substack') two Sundays ago. It's an account of the first years of her marriage to a marine who decided to be a chicken farmer, and bought an old farm up in the mountains in the Puget Sound area. It's back in what must be the 1930s, there's no running water or electricity. Be warned though, she has a shocking opinion of the native Americans living nearby. I hope things gave changed since then... it's a very backwards, backwoods community. Some of her stories are hair-raising, others plain hilarious. 

I'm now about to start Brian Bilston's "Diary of a Nobody", and I've also been dipping in and out of "My Family and other Animals" by Gerald Durrell for a bit of sunshine, for there sure ain't any change in the weather round hereabouts!