Heron

Just as I took this shot, a heron flew past, which I took to be auspicious. The weather seems to be changing, as presaged by the Simpsons clouds.

PS - very pleased to have got the words "auspicious" and "presaged" into a single paragraph. And look, I've done it again!

Today's first listen was to the first Creedence Clearwater Revival album from 1968, which featured in a new TV series I watched last night - Gangs of London. The song featured is my favourite Suzie Q.

My painting of the day is one that I have seen in Madrid.  Painted by Giambattista Tiepolo in 1752-53, it shows The Death of Hyacinthus.  It is based on a classical tale of the Greek god Apollo, who killed his lover Hyacinthus in a sporting competition, in which they were throwing the discus. One of Apollo's throws bounced off the hard ground and killed the young man. 

In the painting, the cause of the death was not a discus but a tennis ball. That might sound feeble but the indoor game of  "real tennis" played in the 18th century, only by affluent men,  used a very hard ball, made of leather and filled with wool, hair or sand. They could cause a nasty injury or even death.  In 1751, Frederick, Prince of Wales, was hit so badly by a tennis ball in the stomach that he died of internal bleeding.