TRIO MANDILI – The Vampire's Wife

Trio Mandili

My husband passed on this bittersweet message, that was sent to the Red Hand Files, from someone called Trond, that included this terminally cute video by Georgian band, Trio Mandili. I’m not sure either of us can answer your question, other than to say it is easy to forget how sweet the world can be and to see such an unaffected display of beauty can’t help but bring a tear. And who doesn’t have a soft spot for donkeys! Love, Susie x

Why does this make me cry?

A couple of years ago, it would have made me just happy.

Something about innocence lost, maybe… The state of the world?

Love, Trond, Calgary, Canada

THE EXTRAORDINARY WENDY WHITELEY

My husband and I spent a lovely afternoon at Wendy Whiteley’s house, overlooking her amazing ‘secret garden’ in Lavender Bay in Sydney. Wendy and her husband, the renowned artist Brett Whiteley, set up their family home there in 1970 where they lived together for two decades. Brett painted many of his iconic Sydney Harbour pictures in the house. Brett was a defining influence on Nick as a young art student and musician living in Australia. It was a perfect day spent with an absolutely fascinating and powerful woman.

AH, MY DEAR ANGRY LORD

I love this terse little poem by the English poet, orator, and priest, George Herbert about the contradictory nature of religious belief, its good and bad sides, and its joy and sorrow. There's nothing like a bit of hard religion on a Sunday morning!!

NO TEAR-FLOODS OR SIGH-TEMPESTS

In A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, the English poet, John Donne, likens his relationship with his wife, Mary, to a spiritual entanglement between two souls as he says farewell to her before he goes on a mission to Europe. I love the lines ‘let us melt and make no noise/no tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move’. Beautiful!