Here's one of my butterfly pictures from my walk on Friday. I believe this is a Brown Argus butterfly, which I'm not sure I've ever seen before. They're not uncommon, but they live on chalky grassland, which isn't a habitat I'm around very much. It could be a female Common Blue, but the underwing looks more like an argus to me.
There were three of them, fluttering and swirling together over the flowers, and as I said in yesterday's post it was very windy so they never settled for long. I got several shots of them together, all blurry:
At least you get a sense of the action!
I finished the Rebecca Makkai book, "I Have Some Questions For You," yesterday. It was very good. I definitely recommend it. As I said the other day, it's a mystery novel that also probes some deeper issues about our modern culture.
I also solved a long-standing problem with my iTunes, albeit accidentally! Remember how I said the album covers in iTunes on my phone were all mixed up? I'd be playing Linda Ronstadt and seeing the cover for The Moody Blues, and it was making me crazy. Syncing the phone did nothing to fix the problem, even though the covers were all correctly ordered in my computer. I tried to just live with it, but cover art is an integral part of an album, so I was struggling. What is the Beatles' "White Album" without that white cover?
I'd read that I could delete my iTunes library from my phone and reinstall it, but that seemed rather drastic -- especially since not all albums were affected. About a third had correct covers. So yesterday I tried deleting them piecemeal, selecting only the incorrect ones, and then syncing the phone. I knew I wouldn't lose the music because the computer is the dominant "brain." And sure enough, it worked.
So I spent about an hour deleting and re-installing groups of albums, until suddenly the sync started running very slowly. I restarted everything but that didn't help. Finally I decided to sync just one artist at a time, which I could do in settings.
I thought this would sync the chosen artist but leave the rest of the library intact, but no! Instead it erased EVERYTHING BUT that artist. So basically, I inadvertently deleted the entire iTunes library on my phone except for Peter, Paul and Mary -- more or less the official "cure" that I'd been trying to avoid. Oops!
Happy news: It was easy to re-install by changing the settings back to "all music" and syncing the phone once again. It took awhile because I have just shy of 4,800 songs, but once the process completed, the album covers were all fixed. Now I'm no longer gazing at the face of Perry Como when playing Carole King. Whew!
I thought you might be curious to see the vases I bought at the thrift shop in Dartford on Friday. They're quite heavy and as you can see, they perfectly match my amethyst geode! They have this mark on the bottom:
It took some Googling, but I figured out that this is the mark for Liskeard Glass, a company based in Cornwall. Its name changed to Merlin Glass in 1983, so the vases must be from before that. I paid £8 for the two, and I think that was a pretty good deal. I'd have been happy with one but I couldn't bring myself to separate them!
Last night I watched "The Talented Mr. Ripley," one of my favorite films. Makes me want to go to Italy!
Those vases are lovely, such a great colour and nice contrast against the green sea glass!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful vases - you have a good eye! Well done for surviving the iTunes faff.
ReplyDeleteThe vases are beautiful, I wouldn't have separated them either.
ReplyDeleteI don't have music on my phone, I carry a tiny i-pod if I need to listen, and I just listen to my i-tunes playlist while reading blogs so the album covers aren't something I worry about. You have a LOT of songs.
You cited some pretty cool artistes to illustrate your musical tastes but surely The Archies, The Cheetah Girls and S Club 7 would have been a more authentic reflection of where you are at.
ReplyDeleteThe Talented Mr Ripley?
ReplyDeleteYes, I too like a man whose suit does hang well. Enter Richard Gere. A Saville Road tailor's dream.
Actually, come to think of it, there is the Angel. He too wears a suit as if he were poured into it. Well, he wears anything as if it was made to measure. By the way, don't know if you have ever worn Boss (maybe no need), but (trivia warning) Hugo Boss actually stitched (up) Nazi Uniforms, SS et al. And weren't they just the business. Not to be upstaged by today's Guardia Civil (Spain) and their French and Italian equivalents. Don't ask how I know.
Going off on a tangent here: It's instructive how some men could wear a black bin bag and look stylish. Others? Think sack of potatoes.
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From the hands of Patricia Highsmith who we talked about recently after I had seen the film of her life. I like the Talented Mr Ripley too.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful butterflies and glass. I would have bought those vases, too. Great price. I've had the same problems with my iTunes library. I now have duplicates of about one quarter of my library on my iPhone, although I selected “replace.” And my transfer always stalls at some point which makes it an even bigger mess.
ReplyDeleteI have the same issue though perhaps not as bad, and I too have heard that solution and like you, I thought it sounded too drastic. I've been going the piecemeal approach and mostly just not looking at my phone as it plays the music on shuffle. Perhaps someday with time, I will delete and resync.
ReplyDeleteThose vases are especially beautiful. Love the color and they're pretty with the light behind them. So sorry about the hassle with the music -- I have nothing on my phone much in terms of apps or downloads but that would be frustrating.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, Do you read the Londonist newsletter? It comes out Sunday -- the best-of Londonist edition and when I saw this article on walks, it reminded me of you and your quest for your next walk. Interested in the Romans? Maybe thss would appeal (or some variation thereof!) https://londonist.substack.com/p/weekend-walk-follow-londons-roman
The iTunes fix sounds exhausting. Having two of those beautiful vases instead of just one was a good idea. They look great together.
ReplyDeleteIt is so hard to get a good shot of a butterfly! They do just want to fly and flit about, don't they? One our way to Georgia and back yesterday, we saw thousands of Cloudless Sulfur butterflies. They are migrating, I suppose, as they do every year. Little pieces of sun, darting here and there.
ReplyDeleteI like your vases. I was indeed curious to see what they looked like and I am glad you didn't split them up.
As to the iTunes situation- GOOD LORD! You have way more patience and persistence than I do.
The vases are great, and thank you for investigating the origin. Definitely a find.
ReplyDeleteI've never been much of a music listener, more a player, so your struggles are a bit mystifying, but I'm glad they're resolved.
Very nice vases indeed. The simplicity shows the colour well.
ReplyDeleteThe patterns and colours on butterflies are fascinating..even the ordinary Cabbage Whites, when seen up close
I'm glad you got your iTunes music list all worked out and that the right artist shows up with the song.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful new vases and lovely butterflies there too.
Doesn't it feel like technology is just one serendipitous thing after another? I hardly ever know what I did to mess something up or how I fixed it.
ReplyDeleteLove the vases, but their symbol looks either like the person in a wheelchair sign, or that it's giving you the finger. Ha!
when we got our new phones only 3 albums and 1 song transferred over. not really sure why or what to do about it.my desktop where all my music is stored is ancient and won't sinc anymore. I'm sure there's a way around it but haven't really tried to figure it out.
ReplyDeleteI was stressed a bit reading your iTunes tale. Our Internet is so limited in speed and usage, I'd never want to have to re-download all my songs. It's one of the reasons I'll wait as long as possible to upgrade to a new phone!
ReplyDeleteAmazing how similar the female Common Blue is to the Brown Argus!
At least you know what to do with your Itunes.
ReplyDeleteThose are beautiful vases and look great even as mere decoration. What happened with your iTunes is exactly why I'm terrified to try to fix anything. You were savvy enough to resolve the issue; I wouldn't be!
ReplyDeleteI love those vases, Steve, such a lovely color. I'm catching up on your posts as I have been in the hospital this week. Scary bout with Afib that has gone away so I'm feeling much better and happy to be home checking on my favorite blogs!
ReplyDeleteLinda Ronstadt, the Moody Blues, Peter Paul and Mary, the Beatles. My music!!!!
ReplyDeleteYour vases are delightful. What a great find.
Those vases are simply beautiful. I look forward to seeing what kinds and colours of flowers you use them for. As for the tech adventure, I find I have not enough confidence to initiate a big change, but when big change is thrust upon me somehow I'm able to handle it, as you did here! Well done :)
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