Saturday 5 October 2013

Butterflies of the night


Leeds is a city very dear to me as the place where I was born and have spent almost exactly half my 63 years. It's been marvellous, therefore, to return on a balmy Autumn night and find the centre en fete and enjoying itself with gusto.


Last night was the annual Leeds Light Night when imaginative efforts are made to bring even more light to a centre which is bright with activity on the other 364 evenings of the year. Observe! It even included butterflies - you could even say moths since in many languages these are known as 'butterflies of the night'. But you need to be careful with that phrase.




Years ago, I was part of an entomological expedition to Sulawesi - formerly Celebes - in Indonesia and answered a pleasant local's query about what I was doing by saying that I was looking for 'kupu-kupu malaam', the Bahasa Indonesia equivalent of 'papillons du nuit'. This has another meaning which you can no doubt guess.  We sorted the confusion out, I'm glad to say.


I will now try to upload a film I made with my iPad Mini of the complete star of Light Night, the projections on to the Civic Hall (which is repeated tonight, Saturday 5 October, if you are in the vicinity). It is well worth seeing.


Yay, the film works on a laptop or desktop - not I fear on a phone or tablet.  Hope you can get there.

4 comments:

sarah meredith said...

Hi Martin - I wish you had a "like" button on your blog because sometimes I don't have anything intelligent to say - but I just like it! This post, for instance - I liked it a lot and wish I could have seen the light show in real life - but the video is the next best thing. xxs

Martin Wainwright said...

Hi thereS!

You're too kind and I'm really glad the film worked for you. We've just back from the North where we couldn't actually watch it on my iPad Mini. Hope moth readers are flocking to your Small Daily Paintings and La Vie Quotidienne blogs - click on Sarah's name to access

xx

M & P

Unknown said...

Hi Martin,

My first comment here! Having just purchased the new field guide to day flying moths I'm wondering what the French translation would be called. Papillons de nuit du jour?

MartinWainwright said...

Hi Will. Great to hear from you and what a good point. I will try to find out and come back to you. But your solution seems logical and the French are strong on that

All warmest

M