For the third time in the space of about a week – I have experienced another flash of Schiaparelli Pink.
My first flash occurred whilst at work – when a book came into the shop for recycling called ‘Bluff Your Way In Literature’; as quick as a flash I bought it!
It’s a complete god-send if I’m to make any impression on my learned Yaffle friend – a Professor of Literature no less!
Not impressed!
Although who’s bluffing who? It wouldn’t surprise me if clever Yaffle himself hasn’t got a copy close at hand – sandwiched between Spinoza and his other 5099 odd books – and that our friendship is really all one double bluff!
The second flash was a Schiaparelli sunset – Friday 16th June 2017. 
The third flash came after dark…
Upon the velvet wings and striped back of a very beautiful Moth…
I found her on the surface of the road basking in the soft orange glow of a street lamp – clearly unaware of the danger posed by passing cars – or my impending clodhopper! 
No harm done – I picked her up and let her go into the warm night…
A confession. Because I’ve never followed fashion – or once flicked through the pages of a British Vogue magazine, I’d never have known about the famous couturier, Elsa Schiaparelli – had it not been for my learned friend mentioning her signature colour in one of his illuminating emails. This post would have just been called ‘something’ or ‘other’…
Nor would this ephemeral beauty – an Elephant Hawk-Moth, be forever remembered by me – as ‘Elsa’. 