Round Robin

I loved having Nige over as we could yak on about films all day long if allowed. Strange that I was talking about round robin e mails with him last night and hey presto I recieved one such e mail from another friend tonight.
Had a relaxing few minutes filling it all in:-

1Q:Do you ever go to the cinema on your own?
A. Yes, actually I prefer to watch a film alone if I can, but usually only for afternoon showings. I love being in a cinema totally alone

2Q: what was the first film do you remember going to see in the cinema?
A: “The sound of Music” in the scala, Prestatyn. With Janet (twin) and mother. I think my Aunt Greta was there too. I was bored but liked the nuns (how gay was that even then?>>>)

3Q: Have you ever “made out” with a girl on the back row?
A: strange as this may seem, I have………tee hee…….It was a long long time ago and I must have hated the film in question (It was The Cassandra Crossing). No I don’t remember her name.

4Q: Tub of ice cream or popcorn?
A: oh Ice cream every time

5Q: What is the film that MOST disappointed you?
A: As a teenager it was Airport 79-The Concord and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure….(truly awful disaster films) Recently Elizabeth- the golden age was a major let down.

6Q: Subtitles? Can you do them and what foreign films do you rate?
A: I love world cinema…….too many films to mention really but lets see: A very long Engagement, Amelie, Central Station, La vie en Rose, The Orphanage, The Chorus, Ne la,dis a personne, talk to her, All About My Mother, Pans labyrinth,

7Q: What film did you last cry at?
A: I had a sniff at the end of The Savages, when Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman ( as brother and sister) fall asleep together after the death of their father…..( a beautiful and subtle scene)

8Q: Have you ever walked out of a film?
A: Many many times………I just won’t put up with a terrible movie. The last film I walked out of was with Hazel….I don’t remember the title of it…it was that bad!

9Q: What 1940’s films have you loved?
A……another easy question, , Mrs Miniver, Key Largo, I remember Mama, Went the day well, Mildred Pierce, to name but a few

10Q: Have you seen a porn film in a cinema?
A: no fraid not………..I get dreadfully embarrassed if there is a graphic sex scene in a general film. Having said this I did see a dvd called “Banged up-Male prisoners on the loose” once……no Oscars for excellent acting there……nuff said

11Q: Which film star/ film character do you find sexy?
A: hummmm……..Russell Crowe in Gladiator would be number one (of course), Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain would be a close second ( I know he’s too young for me); runner ups would be Peter Sarsgaard in Kinsey, Damien Lewis ( even if he is a ginger) in Band of Brothers and Robert Mitchum in anything …

12.Q: Which star surprised you by being sexy on screen?
A; What a strange question? Erm probably Peter Dinklage in The Station Agent.

13.Q Who is your favourite child actor?
A: Easy…..Joseph Mazzello in Shadowlands…….I cried buckets at his scenes with the sobbing Anthony Hopkins

14.Q: How often would you like to go to the movies
A: Every day………

Golden Grove and Gwaenynog

The National Garden scheme (NGS) http://www.ngs.org.uk/gen/default.aspx is a brilliant National scheme which allows the general public to visit private gardens for a charitable donation. I love it, you get a chance to poke around someone else's home, enjoy and learn from usually inspired planting and have a home made cake and cup of tea....not bad for 3 quid.
Today the village of Llanasa opened six of its best gardens,the best being the stunning Golden Grove Manor House which overlooks the Gop only a mile or so from our village. I absolutely fell in love with the Elizabethan house and gardens and strange as it seems I almost felt as though I had come "home" (I wish!!!!!!!!!!!)
We ambled through the village to the quaint village hall to have too many cakes and cups of strong tea ( Nigel was in heaven)
We dropped Nige off at the station for his trip back to Stockport, then drove up to Denbigh to see another open garden at Gwaenynog, which was the inspiration for Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit garden. Mr McGregor's potting shed (pic) is quite sweet.
I think we would have enjoyed the garden more if the weather had been a little better. 60 mile-an-hour winds have ripped branches from trees and caused havoc on the roads. Two trees in Trelawnyd Church yard have been toppled and all my runner bean canes have been tossed around like matchsticks.

Chester and a new poultry convert?

We took Nige over to Chester today so he could have a trip down the memory lane of his childhood visits. We had an amble over the 1924 footbridge,a rather damp ice cream on the river and a mooch around the shops.
By accident we fell upon a summer festival parade near the town hall, and was impressed by some of the European looking "pagan "puppets and symbols on show.

We got back around 5, just enough time to walk the dogs and sort out the hens and ducklings.Geoff the friendly chap from the other side of the village who had come to see the poultry runs with his family earlier in the week, called in and seems to have been bitten by the poultry keeping bug. He is hoping to make his own hen house soon so I have enjoyed showing off my extensive(!?) hen knowledge.It is nice to have another potential hen convert locally.

Brittle

Brief blog today. Just getting things sorted before going to work, and of course Nige is visiting later.
Had a phone call last night from a friend. It was a sad call, their partner had just admitted to having feelings for someone else. It was a sudden, out- of -the- blue- revelation, and my friend's devastation was total,profound and terrible to hear.
I guess all of us rely on other people for our meandering journey in everyday life, and the shock of realising that the bedrock of what you hold close and dear is no longer there (or more importantly wants to be there) must be catastrophic.
Sometimes life seems so very fickle doesn't it?

First Crops

Some of the radish I picked this morning are the size of small turnips! And the potatoes look pretty good, even though the crop is smaller than last years' due to the dry spell we had earlier in the year. I have 8 full rows to dig up and sell, but the first of the spuds I will be taking to work tomorrow.

The ducklings have turned the corner from babies to adolescents and I have opened up their small run now and they have full access to the larger electrified run. I saw the lady from the farm in Axton (just on the other side of the village) this morning and she warned me about a local fox which has so far taken 12 of her hens this week.

The electric fences are on all day now

The Buff girls

The Buff chicks are in their second week of life, and are starting to show a little more personality than they did. They are also a joy to look after compared to the shit flinging dirty ducklings, as they remain clean, tidy and rather sweetly "fluffy".(Mind you I had to remove some tenacious clingons from each of the chicks the other night.......lovely job)

The weather has improved today too, so my mood has improved with it.Back to work tomorrow, where I will be taking multiple orders for my new potatoes which are ready to earth.

I have taken an annual leave day on Saturday ( which has angered one member of senior staff........me thinks we will have a lively "discussion" when I next see her! which I am looking forward to), as friend Nigel is visiting this weekend, which should be fun.I need to plan another Sheffield trip too, as I am having withdrawals for a good gossip with Mike, Jonney H and Jane.

The Savages

I knew I would be impressed by The Savages (2007) I rented the dvd while Chris was in Canada, but didn't watch it as it was showing at Theatre Clwyd tonight,and I thought I would concentrate on it better in the formal setting of the cinema. I was glad I waited.
The story I think will resonate with many people approaching middle age, as it centres upon the ordinary and slightly damaged siblings of a remote and fairly unlikable father who is suffering from the early stages of dementia.Brother and sister (a shabby withdrawn unsuccessful academic- Philip Seymour Hoffman and neurotic fantasist- Laura Linney) are cornered into organising their father's institutional care ,which in turn forces them out of their defensive introspection , to take somewhat better control of their own chaotic and lonely lives.
Hoffman and Linney literally break your heart with the realism of their roles.They play the whole thing patiently and without sentimentality. The characters are flawed, and deeply so, but gently engage the audiences' sympathy time and time again, you genuinely believe the two have forged this erratic,lifelong bond and undisclosed history only siblings of dysfunctional parents can have.
Of course the subject matter echoed some of my own experiences. Some of the latter scenes where the siblings face the forced cheerfulness of nursing home life are dreadfully painful to watch, but it is the reality of the relationships between brother and sister that really linger in the mind.
A wonderfully truthful film