Marion

Now while Cate Blanchett makes for a spunky and not so maidly "I'm as good as any man" Marion...My mind got to thinking about probably the best and most famous of the cinematic Maid Marions.....namely Olivia deHavilland.
On reflection, de Havilland was a stunning and rather charismatic film star. She was beautiful,charming and had the most perfect modulated speaking voice that belied the fact that she had a steely strength beneath her English rose looks.

I guess that the closest film character to the real Olivia deHavilland's personality was in fact her most famous creation, and that was the southern belle Melanie from Gone with the Wind.

Polite, socially warm and dignified yet when the chips were down, a woman who would fight tooth and nail for herself and her family...
Some of this personality was evident in her earlier film The Adventures Of Robin Hood.

Ok her Marion was a real Maid, and not as practical as Blanchett's interpretation of the character ( I couldn't quite see deHavilland shoeing a cart horse as Cate did), but for me the quintessential Marion must always be Olivia deHavilland

Robin Hood

There is something quite attractive about the gruff, testosterone filled Russell Crowe. I think that his appeal ( well to me anyhow) is that, as a film actor, he knows how to use his masculinity to such good effect.......so in a similar vein to the likes of Robert Mitchum, he commands the screen and attention in a typical alpha male power house kind of way.
Having said that, Crowe (like Mitchum) is not just manly eye candy! both men have acted quite wonderfully; indeed Crowe's performances in productions such as LA Confidential, The Insider, 3.10 to Yuma, and State of Play are some of the best I have seen in recent years......
Ok, Ok...I am a fan...can't you tell?...perhaps I am acting just a little like my female turkeys? I am a sucker for a pretty masculine face!

Anyhow back to Robin Hood!

Hummmm.......well let's point out the good points!

Crowe gets his kit off (albeit briefly)...

Spunky old Cate Blanchett does a wonderful South Yorkshire accent

and Max Von Sydow is rather sweet as Robin's adoptive father

oh and some of the action sequences of this rather original retelling of a tried and tested story are exciting and worth the price of a cinema seat alone.

However.....there is plenty to test even a Crowe fan like myself....

That old chestnut of the time taken travelling from the coast to Nottingham (165 miles) is , as it was in all preceding Robin Hood movies, ignored totally; a small point , I know, but it is one that grates.

Russell's accent ( supposedly a South Yorkshire accent----one I know well) is truly awful. Most of the time he sounds Irish and his attempt at the flat Yorkshire vowels is very distracting. However Scott Grimes ( remember Archie Morris is ER?) is the worst culprit in the accent stakes....his Welsh accent has to be heard to be disbelieved!)

..............................and most importantly the love affair between Crowe and Blanchett, (they have some rather sweet little scenes) is only touched upon oh so briefly, which is a shame.

Robin Hood, is a nice Sunday afternoon epic. It is neither great or average......and unfortunately lies somewhere between the two!

I gave Russell a manly 9/10

Robin Hood I gave a slightly disappointing 7/10

Turkey sex

I moved Bingley, Lizzy,and Kitty the Bourbon red American turkeys (with Jane the single slate turkey) down into the pig house a while ago now. All four of them seem to dislike their quarters with a vengeance, and spend most of their day marching up and down the perimeter fence gazing up at the other poultry way up the field.
I have wondered about this yearning for escape, so today I planned some covert observation. Before I replanted some runner beans, I let the female turkeys out of their enclosure and watched what they would do.
As one the three girls marched the length of the field and immediately joined Boris, Theresa and Gloria. As soon as they reached the older stag, all three females immediately "relaxed" and literally sat down in the grass and waited to be.....well.......to put it bluntly..........well shagged!
It was as though all had responded to their biological urges and had "picked" the older, bigger and obviously "alpha" male in order to fulfill their needs!
Above is a photo of all three girls having a post coital relaxation (if they could have smoked a cigarette, I think they would have done)
Poor Bingley...I think they know he is firing blanks!

With all this sex in the air, I am glad we are off to see sex-on-legs Russell Crowe in the potentially awful Robin Hood later.......review later!

Danielle's Performance - Over The Rainbow - Episode 13 - BBC One

Reality shows are now leaving me just a little cold.....but I must say having caught this girl's performance tonight.....I think that sometimes these awfully contrived programmes can throw up a real "star"......Danielle is quite a find in Over the Rainbow!!!

She could be Dorothy!

What a difference a day makes

blanche and the allotment

Della and Pirrie to the rescue

Thank goodness for Della.
She stopped by today to let me know that she had seen a fox, as bold as brass walking down the fields near her farm , pen-y-cefn-isa, and although I know that foxes are always around, her warning put me on top alert so to speak.
Tonight, just before the light turned into dusk I made a point of leaving the warmth of the wood stove to go and watch the hens form themselves into small groups outside their respective hen houses (the turkeys and ducks had already been put away into their own houses)

Before I got to the field, I could hear the smallest of my bantam cockerels, Pirrie(above), angrily chattering away from his vantage point on the top of the ark roof. In immediate response the roosters Jesus and old Stanley started to run up the field and the three guinea fowl started to scream from the Churchyard wall. I caught sight of Hughie, Alf and Ivy and all three of them were craning their necks in the direction of the riding school in anger and panic.

I followed their gaze, and there standing 50 yards away with his face poking through a gap in the fence was a large fox.
Despite my advancing years and wellies, I galloped forward shrieking like a girl, and the fox turned and trotted off ( not galloped but trotted! how bloody rude was that?)

I stayed out until every hen was locked up and the guinea fowl were safely up in their Churchyard tree!!
Thanks again Della
x

Lets have a group hug

With the major Government ministers chosen, perhaps there is a place for some optimism at last.......? I do hope so.....
I think people want to see their politicians act like the adults that they are.....no one has to be best friends at work, but we would all like to think of ourselves as professionals when we have to work alongside someone we dont actually like or agree with....
Perhaps the conservatives and the lib dems will now leave the toys in the cot where they belong and start working together.......
who knows?
sigh