A Little Chaos

I'm on the train back to Trelawnyd.One minute I am sipping a nice coffee in a very select hotel just off Tavestock Square, the next, I am sitting in the middle of an entire troupe of very loud Irish folk on the way to the ferry in Holyhead.
It's like the potato famine in reverse.

Anyhow, today's thought for today is just when did Kate Winslett reach 40.?
It only seems like yesterday that she and her teenage  cupid bow lips ran amok in Ang Lee's masterpiece " Sense and Sensibility " and look at her now, all curvy, womanly and  bravely showing her age in Alan Rickman's second feature as director, the period drama " A Little Chaos".
In it, Winslett Plays Madam Sabine de Barra, a self taught garden designer , who is hired by King Louis XIV to design a garden feature in his Palace at Versailles. Sabine is somewhat of a free spirit with a sad past, and her designs and way of life come into conflict with the ordered life and ways of senior garden guru Andre de Notre ( the smouldering Mathias Schoenaerts) and the claustrophobic intensity of King's court.
Sounds good eh?

Well, in parts it IS .Winslett is quite magnificently buxom,  sexy and rather beautiful in her role. Without a scrap of make up ( yeah right) she outshines any actress half her age but unfortunately the storyline changes from one of path of a self determination woman in 17th Century France  to one of a fairy insipid love story c/o Mills and Boone.
However, I did enjoy Rickman's vulnerable King Louis and Stanley Tucci was on top form as the king's wisecracking bisexual brother Phillipe, I could have easily watched an entire film just about them!

If you go and see it, look out for one emotionally powerful scene,which is remarkably well done.
In it Sabine finds herself shut away with the women of King's court, women who are not allowed to talk about grief or personal unhappiness. An impromptu therapy session starts with the woman and eventually Sabine sharing stories about the children they have lost and for a short moment we see the film's heart and real emotion for the first time.  Phyllida Law and the wonderful Jennifer Ehle literally shine in this scene.
So, if you want a sweet undemanding movie to end a wonderful day in London " A Little Chaos" is the perfect choice. 6/10

Right, I'm now home....again big thanks to Eirlys, John amd John& Mandy for the exemplary animal care.......it's back to normal......i've got to pick old Trevor up from his physio appointment in an hour or so, Winnie's fanny flannel is on the side just begging to be used and there is a decomposing corpse of a rabbit on the living room rug that needs disposing of thanks to Albert
Yes back to normal
Hey ho

A Day Off

Well thanks to Eirlys & John ( who have taken four dogs to their bosoms) and John & Mandy next door ( who have looked after the field) I have been given a pass to accompany my husband to London for a quick overnight jaunt.
I'll be back in Trelawnyd by noon tomorrow, The Prof is working in tbe capital for most of the week.
We've crammed a lot in

The Prof & I in The British Museum)

A quick visit to the British Museum ( above)

A cracking Indian meal at Dishoom at Covent Garden ( we had to queue outside!)

A walk town along the River

A free organ recital at Westminster Abbey ( I've never been)

Drinks in Soho

Followed by cinema at Leicester Square

( " A Little Chaos " with the fulsome Kate Winslett)

It's been a cracking Day

Saturday shite

Typical saturday

William's skin condition is playing up,

The immersion heater's bust again,

The ball cock in the water tank is dodgy,

Meg still has the shits,

The kitchen sink is blocked, 

The Prof has calf cramp,

And Winnie's still searching for the " slippers of sex"

The bed's unmade,

Bingley has been chasing anyone on the field,

I've still havent delivered eggs to Cae Glas

And I have alarge hole in my best underpants

Hey ho

" With A Nick Knack Paddy Wack"

K

Ingrid Bergman in Wales

Fifty miles to the West of Trelawnyd  way back in the 1950s a major Hollywood movie was filmed. The harsh mountains of Snowdonia doubled for a war ravaged 1930s China in Ingrid Bergman's " Inn Of The Sixth Happiness" , a film I adored as a child because it had a boy's own adventure feel about it as Gladyd Aylward led her 100 children across the mountains to safety

Today, strange as it would seem, I was reminded of Inn Of The Sixth Happiness.

For, as I was feeding the animals a long crocodile of chattering children appeared down the lane led by one of the school helpers with a flag on a long stick.

I stopped to watch as the entire village school filed slowly past, each child and teacher in their bright green florescent jacket.  I spied Animal helper Pat marshaling the line and she called out that they were all off to the neighbouring village of Dyserth. " We are all going to the Church " she called pulling a face......... " across the fields"

We never had such a treat when I was in primary school

I snapped this photo of the end of the crocodile as it snaked across the sheep fields ( you have to look 

very closely in the centre to see anything) and thought just how lucky the village is to have kept this thriving and popular little school. We lost the post office and the shop , but at least Trelawnyd school is safe for the time being. The school provides the village with a noisy heart.

Now the school children are driven in from a wide area between three villages and before 9 am and after 3 pm and our lane is often gridlocked with cars picking up and dropping off....a minor irritation given the positives that the school brings..

As the line continued to snake past, I spied affable despot Jason' s daughter, who waved energetically. I waved back and I heard her explain to her classmates just who I was

" He's a close family friend" she informed her classmates seriously 

Just out of interest, I took a look at the Trelawnyd School website this morning.

I kind of like the school's aims which are listed there

Work hard

Be excellent

Take pride in our work 

Learn about faith

Be kind

Use welsh everyday

Be healthy

Look after our school and world

Take responsibility for our actions

Make good decisions

Have fun

Aunty Betty

When I was lying in bed this morning listening to The Professor harrumphing about another pile of poo on the kitchen floor, I got to thinking about senses of humour.

Just how does our ability to find things funny develop I  thought to myself when The Professor let out another huge sigh and called out " oh Bloody Hell...there's ANOTHER soddin pile "

Right on cue, Meg got up , circled herself in the duvet and let out a tiny whistling fart and I found myself giggling behind the pillow.

The Professor is amused by many things but isnt a big belly laugher.
I love silly, daft and slightly surreal situations.....and I think that this stems from one wonderful childhood memory which centred upon Aunty Betty, and a packet of chocolate buttons.

The wheres and the whys of the situation remain shady, but I do remember being in the garden of one of my parent's friends homes with a set of what on reflection , were some fairly inebriated adults.
One of my mother's friends was a busty, gravel voiced Jewish Matron called Betty, who looked remarkably like a man....she for some strange reason,had poured herself into a 1970s dress which was far too small for her and was, as I remember, dancing on the lawn with a martini glass in her hand.

Suddenly Betty had the urge to climb up a nearby child's slide and with her massive cleavage waving like a Galleon in full sail she caught her dress on the top rail and was stuck fast.
For some strange reason she had also been feeding herself chocolate buttons from a packet and as she became trapped half of them clattered down her dress between her bosoms

I remember lying in the grass with the other children crying with laughter until it hurt, and the more Betty struggled, the more stuck she became, her hand shoved down her dress in a futile effort to
scoop out the now melting chocolate. It was that half amused/ half desperate look on her face that made me laugh so hard.......that coupled with a chocolate covered cleavage, I think, set the scene for my love of the inappropriate and the surreal.

What was the first thing that you remember that made you belly laugh as a child?
I'd be interested to hear.........I wonder if it informed your humour needs for life?..as I think Aunty Betty's chocolate covered bosoms did for me.

Series 1

With Series 6 not starting until October

I was excited when I saw series 1 repeated on sky!

I had forgotton just how good characters Jim, Moralas and Amy were

Hey ho

Iola, Lentil Dhal, Stolen Sweet Pastry, and a deflated Custard Tart

It's going a missmash of a blog today.

A missmash sort of day it has been

Yola's Father I.P.Jones

This morning two ambling figures were spied walking back from the old shop along London Road. Both were pushing those strange looking mixtures of zimmer frane and shopping trolley, so their progress was incredibly slow and deliberate.
I crossed the road to say hello and strange as it sounds also a final goodbye for the couple are due to leave Trelawnyd very soon.
I first met the Endres when I was collecting information on the History of the village.
( see http://trelawnydhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/mrs-iola-endres-nee-jones.html)
 Iola Endres is one of the last of Trelawnyd's Royalty still living in the village. She ran the village shop as her father had done for many years and knows the history of the place inside and out. Now, after a period of ill health her and her husband are off to live near her daughter in Manchester.
I wished them well, but it wasnt a happy encounter.
Back home I made a lentil dahl for supper

Then made a batch of sweet pastry , half of which was stolen from the kitchen table by Meg. Who is now sleeping it off on the living room arm chair
No doubt we are now in for a night of THE SHITS!

Meg nursing a dickey tummy

I made another batch in a rush in order to bang out a custard tart
But the effing thing leaked in the oven , leaving a tart only 4 mm thick!
I salvaged two wafer thin wedges and later will take them up to my friend Bob ( the ex poultry farmer who taught me how to " neck" a  chicken) who has just come out of hospital.
Mind you, looking at the state of the slices , I'm not sure I'll bother

Oh the shame!

They look as though Ive sat my arse on em

Love Is Strange

Few movies about life have at their heart a stable and loving relationship , for angst often is mistaken for a more cracking cinematic drama than everyday, " mundane" love.
"Love Is Strange" is therefore a rare beast, for at it's heart is a stable, loving and totally believable love affair between fifty something music teacher George ( Alfred Molina) and seventy something artist Ben ( John Lithgow).
We first meet the pair on the morning of their wedding as they bicker and spar in their Manhattan apartment and from the get go the film captures perfectly that every day ease long term partners possess in bucketfuls. It is clear that this movie isnt after histrionics and queeny drama.

Through a series of beautifully shot scenes,all bookended with George's students' Musical set pieces, the film follows the couple's unexpected separation. for after their marriage George is fired from his catholic school job and the pair have to sofa surf at friends' and family's apartments for a while when their own home is put on the market.
Through problems with personal space, moody nephews, exasperated nieces ( a great understated performance by Marisa Tomei btw)and claustrophobic new living places, Ben and George's relationship remains strong , affectionate and unwavering and it is clear that the audience really longs for the time when their pair finally get together, such is the winning performance by Molina and Lithgow....
It's a wise and lovely movie.
8/10