Far From The Madding Crowd

Carey Mulligan

I've never read any Thomas Hardy, so I know little about Bathsheba Everdene and " Far From The Madding Crowd" I think I saw the 1967 film version once, the one with the beautiful Terrence Stamp in, but I can't remember it very much save for the fact everyone in it looked very 1960s rather than 1870s
Today, I went to see an 11.40  am ( YES AM SHOWING!!!!!!how daring is that in North Wales) of the recent remake and I can honestly say it was one of the best films I have seen this year. Staring the perky and very likable Carey Mulligan as the independent Bathsheba, the film is an absolutely beautiful looking  journey into rural Dorset life of 150 years ago, where rosy faced ,bonnet wearing villagers toil away in the fields of wheat and flocks of sheep plummet from the coastal cliff fields onto the beach chased by stupid sheepdogs

Schoenaerts can look after my sheep anyday

Mulligan's Bathsheba is overly Earnest and pragmatic and so when she is literally swept off her feet by a handsome soldier ( Tom Sturridge) it takes the audience a little by surprise when she says she had never been kissed in her life. A necessary piece of information required for a modern day audience to understand the whirlwind nature of the romance given the fact that the rugged and softly spoken Shepherd Gabriel Oak ( Matthais Schoenaerts) and the quietly despairing bachelor Mr Boldwood ( Michael Sheen) are standing in the wings wanting marriage and a settled down life.
Mulligan is cracking in the lead role but for me it is Schoenaerts who carries the entire film with a quietly assertive and understated performance that makes it's mark in every scene he appears in.
Sheen too is very impressive as the vulnerable and mentally more fragile Boldwood, so much so is that, I am sure he'll get a best supporting actor nod by the Academy Award board.

If you like a proper old fashioned romance...then go and see Madding Crowd...you won't be disappointed
9/10

A Prof In The Abbey

My husband is the prof on the far right

Westminster Abbey

How good is that?

Everything But The Girl

Tonight I went to work at Sams

But another volunteer with a new listener came in by mistake so I 

said that I would cover tomorrow instead.

As I was starting the old Berlingo,

The CD that I had been listening to on my way in blasted into life
( I'm a bit deaf so usually have it on loud)

It blarred so much that two passing rough looking teen girls

turned and gave me a rather disgusted look

One girl with big hoop earrings gestured and shouted something to me

and I turned the CD off and let down the window and called out " what did you say?" 

" I said, you're a sad fuck" she mouthed as her friend cackled

Then explained with a flick of her wrist

" too old for the music"

She was having fun

Kitchen Window

I'm looking out of the back kitchen window, over the washing up, thinking that the cottage sounds all rather quiet.
All I can hear is the rain.
Chris will be shortly walking down the aisle of Westminster Abbey with his floppy Prof hat on and Sorrel will be approaching Broadstairs by train, complete with several new outfits, and a bagful of plants for her garden.
Funny how quiet a place becomes after guests have left.

Ps I found the  " slippers of seduction" in the rubbish bin after Sorrel left!
Tee hee

Light & Shade

When you have visiting family, there is often very little time to do anything else.
Chris is not much of an organiser when things that are not work involved. He prefers to let me fine tune things. It's the way we work.
And so on Friday he mentioned that Mrs Trellis had phoned to ask us all round for a quick drink but had deferred the " sorting out " to me.
I called round at dusk to say we would come.
" I've just been writing an eulogy for sweep" she said and although I was busy, I asked to hear it.
I was glad that I did
There were no lights on in Mrs Trellis' house, and in the gloom of dusk in her kitchen she read out her thoughts about her cherished old dog without embarrassment. Her voice quiet .
I found the whole thing rather moving.

A companion warm and true, whenever I was sad, you came with enquiring eye

Bright with love.

Many many miles we walked.

In early morning mists, past sunlit meadows,

enjoyed warm summer days.

In Autumn the changing leaves matched the colours of your lovely coat.

We saw squirrels chase, we heard the woodpecker drill his tree,

the buzzard mew, teaching her young to hunt.

We stood aside as horses passed.

Head held high, you sniffed the air of the new mown hay, honeysuckle and pine.

You travelled on with proud step in wind, rain and winter snows when even the rooks

were silent.

We walked in the pink glow of fabulous sunsets.

To see the light go from your beautiful eyes.

No more, the lick on my hand , or the paw to hold,

No more the clown to play your favourite ball games.

The garden is quiet, your blackbird does not come to welcome the eventide

I miss him too.

So until we can be together once more 

Goodbye and god bless

The depth of affection humans  possess for animals baffle some people, but I think anyone " non dog"  would have been moved by Mrs Trellis' sincerity and her reading of a poem  at a gloomy kitchen table on a bank holiday weekend.

If Mrs Trellis had lost a relative then, as a regular Churchgoer, I would have thought she would have received support and comfort from the whole congregation. But because she had lost her dog, I don't think that she had received one card of sympathy. 

Funny that.

A Good Champagne

More harrumphing by the Prof who is cooking dinner

Sorrel and I are just a little red faced after 

two very large glasses of good champagne 

at Mrs Trellis'

and are sat uselessly in the front room

Sorrel likes a good champagne

The Pink Slippers Of Seduction

We were all settling down to the wartime itv series " Home Fires" ( which is a likable Home Counties version of Tenko) when Winnie suddenly spied Sorrel's pink fluffy slippers.
What happened next was a rather unsavoury bulldog masturbation moment which was only stopped by a bit of old lady screaming....
Chris has created a monster
Oh the shame

Home Fires......Samantha Bond gives it large

Prof's Birthday

It's the Prof's birthday today
So in way of celebration I have tried on his official Prof's cap which has been temptingly been left out for an " official do" next week

I've been dying to play with it for ages!
( I didn't have time to run around in his grey cape as he was coming up the stairs!)
Hey ho
Anyhow
We are off for lunch at Bodnant gardens with Sorrel then afternoon tea at Bodysgallen Hall. Mrs Trellis has invited us all for champagne and stawberries tomorrow