Going Gently

The Ladies

Lady Eleanor Butler (1739-1829) & Sarah Ponsonby( 1755-1831) are well known in North Wales as the famous Ladies Of Llangollen. Famous just as much today as they were in the 1800s, these two recluse eccentrics moved to Wales from Ireland to set up a home together at Plas Newydd in what was always presumed ( but never really proved) in a lesbian relationship.

Last night I went to see the premier of Celebrated Virgins, a new play by Kati Elgin Salt . From the get go the play informed the audience that it was going to redress history by telling the true story of Eleanor and Sarah from their privileged Irish start to their goldfish bowl existence in the picturesque Welsh town of Llangollen .

I will try not to give much away but the play has two very differently paced halves. The first is set in Ireland and effectively sets up the meeting of these two amazing women where as the second , and lighter half looks at their lives in Wales.

There is much marching around the stage by the cast , which is a bit distracting , but the love affair between Eleanor ( Victoria John) and Sarah( Heather Agyepong is rather movingly told to be honest but I must admit Emma Pallant steals the show with her duel handed role as Sarah’s adopted mother and as the Ladies’ foul mouthed personal Irish maid who kept the two women afloat financially when she died in service .Her asides to the audience provided the much needed humour of the play.

It’s such a privilege seeing the opening night of a new play.

I’ve already twitted my thanks to the actors involved and I hope it does well.

Two old broads with tiny feet

Borders Of White

Almost overnight the lane outside the cottage has been bordered with wild flowers.

Predominately white at the moment but the red valerian is making a comeback in between the cow parsley and the aubretia which has survived some over zealous grass cutting by the council workmen.

The lane is softened by the white drifts of flowers and May into June is the best time for the garden too with eight types of aquilegia lifting the borders into pastels once again.

I got up early today walked the dogs then naughtily went back to bed at 10 am

I’m now up and around and feel better for the catch up after working the weekend.

Tonight I’m meeting a friend for some historical lesbian drama at Theatre Clwyd

It’s about the famous Ladies Of Llangollen so I suspect there will be no bodice ripping in sight.

Chairs and Carpets

I was late home tonight.

I witnessed a road accident in Colwyn Bay and stopped to help.

The girl was ok in the bashed mini but I had quite a lot of blood on my hands from a laceration on her knuckles

She told me I looked like her dad as we waited for the police

She was in shock

I needed the last of my Christmas gin when I got home.

The bats were out in force in the lane as the dogs returned

My friend Nigel sent an email about his birthday gift to me

We have the same birthday

Under his message was one from a furniture company

I bought a chair from them a few months ago and they cheerfully told me that it should be delivered tomorrow

A friend had a similar one and I loved the way it felt when I sat in it

I’m a sucker for nice chairs

Just the living room carpet to change,

I’ve toyed with a hardwood floor

But you bloody well can’t have slippy floors with bulldogs around……

They just can’t fucking corner

Andra Day - Rise Up

I love this song, obviously inspired by Maya Angelou.

An anthem for keeping going.eh?

It’s Saturday night and I’ve just had a delightfully hot long shower after work.

Covered in dogs I’m now watching the 1971 The French Connection and I’ve forgotten just how good it is .but I need to go to bed soon as I’m up in the morning

I can’t wait to go part time. Only a month or so to go.

It’s almost dusk and a man is shooting rabbits in the field with a powerful air rifle

I can’t find Albert in the cottage so I’ve just called over for him to be careful as Albert too is hunting rabbits.

The man didn’t look pleased

I didn’t care.

For Albert limped up out of the grass when he heard my voice .

Mrs Trellis left a phone message worried about the war memorial inside the Church

My elder sister messaged asking what I wanted for my birthday

I asked for a super king sized lightweight duvet

Another two friends have messaged me but I’m tired so I promised myself to answer them tomorrow night ….I ate some cold sushi rice with chicken then drank a gin and tonic on the patio before returning to Gene Hackman

It’s almost dark

And the pipistrelle bats are roaring up and down the lane like a Top Gun video with Mary watching them as though she’s sat at Wimbledon

'Still I Rise' by Maya Angelou

The poem is new to me

It slaps you hard when heard for the first time does it not ?

The words AND the performance

It’s Nu’s birthday today, she’s in Turkey

Off to work

First Kiss

Kitchen table

Coffee.

The bantam cockerel is noisy next door which is strange as it’s 10.30.

I’m planning my cooking for the weekend as I’m working both days

Katsu curry, sushi and mushroom noodles.

Tonight I’m out to dinner for a colleagues leaving do .

The 1970s Italian in Conwy, Alfredo’s

More coffee, me thinks, then I need to post some birthday cards.

Amongst others it’s Nu’s birthday tomorrow.

My nephew texted me yesterday

The message was simple and to the point.

“ Julie and I had our first kiss today”

I was touched he had shared the milestone with me and managed a exuberant reply of “ OMG !”

“ Yep “ came the economical and proud response.

I told him to keep on practicing if he liked it

And he sent me lots of laughing emojis

😆🤣

Now my first kiss with a girl was a somewhat overblown and unpleasant affair, Her name was Eirian and the kiss was wet and sloppy and passionless. She had a bosom that acted as though it had a brain of its own and I felt somewhat hemmed in by it and Eirian’s lips as I lay prostrate on her parents couch.

I was sixteen and disappointed

I was 18 when I was kissed by a man.

It felt like a one off as it was by the brother of my then girlfriend and although it felt right in so many ways, it totally felt wrong in others.

It was six years later when I was more grown up when I had my second , proper snog with a man.

Now this too was a strange affair which happened after midnight in the back entrance doorway of Bootham Park Hospital’s psychiatric wing.

He was a policeman with a thick black beard who had stopped for a cuppa at our mother and baby unit

I was showing him out when he unexpectedly pushed me against the door and kissed me.

If there was more to the moment, like the build up of flirting or any furtive blushing , I can’t recall it.

I always remember him as being tall and cheerful, and full of manly smiles.

I wonder now if he was just a security guard.

But his kiss was a million miles away from the ones I had experienced before.

And one or two since.

Downton ( Spoilers)

I felt like a Sunday afternoon film today.

Nothing too taxing.

Just something to wash over me .

It had to be Downton Abbey a new Era .

Now watching Downton is a bit like attending a works reunion or a night out with old school mates.

You are visiting with people that you like but you haven’t really got enough time to talk to.

24 main characters within a two hour storyline?

Therefore everything plot line is hurried and save for a couple of scenes, most of the pathos and drama is lost.

It must be slightly annoying for some to watch their favourite characters, for instance Anna, Mr Bates and Danka who just stand around muttering the odd word and I had to smile at Imelda Staunton who popped up in three scenes only to say something like I need a cup of coffee and I’m off to a sleep before exiting stage left.

But it’s very silly and lovely to look at , what with Downton being used as the backdrop for a cinema shoot as most of the toffs relocate to the south of France to take possession of a villa left to Dowager some seventy years previously.

And in good fairy tale style all the romantic loose ends are tied up with Baxter, Mosely, Mrs Padmore and

Barrow finding happier endings.

Of course it is Maggie Smith’s swan song as the wisecracking Lady Dowager and rather movingly her final scene with the glorious Penelope Wilton ( her nemesis for all of the tv series ) is sweet and unhurried and incredibly poignant

Take your tissues

It was sunny in Chester when I left the cinema and it was nice to sit in the sun on Northgate street and listen to a busker playing a Spanish guitar