Monday Miscellany

After a short break I thought I'd better ease myself back into writing a blog post so below are just a few things I've enjoyed seeing and doing over the last few days.

Morning Coffee at the Glost House which has newly opened not far away in the courtyard of the old Phoenix Works.

It's quite trendy and industrial inside. From the menu lunches look interesting and tasty although it being around 11a.m. we just had coffee and toasted teacakes.

 There is the added bonus of the Period Property shop and the Portmeirion Factory shop to visit too.

 Last Friday morning we were visited by one of the regular evening foxes a vixen we call 'Miss Limpy' because of her misshapen back leg.  It isn't an injury, I think she has always had it as she has been around for at least three years and always limps and holds her leg up when she stands still.  She is a beautiful fox.

 We think she came out in daylight because she probably has a cub and if she had been with it all night she would have been hungry enough to venture out in the early morning.

 Signs of Spring - orange tulips and matching Crown Imperial flowers in the Italian Garden at Trentham Gardens.

 There were also some lovely purple and pink tulips too

 The pink cherry blossom was out along the side of the River Trent as it passed by the garden centre.

 These trees always look so spectacular at this time of year.  I hope the expected wind and rain doesn't batter them too much.

In the fields lots of lovely little lambs, running, jumping and gambolling together. 

 We've done lots of digging and weeding in the garden in the last few days, the grass has been cut too.  We left it too late to sow Sweet Pea seeds so we bought some little plants.

 A rough and ready wigwam was built with sticks

 and the plants planted and watered in.  They are now in the greenhouse until the warmer weather returns.

Watching and reading

We've re-watched the films '84 Charing Cross Road', 'Housewife 49', and 'Suffragette' and discovered a delightful film called 'My Old Lady.' 

I've also been enjoying one of my favourite television series 'Line of Duty'  I've loved this since it began and it just gets better and better.

Two books read and enjoyed recently have been the latest in the Maisie Dobbs series 'In this Grave Hour' by Jacqueline Winspear and

'The Ashes of London' by Andrew Taylor

All for now, I'll hopefully be back for Five on Friday.

A Firm Favourite

Anyone who has been reading my blog for a long time will know, as I've probably told you many times before in various posts, than one of my favourite books - probably my all time favourite - is J L Carr's A Month in the Country.

I've also probably told you that the film version is one of my favourite films.

I can also now say that the stage version I saw recently is one of my favourite interpretations of this wonderful novel.  Adapted for the stage by Nobby Dimon the director of a splendid theatre company I hadn't come across before called The North Country Theatre it perfectly captures the very essence of the book.

We went to the performance with some dear friends one of whom is also an avid fan of of this unforgetable story.  Tom Birkin recovering slowly from the traumas of the WWI trenches arrives in the Yorkshire village of Oxgodby to uncover and restore a medieval wall painting in the church. Outside in the fields beyond the churchyard archaeologist Charles Moon, equally traumatised by his wartime experiences is working on an excavation to find the body of the disgraced ancestor of a church benefactor Miss Adelaide Hebron.  The story weaves around these two characters and those of the villagers. The solitary Rev Keach and his beautiful wife, Alice and Station Master Ellerbeck's family including his delightful daughter Kathy who are most definitely 'chapel not church'!  How to create the poignant atmosphere of this month of summer, this month of searching, dreaming, yearning,  recovering, of revelation and burgeoning love?

A small company of five actors with a small revolving stage of moveable props managed to do this in the most amazing and wonderful way.  They captured the characters of the main protagonists so well some of them doubling up and playing two parts.  The whole thing was so well performed, well timed and well constructed that it was a work of art in itself.  We had a most wonderful evening in the presence of this company of players who both before and after the show and during the interval will come amongst the audience to chat, to challenge and interact in a way I've never seen before.  Most definitely community theatre at its best.

Scenes from the Last Few Days

On Tuesday we went for a walk along the canal in the market town of Stone.  We hadn't walked along this stretch of the Trent and Mersey canal for quite a while.

I love the old brewery building.  Joules is an old established company started in the town in the late 18th early 19th century by the Joule family.   Here is a - link - to the fascinating history of the Joule's involvement in the brewing industry and also their connection with the standard measure of energy known as 'the joule'.

After our walk we stopped for a coffee and a shared chocolate twist before setting off to Uttoxeter to visit the museum.

We don't visit Uttoxeter very often, I'm not sure why because it is a nice, friendly little town.

With lots of interesting buildings and alleyways.

The Museum didn't open until one o'clock so we decided to have some lunch at a little cafe in Old Saddler's Yard.

We didn't go into the Vintage Tea Emporium although it looked very interesting from the outside.  I think this would perhaps be a good place to have a birthday tea as a special treat.  We got to the Museum about 1.20p.m. and it still hadn't opened up even though notices on the door said it should be  so that was quite a disappointment. We could see the 17th century and wartime kitchens through the windows and it all looked interesting so I'm sure we'll go back another time to have a look.

In the evening we watched Nora Ephron's 'Julie and Julia' and really enjoyed it.  I know I'm late to this film as it has been out at least a couple of years but it is a feast for the eyes from beginning to end and well worth seeing if you haven't already - especially if you like Paris, French food, 50s clothes, blogging and marmalade coloured cats.

Yesterday we went to the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle to see another super production by Northern Broadsides -  this time it was Shakespeare's 'Love's Labour's Lost' directed by Barrie Rutter. 

As usual it was fast paced and well acted with faultless and humerous timing .  The company never fail to amaze me with each actor's ability to not only act but to sing, dance and play a musical instrument as well.  The play ends on a poignant note as the rip roaring Morris style 'stick dance' turns to the sweet, gentle singing of a traditional folk song as it draws to its spellbinding end. 

We're back on-line......

......touch wood! and it didn't take as long as we thought it would. So what have we been doing whilst we've been off line? More painting and decorating and moving of furniture. Plus a lot of de-cluttering, re-cycling and boxing up and storing lots of things that we somehow don't want to part with but don't use very often. There have been trips to the local skip, B&Q and Ikea.

We've been working in the garden when possible but the rain has made it difficult to achieve very much!

There were lots of butterflies around on the sunny days

The Japanese anenomies are in flower - the pink ones always open first - the white ones are still in bud.

I've also been reading

Watching beautiful night skies

and the latest Harry Potter film - now showing at our city museum

Also trying, unsuccessfully, to repel gorgeous but unwanted visitors

Oh, Casper!

It's good to be back although I've got a lot to catch up on so I'll be popping along to visit everyone and reading about what you have been up to over the next few days.