Spring forward

Having bought a container at a charity shop for a flower arrangement, imagine my surprise and delight to discover it contained dormant bulbs in dried out compost.

The bulbs, replanted in fresh compost and placed in the porch, became beautiful, fragrant hyacinths to greet our arrival home.

The Rainbow Allotment, where I am a volunteer, is beginning to flourish – but so are the weeds.

This month’s flower arrangement was entitled Winter into Spring

 My arrangement

Those by more experienced arrangers

 

At the gardening club, we had a most enjoyable and informative illustrated talk on Spring and Autumn in Japan.  Who could be more suited to give this talk than Ian Richardson as a frequent visitor, photographer and chrysanthemum enthusiast to tell us about the culture, architecture and plant life?   The cherry blossoms and acers of all colours looked absolutely stunning.

The new season has begun at the coast where the winter has taken its toll and quite a few metres have been lost to the sea through erosion.  The bad news was that the hedging of willowy type trees have been removed from the back of the caravan leaving us more exposed to the wind and giving us less privacy.  However, the good news is that the garden is twice as big and the shade-loving plants may not be needed.  Perhaps the shrubs will revive but I see no sign of it as yet.

The long-awaited Spring presents both opportunity and challenge which is exciting, but the main growing season arrives at such velocity and vitality that it can take you unawares.

I can see from fellow bloggers that you also have projects earmarked.  Looking forward to seeing the results.

March on!

Out and About

Grandkids on half term called for a visit to Knaresborough

Spring displays at RHS Harlow Carr

Garden matters

Can anyone identify this snowdrop which I have in my garden.  If it turns out to be worth a fortune, I’ll give you a cut of the profits, or at least a bulb!

We had a very amusing and enlightening talk at our gardening club by Ben Emmott on the sex lives plants, which you can hear about here:  http://gardenersfridayforum.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/the-sex-lives-of-plants.htm

The garlic is looking good at the allotment where I am a volunteer.

 

Read: First part of Lost Innocence by Simon Palmer.  Contains a graphic account of a Thai prison but compelling reading as the story twists and turns.

Written:   http://fiftywordstories.com/2014/02/19/linda-casper-surprise-proposal/

and

http://thestoryshack.com/2014/02/19/picture-house-linda-casper-illustrated-kristy-lankford/

 Keeping up my weekly challenge of Write 1 Sub 1

Seen:  “The Flat” an Israeli film, written and directed by Arnon Goldfinger.  A documentary about cleaning out his grandmother’s flat and of the correspondence which the family found there.

 I’m also watching Hostages on TV.  Thrilling!

 

Is Spring on its way?

 

There are signs of new life and the snowdrops and flowering blackcurrant are putting on their display.  Can’t wait to get back in the garden and my heart goes out to those with flooded homes and ruined land.

We took advantage of some fine weather to get out into the Yorkshire countryside.

 Part of Ripley Castle



 Water flowing into the river from the Lake at Ripley Castle

 Walk from Cavendish Pavilion, part of the Bolton Abbey Estate.

 An ancient, gnarled oak which we remembered from other visits

 View from the path

 Cavendish Bridge over a fast flowing River Wharfe

A member of our gardening club gave a very interesting talk on plants for shade to give interest throughout the year.

http://gardenersfridayforum.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/signs-of-spring.html

We also planned to grow yellow plants for the Tour de France which starts here in Yorkshire.

Fellow blogger Patsy Collins passed on this gardening giveaway.  I haven’t won anything yet but maybe you will.   https://offers.thompson-morgan.com/TCOM31/day-5-thompson-amp-morgan-s-big-spring-giveaway.html

Flower Arrangement

 The theme was structure

Read:   I’m enjoying Connie Shelton’s – Deadly Gamble, the first of the Charlie Parker mystery series (a freebie from Amazon for Kindle).

Written:  A couple of short stories, one of which I presented on local radio  http://www.elfm.co.uk/listen-again/the-delibags-feb-2014/  at 39.58 minutes

Seen:  The Railway Man excellent film of a true story, The Bridge on BBC3 was a grim but fascinating Scandinavian detective series, Out of the Furnace not my choice and wouldn’t recommend and the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis which, although didn’t really seem to get going, was well acted and kept me entertained for the whole time.

New experience:   Recorded my audio signature to be etched in glass for the new ELFM studios in a converted chapel opening next year.

 

 

 

How’s your year been so far?

January seems to be flying by.  The weather has been kind to us in our region and, while snowdrops are peeping out, some flowers have managed to hang on through the winter so far.  I don’t want to be too complacent, as winter proper didn’t start until early spring and continue until early summer!  

 beautiful Yorkshire this week

 Cow and Calf rocks at Ilkley this week

I have eaten out more this month than in the previous three.  Enjoyable it may be, but not good for the figure.  Tried out a recently opened local cafe or, as they call it, a Victorian tearoom.  Great scones served with jam and cream.  Named Mrs Gale's after the owner's wife who died from cancer, a percentage of the profits will go to cancer research.

Read:  Jeanette Winterson’s autobiography Why be happy when you could be normal?  I had already read Oranges are not the only fruit a long time ago and it was interesting to compare the fiction with the non-fiction.

Written:  I have had two short stories accepted (and two rejected) so far this year and read out a piece of non-fiction on Village Greens on local radio.

http://www.winamop.com/lc1401.htm
http://www.cafelit.co.uk/100WorderTheMeeting.html

http://www.elfm.co.uk/listen-again/the-deli-tues-14th-jan-green/   at 20.14 minutes

Seen:  American Hustle.  This film has received mixed comments but I thought was well acted and I didn’t second guess the outcome.   I have a few more on my list to see.   What can you?

New experience:  Taught some primary school children how to make bread at the Jewish Heritage Centre.  

 Challah

 

 

 

..... and so 2013 comes to an end

As I arrive at the end of twenty thirteen

And review tasks done and places I’ve seen,

I count my blessings.

Parties to celebrate something or nothing

Birthdays, marriages and a baby naming,

As I count my blessings.

The loss of those close to us is hard to endure

But being part of my life was indeed an honour,
So, I count my blessings

May the year ahead bring good health and challenges new,

Have you decided on the things that you want to do?

While counting your blessings.

I feel fortunate to have celebrated many events and achieved many ‘firsts for me’ this year; baking bread, going live on local radio, completing the A-Z blogging challenge and the Write1Sub1 weekly challenge and working on an allotment to mention a few.

 

 I have a several projects in mind for the coming year; making ice cream, continuing the W1S1 weekly challenge and appearing at a literary festival being some of them. 

Fellow blogger Maria at First Draft Cafe gave me the idea of A Jar Full of Happiness http://firstdraftcafe.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/a-jar-full-of-happiness.html where you put a note of all your achievements and red letter days in a jar throughout the year and open them on New Year’s Eve.  I use a virtual memory box at the moment but I’m considering a jar, or even a box to put invitations, photos and tickets to help me remember the good times.

 

 

Wishing you all good health and happiness for 2014

 

 

A Garden Post

I have duplicated some pieces of this post on two other gardening related blogs I maintain, so humour me and trust me when I say it’s not a senior moment!

http://gardenersfridayforum.blogspot.co.uk

http://rainbowallotmentblogger.blogspot.com

We can’t really complain about November this year as the weather has been quite kind.

Thomas Hood’s poem comes to mind; here is the last verse ....

No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member--
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds,
November!

I’ve tidied my garden in a wildlife friendly way and planted up a few more tulips.  Being able to see the bare bones of the plot gets me thinking creatively about my projects for next season.   I should carry a notebook and pencil in my pocket as these are usually forgotten by the time the session is finished!

The leaves seem to have remained until later in the month compared to last year and I enjoyed a visit RHS Harlow Carr.

 

The AGM of Yorkshire in Bloom was held in Temple Newsam, which gave me  the opportunity for a  stroll in the grounds.

 

 Temple Newsam House

 

On the way back, as the sun was still shining,  I couldn’t pass the Canal Gardens at Roundhay Park without a peak in.

The allotment where I am a volunteer has also slowed down, so I will be spending more time in the parks.  The afternoons are very short at the moment but we are only three weeks away from the shortest day.

Broad Beans Aquadulce Claudia  

The upside is that, theoretically, there should be more time for writing.

 

A Fortnight of Films

I rarely visit the cinema (or go to the pictures as I call it), but just recently I have seen a plethora of films, all of which I enjoyed, experienced in a different venue and had their own merits.

As part of the UK Jewish Film Festival I saw the droll Blumenthal:

Celebrated playwright, Harold Blumenthal, has passed away after succumbing to cardiac arrest while laughing at his own joke. Now, Harold’s estranged and jealous brother, Saul, must confront his personal hang-ups  to deliver himself from an epic bout of constipation. Meanwhile, Saul’s wife Cheryl and son Ethan must grapple with their own personal obstacles through a set of circumstances so improbably ironic they might as well have been lifted from one of Harold’s plays.

I have also booked for Hava Nagila this week which finishes the festival in true celebratory style with obligatory dancing.

Featuring interviews with Harry Belafonte, Connie Francis, Glen Campbell, Leonard Nimoy, Regina Spektor and more, Hava Nagila (The Movie) follows the song from the shtetls of Eastern Europe to the kibbutzim of Palestine to the cul-de-sacs of America. It excavates the layers of cultural complexity with humor, depth and heart – traveling the distance between the Holocaust to Dick Dale and his surf guitar, sometimes in the same sentence. It stops at key places – Ukraine, Israel, the Catskills and Greenwich Village, where Belafonte performed a hopeful version in the late 1950s, only to be countered by Bob Dylan, who butchers the song in his version Talkin’ Hava Negiliah Blues. The film covers Allan Sherman’s parody Harvey and Sheila, and Lena Horne’s civil rights anthem Now – both set to the tune of Hava Nagila. The film spotlights Italian-American crooner Connie Francis, who made the song the first track on her famous album of Jewish favorites; and Glen Campbell, who released an instrumental version of Hava on the B-side of his theme song from True Grit. It also dissects the proliferation of pop culture references to Hava Nagila in film and TV and brings the song up to the present, where it’s a rallying tune at sports games, a hot dance number in nightclubs and a global hit online.

On a more cultural note, I saw the superb Encore Screening of the National Theatre Live production of Habit of Art with the late Richard Griffiths, Alex Jennings and Frances De La Tour   

Benjamin Britten seeks advice from his former collaborator and friend, W H Auden. During this imagined meeting, their first for twenty-five years, they are observed and interrupted by, amongst others, their future biographer.  Alan Bennett’s play looks at the unsettling desires of two difficult men, and at the ethics of biography.  It reflects on growing old, on creativity and inspiration, and on persisting when all passion’s spent: ultimately, on the habit of art.

If you have not yet sampled these NT screenings, I would recommend them highly at a lot less cost than a theatre ticket.  Go on their website for details.  There is an intermission just as in the theatre, when we eat our sandwiches and cake with our drinks, and an interview with the director or producer.

Last but not least, we saw the wonderful Philomena with marvelous actors Judi Dench and Steve Cougan.  I didn’t know the story beforehand, so I won’t tell it here, unlike some reviews which have revealed all.

Next on my list is not a film but a dramatic production which is being performed in railway stations all over UK.  It’s called Suitcase and commemorates the 75^th anniversary of the arrival of the Kindertransport from Nazi Germany, which is how my aunt arrived aged 11 (see my post http://thirdageblogger.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/goodbye-to-very-special-lady.html for her story).  We also attended the local 75^th Kristallnacht Commemoration where her granddaughter lit a candle and we heard the personal experiences from others who came over in the Kindertransport.