Nothing In Particular

Tags

'The Company', Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None, Berwang Holiday Music Course, Candlemas, Christmas Cactus, church, family, flowers, funeral, hellebores, house improvements, Kerry Camden, Mozart, phalaenopsis orchid, renovations, Serenade for 13 Winds, snowdrops, wet weather

Snowdrops under the crabapple tree

As the title of this post states, this is about nothing in particular.  Since Christmas we, as a family, have been nowhere and have done nothing except the usual chores of housework and shopping and driving – and in Elinor’s case, going to college.  Richard has just returned from three nights away in Manchester staying with his brother and enjoyed a visit to a mining museum and a trip to Bury Market and the East Lancashire Railway.  Elinor and I stayed at home.

A Hellebore flower

We have found the changeable weather a little trying but fortunately for us we haven’t had to deal with flooding, just lots of deep puddles and mud, mud and yet more mud!  My car was half brown and half blue and the mud had oozed into the car round the doors, so just before he went away Richard hosed it down for me and restored it to its original blue-all-over colour.

Another Hellebore

The next two weeks will be very busy as we are beginning on our house renovations.  The new garage doors were fitted today and most of the windows and doors in the house will be replaced next week.  I am not looking forward to the disruption at all but when it is done the house will be warmer and more secure.

Snowdrop flower. Please excuse the horrible red finger!

One of my aunts died last Sunday 24th January and I will be travelling to Kent with my brother tomorrow for her funeral.  Richard will be staying at home and will be driving Elinor to and from college.  It will be good to see my cousins again despite the sad occasion.   My aunt was my late father’s older sister and she was the last of Dad’s siblings.  I have six first cousins on Dad’s side of the family and I am hoping to see most of them tomorrow.  Andrew (my brother) and I will be meeting up with Francesca (my sister) when we get to the church.

Phalaenopsis Orchid

I am also going to visit Alice in Sheffield on the 12th of February and I will be watching her perform in another play, ‘And Then There Were None’ – an adaptation of the book by Agatha Christie.

Here is the trailer they have made for the play.  I think you will be amused!

All my Christmas Cacti are re-flowering. Perhaps these are now Candlemas Cacti?

It is Candlemas today.  We had a Eucharist service at Rumburgh on Sunday and celebrated the festival early.  At Candlemas we remember three things; the presentation of the child Jesus, Jesus’ first entry into the temple and the Virgin Mary’s purification.  Traditionally, candles are also blessed at Candlemas and Richard our priest gave us two new altar candles.

My choice of music today is Mozart’s Serenade for 13 Winds in B-flat major.  My first introduction to this piece was when I was nearly 14 years of age and I was on a music course in the Austrian Tirol.  I was lucky enough to be given the first (lead) clarinet part and I loved the whole experience – the great responsibility, the team-work, the music itself.  I will never forget that feeling of euphoria as we played through the whole piece together!  As soon as I hear the opening bars of music I am transported back in time to Austria, I am 13 years old and full of hope and excitement.  This was my first ever trip abroad and I and a friend travelled there with our clarinet teacher and Kerry Camden the bassoonist who drove us from London all the way to the Tirol with a stop overnight in the Ardennes.  I had a one-year passport and my parents had given me £15 spending money!

Thanks for visiting!

 

A Conversation With My Mother

Tags

Agatha Christie, Anthony Horovitz, Conversation, Elizabeth and her German Garden, Elizabeth von Arnim, Foyle's War, Franco Zeffirelli, Joan Plowright, memory, Michael Kitchen, Mike Newell, Peril at End House, Polly Walker, Richard Rodney Bennett, Tea With Mussolini, The Enchanted April

Here is a conversation I had with my mother yesterday.  This type of conversation will be familiar to people of a certain age.

We had been discussing my daughter A’s hair.  A has blonde hair but has recently dyed it a deep red.  To be fair, she had intended it to be a red-gold colour but it is now a dark magenta.  She has been this colour before and usually goes red when she is anxious and/or depressed.  The deeper the colour the more anxious she is – a sort of litmus test for her family.

Mother:  I liked it when she had her hair cut short that time a few years ago.

Me:        Yes, we did too.  I thought it suited her but she wasn’t impressed by it.  She prefers her hair long.

Mother:  It reminded me of the girl in that film.  The film where two women go to Italy and this girl joins them.

Me:        (Interrogatively) Yes?

Mother:  Her hair was in a short bob just like A.

Me:        Oh yes, I think I know the film you mean.  (Thinks: A’s hair was blonde and wavy but the actress had dark, straight hair!) 

I must interrupt the narrative here to explain the ‘game’.  A conversation is carried on using very few proper nouns.  While trying to remember the name/title etc you want, you try to think of other times you have seen/heard of/used etc the aforesaid name/title etc.  You drag this second example into the conversation with the hope that it will shock your memory into remembering the first.  Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t.  The person you are having the conversation with also tries to work out the subject’s name and also may suggest their own examples.  The harder you try to remember the worse it gets.  A joker can also be played where a totally erroneous example is given by mistake and the whole conversation spirals out of control and all concerned begin to doubt their sanity.

To continue….

Mother:  You know the story – the book was written by that German  woman.

Me:        Yes, I know the story.  She wasn’t German she was Australian but had married a German nobleman.  I’m trying to think of the title……erm…..erm….I know….something ‘..April’

Mother:  Yes, that’s the one.  She also wrote about her garden.

Me:        Funnily enough, I was listening to the music to the film a  couple of days ago.  Richard Rodney Bennett wrote it.  I think the actress who played the girl is really very beautiful.  I can’t remember her name.  She hasn’t been in many things recently but she was in one of the David Suchet ‘Poirot’ episodes.

Mother:  (Uninterestedly) Oh?  (Slight pause)  That nice actor was in  it too.  The one in ‘Foyle’s War’.

Me:         (Smugly)  Michael Kitchen.

Mother:  Yes, that’s who I mean.  Often plays strange men.  That  other woman was in it too.  She was Lawrence Olivier’s wife.  You know who I mean.

Me:         Er… Um..Oh yes.  She was also in that film – something,      something ‘..Mussolini’.  I remember!!  (Joyously)  ‘The Enchanted April’!!

Mother:  Yes, of course.

We had a laugh and then Mum had the last word as usual.

Mother:  (Victoriously)  Well, there’s an an excuse for me as I’m 84.    What’s your excuse?!

Me:        (A feeble smile)

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim 1922

Made into a film in 1992 and directed by Mike Newell.

Starring; Josie Lawrence, Miranda Richardson, Polly Walker, Joan Plowright, Alfred Molina, Jim Broadbent, Michael Kitchen.

Musical score by Richard Rodney Bennett.

Shot on location at Castello Brown, Portofino, Italy.

 

Elizabeth and her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim  1898

 

Agatha Christie’s Poirot  1989/1990

Peril at End House

Dramatised by Clive Exton

Starring:  David Suchet, Hugh Fraser, Philip Jackson, Pauline Moran, Polly Walker

 

Foyle’s War  Created by Anthony Horovitz

A British detective drama TV series set during and shortly after the Second World War.  Action takes place in Hastings, a town on the south coast of England.

Starring:  Michael Kitchen, Honeysuckle Weeks, Anthony Howell, Julian Ovenden.

 

Tea With Mussolini  1999

Adapted from the memoirs of Franco Zeffirelli

Directed by Franco Zeffirelli

Starring:  Cher, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith, Lily Tomlin.