Keep the Faith.

 

We are having a short break so please excuse me and keep the Scrabble boards warm.

 

Parting is all we know of Heaven,

And all we need of Hell.

 

Emily Dickinson(1830-1886)

September blooms

Japanese anenomes

Hibiscus


Michaelmas daisies

Away before me to sweet beds of flowersTwelfth Night, 1, 1.

Spot The Elephant in the Room

And I don't mean dear Tom Stoppard.

September Memories

Blackpool just before WW2

September Memories

Wakes week at Blackpool staying at Mrs Fell's B&B.  A thrilling trip to the Winter Gardens where I first heard this song and the chorus wore beautiful lemon, organdy dresses. Donkey rides and that unmistakeable smell of sea-weed and  salt and vinegar.  The Wednesday trip to Pablo's factory for a giant ice cream cornet doused in raspberry vinegar.  The disappointment when  Dad decided outside Madame Tussauds that we couldn't afford it after all.  The awful peeling backs of the youths in the B&B.  The maid who wore blue and white in the morning and brown and cream after lunch and who I was convinced was two different people.  The sadness as we left all our new friends.  We didn't know it was the end of all that.  Back home and WW2 broke out.

Getting things done

 

1 Yesterday bought all cards – Birthday, Anniversary etc till end of November and weighed abroad ones so they can be posted at correct time without queuing.

 

2 Got coir mat fitted in ancient mat well by front door.  Mick has to build it up underneath to get level flush with floor.  The ancient one was thick.  Then carpet people come back to spray it – to keep it in place.

 

3 Got carpet man to measure nursery to replace battle- scarred carpet including imprint of red hot iron – it is now used as ironing room.

 

4 Ordered charity Christmas cards.  Had to make extra phone call as they had omitted to enter amount of P& P on order form.

 

5 Helped Joy choose a delightful ceanothis (Word corrected this to cyanotic) blue outfit for her granddaughter’s wedding with contrasting – a mixture of lemons and shades of blue - silky top with matching scarf.  And two sweaters.  I bought nothing but cards (see#1)

 

6 Got down to ground level to find Product No., Serial No. and Model No of broken laser printer and with use of magnifying glass was successful.  By the time I managed to get vertical again I had forgotten what I wanted them for.  Miraculously the printer has suddenly started working again.

 

7 Started packing

Seven Reasons to be Cheerful.

 

1 .Just ten more sleeps before a break in Hawkchurch and a party on Saturday.

 

2. Andy Murray has won a Grand Slam at last.  Well done Andy!

 

3.  One more CT scan in the Spring and if OK we can breathe again.

 

4. A trip tomorrow to Porlock Weir to find a wedding outfit for Joy for her

    Granddaughter’s wedding.

 

5. Took a peek at MTL’s list for our handy man and it includes an extra shower in   

     old larder.  Result of 20 years negotiating.

 

6.  Saga magazine e-mailed to say my winning cheque is on its way from Penguin.

 

 7.  http://cheffiles.blogspot.co.uk/ aka Jimmy is back.

      

Shingles Vaccine

Shingles Vaccine

 

One of my blogging friends recently had a bad case of shingles and when he heard of the shingles vaccine he made sure his wife had it in order to spare her the same pain and discomfort.  He told me:

 

 If you had chicken pox and have not had shingles, I urge you to ask your doctor about the virus and the shingles vaccine. There is a vaccine for it and once you've had it you don't need to get it again. My wife got it almost immediately when we talked to the doctor and she realised what I was going through and would be going through for who knew how long. This is August 10th so I've had it a month. I expect it will continue for maybe another month. For some people it goes on forever.

 

Meanwhile I saw a full page announcement in Saga saying:

 

If, like 90% of UK adults, you have ever had chicken pox there is a 1 in 4 chance you will develop shingles at some point in your life.
It is possible to prevent shingles.  See your GP who can give you more information.

 

As we are told we should be responsible for our own health and as I fitted the diagnostic description I decided to see a doctor.  Unfortunately she was not familiar with the vaccine so I did a little more research, found the name Zostavax and after she had done some research, she wrote me a prescription.  I accepted that the cost – well over £100 would be down to me.  The pharmacist said he would have to order it.  Then he phoned and said there would be difficulty getting the vaccine and was I sure I wanted it.

 

By this time I felt I should have some more reassurance before going ahead. 

For instance I am booked for a’flu jab in October and sure enough when I checked the info they advise at least a month between a ’flu jab and a shingles vaccine jab.  So I have arranged with the pharmacist to put the whole thing on hold until after then

 

If any of you have had any relevant experience I shall be most grateful to hear it.

Judy (see my side bar) says:

 I had shingles in the 80's and the shingles vaccine about 2 years ago - with no side-effects whatsoever. If you get shingles, you will be sorry that you didn't get the vaccine.

A Star in the making.

 

Her provenance is excellent: her father Peter Hall has been the backbone of the British theatre for decades, her mother an exciting opera singer who eschewed a body stocking when playing Salome and threw herself at Herod’s feet naked (see below), and her  five siblings are all prominent in the arts.

 

She is versatile and although she has a willowy beauty can also –if the part demands look like a toothy geek.  Just now she is dazzling as the wayward wife in Parade’s End and gives real gravitas to the triangular love affair.

 

At Roedean she was a reluctant head girl, and thence to Cambridge dropping out before her final year more because she was doing so well rather than that she was struggling.  Not surprisingly her parents were upset.

 

I first saw her in 1992 when as a ten year old girl she played Sophy in her father’s TV adaptation of The Camomile Lawn’  Rebecca Hall is now thirty and at the top of her game.  She won the Ian Charleson Award for Mrs Warren’s Profession and was nominated for a Golden Globe, appeared in for Vicky Cristina, Barcelona the Woody Allen film with Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz – now that I must see, and she was awarded a BAFTA for best supporting actress in Channel Four’s production of Red Riding.

 

We have just had the second episode of Parade’s End and it gets better and better.  Interesting that both Rebecca and the director Susanna White studied English Literature at University but were not familiar with Ford Maddox Ford although he was an important member of the Stein, James, Conrad, Wells, Chesterton Galsworthy literary circle.  I should think by the third episode his books will be flying off the shelves.

 

The cast glitters with some of our best actors attracted, no doubt by having the writer Tom Stoppard on board.  I think he has softened with the years and though he claims it is a comedy it certainly is an intriguing love story a little reminiscent of Orczy’s tale of Sir Percy Blakeny and the beautiful Marguerite St Just.

 

The first episode was promising but a little confusing.  In the second episode things are becoming clearer, (and Rebecca takes a leaf out of her mother’s book and appears naked) concentration pays off and it is a real treat but as someone said whilst you can go out and make a coffee during Downton Abbey and keep a grip on the plot, you certainly can’t with Parade’s End.  However I find to sit entranced for an hour is no bad thing.

 

The director has said:

“If in Bleak house we went back to Dickens an episodic writer who wrote in instalments with cliff hangers; what we were trying to do with Parade’s End is to be true to what Ford was doing and really challenge people. To make demands of the viewer as Ford makes demands of the reader.”

 

Don’t miss it.

 

Maria Ewing as Salome

Rebecca Hall

 

Rebecca Hall a willowy beauty.

Saturday lunchtime

 

 

 

Exmoor Gold and Chardonnay at The Crown Exford, marred by P's lip gloss.