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2020 - dreams to what? ...

This page was originally titled 'dreams to plans', copying the motto on the front of my diary, and reflecting my hope of, after years confined to 'home', being able at last to take holidays. As it is the corona virus had different plans for us all, and it looks like the next few months are going to be spent at home after all. So the year starts well and tails off. How it ends is anyone's guess.



I'm going to change the format of this year's round-up page; no longer tracking every time I visit local places - Locko, Shipley, Swan Lake, Chatsworth, Calke, Kedleston - or perhaps putting them all together (maybe at the end) so that I can easily access this year's posts for a certain place and track the change in the seasons.
Instead I want the emphasis to be on new experiences and places - hopefully there'll be a lot of them this year

January



8th - quite late for first walk of the year but at least it was somewhere new - St Chad's Water nature reserve, Church Wilne, Derbyshire. A short circular walk around a lake with swans, ducks, seagulls, coots, and a heron.

23rd - Gecko Theatre's Institute at Nottingham Playhouse. Physical theatre, so although I'm a comparatively regular theatre-goer, this was something outside my normal 'comfort zone'.

30th - First gig night of the year - Ira Wolf, Alex Hale and Ayres at Chameleon Arts Cafe, Nottingham






February

12th - Hopton Hall snowdrop walk

20th - Crompton Acres pond

23rd/24th Manchester - Salford Quays, Ordsall Hall, Lyme Park

28th/2nd March - Norfolk; a mixture of familiar places and new experiences. Staying in a quirky property, and visiting Walsingham snowdrops were two items from my 'wishlist'

March

2nd - Belton House - not actually a 'new' place to visit but not a 'regular'

4th - Markeaton Park - local but not somewhere we often go

5th - Moonlight and Magnolias at Nottingham Playhouse

15th - Manchester

23rd - Locko Park 

At this point the corona virus lockdown stopped me going out beyond very brief walks on the playing fields and up to the wood, but individual musicians started to stream gigs from their living rooms, and theatres, arts organisations and museums went online with shows, book events and virtual tours, so I've decided to keep track of those here too (though as I thought about doing this afterwards, the dates are messy at first)

Sarah Jasmon 'You Never Told Me' book launch
Frank Turner 'Sleep is for the Week'
Gecko new single launch party
Fast Car To Florence
Grace Petrie

April

2nd - S T Manville and Frank Turner 'Love, Ire, and Song' at Isolate Live Facebook page

3rd - Max Runham, Thom Worth and Tankus the Henge at Isolate Live

4th - John Allen livestreamed gig. One Man, Two Guvnors at  National Theatre Live (on YouTube)

7th - Hamlet at The Globe (GlobeTV)

8th - Sean McGowan at Isolate Live

9th - Jane Eyre at National Theatre Live (on YouTube)

13th - Front Room Festival organised by FolkOnFoot presenter Matthew Bannister

16th - Treasure Island at National Theatre Live (on YouTube)

17th - Phantom of the Opera - The Shows Must Go On (YouTube channel)

20th - Romeo and Juliet at The Globe (Globe TV)

23rd - Frank Turner

24th - Twelfth Night - National Theatre Live (with Tamsin Greig playing Mavolia, so I followed it with Friday Night Dinner on Ch4)

25th - Bustival - livestream fundraiser organised by Vans for Bands to provide doctors and nurses with rest and accommodation facilities; Mark Evans (Young Rebel set), Frank Turner, Will Varley, Skinny Lister (and baby)
        - tapas at home

27th - Sean McGowan FB livestream gig (again) followed by a trip to the (virtual) theatre - RSC production of Macbeth starring Christopher Eccleston and Niamh Cusack

29th - Gecko Theatre's Institute. Saw this back in February at Nottingham Playhouse, this time was on Gecko Theatre's YouTube channel

30th - K T Tunstall - Royal Albert Hall Home,  followed by Frankenstein from National Theatre Live with Benedict Cumberbatch as the Monster, and Jonny Lee Miller as Frankenstein

May

1st - Frankenstein again, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller swapping roles. Both versions were brilliant but I marginally preferred this one.

2nd - Midsummer Night's Dream from The Globe

7th - Frank Turner livestream gig

8th - Antony and Cleopatra - Sophie Okonedo and Ralph Fiennes - National Theatre Live

10th - Morning Crush, Tom Dulieu, Joe Tilston - Isolate Live gig

19th - Frank Turner - last Thursday's venue-funding gig

20th - A Doll's House from the Lyric, Hammersmith,  and Andrew Scott's The Sea Wall

22nd - A Streetcar Named Desire - National Theatre Live/Young Vic

25th - Folk On Foot Frontroom Festival (2)

29th - This House - National Theatre Live

Hay Festival - was unable to take place physically, so author events were streamed on-line this year. See my post here

23rd - Maggie O'Farrell taking to Peter Florence about Shakespeare, plague and grief

27th - Jackie Morris painting
        - Michael Wood on China

28th - Claudia Hammond talking to Guto Harri about The Art of Rest 

30th - Hilary Mantel talking to Peter Florence about The Mirror and The Light

        - Polly Samson


June

5th - Coriolanus - National Theatre Live/Donmar Warehouse - Tom Hiddlestone

7th - Romeo and Juliet (again!) this time an RSC production broadcast on BBC4

11th - The Madness of George III - National Theatre Live/Nottingham Playhouse - I saw this twice during its run at Nottingham Playhouse, including the night it was streamed to cinemas through NTLive, so I HAD to see it again - and again, as we decided to watch just one more time on 17th


21st - A Small Island - National Theatre Live

26th - 'Glastonbury at Home'  BBC Glastonbury - Foo Fighters, The Cure, Elbow, The Killers (2004) - plus nipping over to another gig  The Blackheart Orchestra's The Big Armchair Concert 2 on Facebook

27th - George Ezra from BBC Glastonbury
        -  Midsummer Night's Dream from National Theatre Live and Bridge Theatre. Gwendoline Christie of Game of Thrones fame (Brienne of Tarth) as Titania

28th - more from Glastonbury - Florence and the Machine, Bon Iver, some acoustic sessions, The Wombats, The Killers (2019)

30th - Hamlet, with Paapa Essiedu, in the title role, part of BBC Culture in Quarantine season from the RSC

July 

 3rd - Les Blancs by Lorraine Hansberry- National Theatre Live

Timber Festival

5th - Much Ado About Nothing - RSC as part of BBC's Culture in Quarantine Michelle Terry as Beatrice, Edward Bennett as Benedick 

6th - Belton House 

10th - The Deep Blue Sea by Terrence Rattigan, with Helen McCrory -  National Theatre Live

12th - Othello  - RSC/BBC Culture in Quarantine - Hugh Quarshie as Othello, Lucian Msamati as Iago

17th - Hardwick Hall

18th -  Amadeus by Peter Shaffer - with Lucian Msamati (again) as Salieri..The last National Theatre Live at home and a wonderful show to end the run on.

24th - Manchester


        - The Tempest - BBC in Quarantine, from the Globe Theatre  

Edinburgh Book Festival another book festival making the best of things by streaming online 

August - 16th - Amelia Gentleman on how she uncovered the Windrush scandal and brought it to public attention
            - 19th - Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi: Uganda's First Woman of Fiction
            - 22nd - Bernardine Evaristo 
            - 27th (though the event was on 15th) Olivette Otele and Angela Saini; Pseudoscience and Slavery
            - 28th (from Sunday 23rd) Sarah Moss; Unhappy Campers - talking about her latest novel Summerwater, set in a Scottish holiday park in a fortnight of torrential rain
            -  (from Monday 24th) Alexander McCall Smith talking to Ruth Davidson in his garden with seagulls squawking in the background, about the number of books he has published this year (5!), writing methods, his move from children's books to adult fiction

            - 31st Arundhati Roy; Portal to a New World, talking pandemic, caste, fake history and writing 

North Cornwall Book Festival - should have been taking place in October but for now you can see some of the authors online 

August - 22nd - Sophie Ward; Love and Other Thought Experiments
               29th - Philip Marsden; The Summer Isles

September
               12th - The Good Life Experience - another festival at home, with talks, crafts, campfire cooking, music and gin


                29th - Cromford - canal and High Peak Trail






Regular spots -

Calke Abbey - Jan 21
                         July 1,
                         Sept 21st - walking round the park
                         Oct 15th - gardens, pumpkins and park
                         Nov 3rd 




Chatsworth - June 29th
                        July 21st,
                        Aug 14th
                        Sept 7th
                        Oct 7th 
                        Nov 4th
                        Dec 1st - Christmas in the garden 

Derby - Feb 12,

Kedleston - Feb 5,
                    June 22,
                    July 13th - wildflowers, and Long Walk,
                    July 31st the wilderness
                    Aug 3rd  gardens, and short walk
                    Aug 10th gardens, short walk and lakes
                    Aug 20th gardens. long walk and lakes
                    Aug 24th lakeside walk
                    Sept 14th the wilderness
                    Oct 19th autumn on the Long Walk

Locko - Mar 24
              June 13,
              Sept 6th
              Sept 27th 

Shipley Country Park - Jan 15
                                         Mar 11
                                         June 7
                                         July 4th
                                         Nov 19th

Swan Lake - Jan 19
                      Feb 8,
                      Sept 2nd

The Wood - Apr 3rd anemones,
                    Apr 18th bluebells,
                    May 29th picking elderflowers,
                    midsummer sunset walk
                    Sept 1st sunset walk

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