Bodnant Gardens

Over the Spring Bank Holiday we went to Bodnant Gardens. It's a long, long while since our previous visit and many things seem to have changed - though that could easily be my memory at fault!

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I'd hoped to catch the laburnum arch in flower but we were a little early -

it must look stunning when in full bloom

The rhododendrons were spectacular though

I think we caught them at their best.

...and it's nice to see that even a fantastic National trust garden can have Welsh poppies growing everywhere just like at home.

The Seagull at Derby Theatre

 Surprisingly this is the first time I've seen a Chekhov play performed 'live' - I've read a lot of them and seen quite a few on TV but never live and to a certain level I'm 'right familiar with Chekhov' just like the heroine of Educating Rita. Maybe there's a feeling that Chekhov is too hard or irrelevant for today, I'm not sure, but when I saw our local theatre were producing The Seagull, I thought it was time to take the plunge. A little conferring with my ex-drama student elder daughter, confirmed my suspicion that The Seagull was one of those Chekhov plays about thwarted ambition, set in the countryside and in which everyone desperately wants to go to Moscow  - this is a bit of a family standing joke, so I nearly burst out laughing when one of the characters started talking about needing to go to Moscow!
Anyway, it turned out to be a very enjoyable evening. The cast were great - and included one of our favourite 'locals' John Elkington who we last saw in Of Mice and Men at Nottingham Playhouse. My only quibble would actually have been with Chekhov himself - I would have ended the play with the dramatic off-stage gunshot, but then I'm not a famous Russian playwright.


This production of The Seagull was a co-production between  Headlong Theatre, The Nuffield, Southampton and Derby Theatre.

Summer in February

 "A true tale of love, liberty and scandal amongst the Edwardian artists' colony in Cornwall."

Florence Carter-Wood, an aspiring artist, joins her brother Joey at Lamorna Cove, in the far west of Cornwall, home to a group of bohemian artists. There she meets the charismatic, womanising painter AJ Munnings and his close, but far more reliable and steady, friend Gilbert Evans, the local land agent - and is attracted to both.
This is the starting point for a moving love-triangle story set in the early 1900s against a backdrop of raging seas and quaint Cornish villages. Summer in February is beautifully shot in and around Lamorna Cove using the actual places where these artists lived and worked; the costumes are lovely, the scenery wild and dramatic and every scene beautifully lit but it's much more than a quaint period drama - an intense exploration of tangled relationships.
There's great acting from the whole cast, especially the leads - Emily Browning, Dominic Cooper and Dan Stevens - but it was Cooper's performance as AJ that really stood out for me. Although I've seen him elsewhere, I mainly think of him as Sky from Mamma Mia so the depth and breadth of his acting surprised me. Proves you shouldn't judge a man on how well he can sing dressed in swimming trunks!
A great film on lots of levels. Whether you love Cornwall, period drama, romance, 'true' stories or all of them it ticks so many boxes. I saw this courtesy of free tickets on Sunday. Monday morning another ticket offer arrived - and I nearly went to see it again! If anyone offers tickets for next week, I'll be there like a shot!

5/5 - a must see film.

Our Favourite Bluebell Walk

It's bluebell time again so off we went for our traditional family bluebell walk - from Lea Bridge up the flower covered hillside, down to Cromford and back along the canal.

First glimpse of the bluebell fields

Even the path is flower-filled

So many bluebells!

...and more..

,,,and more...

through the woods nearing the top of the hill

The last steep climb

A flatter section at last

Downhill to Cromford - easy going from here

and if this isn't enough bluebells read last year's post or check out the daily walk through them

The Big Wedding

Sunday morning cinema time again! This time something a lot lighter - The Big Wedding.

Diane Keaton and Robert De Niro play a divorced couple, Ellie and Don, meeting up for the first time in years for the wedding of their adopted son, Alejandro. To further confuse matters, Don is now living with Ellie's former best friend, Bebe (Susan Sarandon), and Alejandro somehow didn't bother to inform his real mother that his adoptive parents got divorced. As she's arriving from Columbia for the wedding, he'd like Ellie and Don to pretend to still be married - just for the duration of his wedding. Will they re-ignite their old spark? and where does this move leave Bebe?
Throw in some further romantic difficulties for Ellie and Ben's two other children and you've got a multi-generation rom-com - sort of It's Complicated meets Mamma Mia.

The Big Wedding is just about as star-studded as you could get - you might even spend more time thinking "Where do I know s/he from?" instead of actually watching. Robert De Niro wouldn't have been my first thought for casting in a romcom but he pulls it off surprisingly well. It's fun and light, everyone looks gorgeous and if it is a little predictable, so what? It's a romcom not deep psychological drama.

Would I watch it again? Probably when it turns up on TV - not one I'd dash out to buy the dvd of.

3/5 stars

New Year's DVD challenge - 4 months in

Remember the dvd challenge the Teen and I set ourselves? A sort-of 6 degrees of separation style thing -  basically, the dvd we just watched and the next one to be watched must have an actor in common. It's a very geeky way to chose what to watch, but whatever!
Last time I commented on it we'd watched 5 dvds. Well, we've now reached 36. The full list with linking actors is on the separate 2013 '6 Moves' DVD Challenge page.
We've only watched one dvd twice - Shakespeare In Love - and only used one actor - Hugh Grant - more than once as a link. Good going so far I think
Curiously we've found that it's often not the stars that make the connection to the next movie but the supporting cast - the guy playing the lead's best friend or the next-door neighbour. Least significant "linking" roles have to include Dylan Moran's brief appearance as a shoplifter in Notting Hill or maybe Paul Brooke playing a flower-shop owner in Alfie and publisher Mr Fitzherbert in Bridget Jones' Diary.
And the strangest move so far is Sliding Doors to The Secret Garden via John Lynch.

Bluebells on the Daily Dog-walk

We haven't got round to going for our long bluebell walk near Cromford yet this year but meanwhile here are photos from our daily dog-walking wood.....

it's amazing to have such a beautiful place right on our doorstep, especially at this time of year