The Lawn Revived

This was the lawn in April after a particularly bad winter when the moss had taken over. The lawn rake left some very large bare patches. Even the area of grass in front of the conservatory has never looked so bare.

However, the wet weather in the spring, combined with some decent summer sun has brought the lawn back to how it should be. The photo below was taken in June. I just hope it stays that way during the next winter.

Salvia Seascape - Jersey Plants

Bedding plants from the garden centre have become ridiculously expensive. Each plant is nearly one pound each so it would have cost me over £60 to fill the border next to patio.

So this year I have experimented with buying plug plants online from Jersey Plants Direct. When they arrived they were so small, I wondered what I had done. Even replanting in trays and growing them on in the conservatory, they were still tiny when planted out as the photo above.

However, they all seemed to have survived and now, late in July they are at their best.

I actually bought 70 "ready" plants for £16.99 or 24 pence each, a huge saving and a successful experiment. And there were enough over to fill three pots for the side patio.

Va tu sei libero by Dalida

What do Strictly Come Dancing and Killing Eve have in common? As unlikely as it sounds it is just the one song. On Strictly it was "You Don't Own Me" by Lesley Gore, so good that it received it's own post in November 2016.

But watching Episode 7 of the second series of Killing Eve last night we had the Italian version by Dalida (above) right at the end. I actually prefer the Lesley Gore original from 1963, recorded when she was seventeen, written by John Madara and David White. Madara says: "Our original intent was to write a song with a woman telling a man off: 'Don't tell me what to do, don't tell me what to say.' Though we didn't realise it at the time that it would become a woman's anthem, it definitely was our intention to have a woman make a statement." They certainly did that.

A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver

Over the years I have acquired a few books of poetry, mainly by my favourite writers. However, in the main I have struggled with the modern poets: Larkin, Pinter even Muriel Spark. Although the last of these is better known as a novelist she says "I have always thought of myself as a poet".

So I decided to find a book that would explain the intricacies of this art form, never having been taught it before. Mary Oliver's book is described on the front cover as "A Prose Guide to Understanding and Writing Poetry". Although in her introduction she says "it was written with writers of poetry most vividly in my mind". I have no ambition to actually write poetry but I wanted to understand the craft.

And I could not have wished for a better introduction to the mechanics of a poem. Here we have meter and rhyme and how the poets of past wrote in a strict metrical pattern. She describes iambic pentameter as in Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day". A chapter on Sound takes us to Alliteration (repeating consonants as in "live and learn")  and Assonance (repeating vowel sounds), Diphthong (a sound formed by a combination of two vowels in a single syllable in which the sound begins as one vowel and moves towards another as in "coin" or "loud" and Onomatopoeia ("bees buzz" or "the big bellied gun that belched").

She then describes The Line. In metrical verse she talks about iambic pentameter (as noted above) and tetrameter ("I wandered lonely as a cloud"), trochee where heavy stress comes first ("Double, double, toil and trouble") and caesura where a pause is used ("Forlon!  The very word is like a bell").
Whoever would have thought we have masculine rhyme (tears, fears) and feminine rhyme (buckle, knuckle).

A section on the mysteries (to me) of free verse insists that despite being free from the restaints of meter, the measured line and strict rhyming patterns, it still needs to have rhythm, pause and the musicality of the words.

However, my big problem now is my memory. I'm not sure how much of the above will stick when I next read a poem. Or whether my subconscious will enable me to realise what I am reading. We shall see.

Classic Albums on BBC 4 - The "Chirping" Crickets by The Crickets

The debut album by The Crickets was perfectly reviewed in the BBC 4 Series on Classic Albums. For me, it was all about Buddy. The LP was released on Norman Petty's Brunswick label in the USA in 1957 and the UK in 1958. When it was re-released by Coral in 1962 it was by Buddy Holly and The Crickets. Of course.

There were contributions from many musicians, past and present, none more important than that from Jerry Allinson. He was the drummer who missed that ill fated flight that ended in tragedy. But he was always closer to Buddy than anyone else. He has song writing credits on "Tell Me How" and "That'll Be The Day". But just how much he contributed is in doubt. I guess very little. But still more than the producer Norman Petty who steals a song writing credit on nine of the twelve tracks! Buddy just gets five.

However, those are five classic Holly songs. The two mentioned above are supplemented by "Not Fade Away" ( the programme includes a terrific clip of a very early Rolling Stones live version at The Hollywood Palace in 1964 that can be found on YouTube), "Maybe Baby" and "I'm Looking For Someone To Love".

There is one track on the album that is by Chuck Willis called "It's Too Late". I had never heard of Chuck until one of his songs was played on Call The Midwife and I posted a review on 16th March 2015 entitled Searching for Chuck Willis.

Although popular music in those days owed a lot to the likes of Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and even earlier Fats Waller, The Crickets could be the first of the guitar bands. Two guitars, bass and drums. Sometimes they were just a trio as in the classic "Not Fade Away" notable for Jerry on cardboard box that helped give the recording it's raw sound.

The Radio Times review:
The making of the debut album by the Crickets, and the only one featuring Buddy Holly released during his tragically brief career, which ended with his accidental death aged 22. It survives as the purest testament to his skill and diversity as a singer, a pioneering guitar player and not least as a songwriter in an age when few of his peers composed their own material. This documentary celebrates its success and assesses its influence. Contributors include former band member Jerry Allison, singer Cliff Richard and writers John Beecher and Frank Blanas. 

There is also some useful information on:
https://www.songfacts.com/facts/buddy-holly/thatll-be-the-day

Tangerine, Normal People and The Patron Saint of Liars

In the end, this is the worst kind of thriller, the worst kind of ending. Just so there is more money in a sequel. There are moments that are so implausible I wanted to shout out loud. Then the back cover refers to an incident that happens TWO THIRDS THROUGH! The chapters that alternate between Alice and Lucy would have been clever if they had not been done a hundred times before. Very disappointing.

 Despite the many rave reviews of Sally Rooney's first novel "Conversations with Friends", I was not that impressed. Her latest book, however, is quite exceptional, and deserved the 2018 Costa Novel Award. It is intelligent, accessible, emotional, funny and brilliantly modern. A forensic study into the ups and downs of the relationship between Connell and Marianne. 

Their final year at school is followed by their time at Trinity College, Dublin. Those times they are not together, their lives seemed to be lived in a different key. Sometimes I would put the book down and shake my head as I couldn't bang theirs together. A complicated relationship that should have been so simple. As they get older the narrative becomes more and more powerful. Some of the dialogue is so intense it actually made me quite nervous. Maybe I should read "Conversations with Friends" again.

Working my way backwards through all Ann Patchett's novels, I arrived at this, her first. After a slow start, the story develops into something fascinating as Rose settles into life at St Elizabeths. The people there are convincing and interesting. However at nearly half way through I wondered where the story would go. In fact we get a change of narrator which I found at first a boring backstory. 

Again, the momentum picks up back at St Elizabeths and continues through the remainder of the book. Some of the conversations are quite brilliant. We know from later novels that Ann Patchett can write superb dialogue, and her first novel is no exception. "But I do remember. There's a recorder turned on somewhere inside me. Everything stays". 

Anna, Yesterday and Midsommar

Just what you would expect from a Luc Besson movie. Revisiting elements from Nikita, Leon (still one of my favourite films) Colombiana and Lucy but not as "coherent" as any of those. Just the bonkers stuff from The Fifth Element. Basically a KGB assassination plot, I was just waiting until the action arrived in Salisbury.The time jumps stopped us getting bored. Helen Mirren was virtually unrecognisable as the chief.

Predictably enchanting even if the story and dialogue was not up to the best of Richard Curtis. However, as a vehicle for the songs of The Beatles (think Mama Mia) it was fair enough. There was good chemistry between the two leads, Himesh Patel a fish out of water and Lily James made to look as frumpy as possible (they failed). But for a romcom, they were apart for much of the movie.

What sold it to me was when, quite early on, comes I Saw Her Standing There. I was eighteen again, 1963, dancing at the sixth form leaving do. OK, the lyrics would not be appropriate these days,far too creepy. But it was great to hear the songs in a completely different environment. I enjoyed the new interpretations. And for us talentless mortals, the story provided that "if, if, if". In the director's chair, Danny Boyle did the movie proud.

Not so much a horror movie as a fantasy with added gore. The writer and director Ari Aster has maintained it deviates from something like The Wicker Man, but it didn't. Only that it wasn't as scary.  I thought the theme of the last two lines from Hotel California outweighed those depicting mental breakdown, home and family. Here Florence Pugh is predictably excellent. The rest of the large cast was mainly populated from characters based on Christopher Lee and his flock, beards, flowing hair and all. It was a long movie, I thought there was too much padding in the Swedish scenes. I would have preferred more of Dani's back story. And what happened to Connie? I only found out afterwards online.

Late Night, Sometimes Always Never and Toy Story 4

Mindy who? Sorry, I had never heard of Mindy Kaling. One critic said maybe, like the story, the movie needed a team of writers. I thought it did have but I was wrong. Just one. Mindy Kaling. The brilliant Mindy Kaling, whoever she is. Add in Emma Thomson on top form, and Mindy as her co-star, and we have a superior comedy drama. Somewhat predictable and hammy in the last 20 minutes, but that didn't spoil it. Late Night is great fun.

No wonder there is a shortage of grown up modern dramas when we get such turgid stuff as Sometimes Always Never. And I like Bill Nighy. He must have grown tired of his miserable character long before the film was shot. He plays the scene at the morgue like an amateur. Sam Riley has nothing to work with. The story is boring, the dialogue dull. Much better were cameos from Jenny Agutter and  Tim McInnerny. Their story might have been so much better.

I cannot for the life of me understand the rave reviews for Toy Story 4. It gets 98% on Rotten Tomatoes! There were some funny bits, Bunny and Ducky are great. I found myself laughing afterwards remembering some set pieces. I thought that the dummies might scare young children. OK, the ending is pretty emotional, but there are too many boring passages for me. Just not enough of Buzz!

Tring Book Club - Pastoral by Nevil Shute

I'm sure my mother was a big fan of Nevil Shute. I can imagine her reading this book in 1945, the year after it was published and just after I was born. Although it does feel dated, the prose is quite simple and easy to read. I am guessing that all books by this author contained something of a romantic pairing and this is no exception. The two young main characters are straight out of Mills and Boon. Some of their conversations are so quaint.


I much preferred some of the other characters, especially the few paragraphs about the most senior WAAF officer, Flight Officer Stevens who is much older: "They had no right to make her feel …. old, but they did". In a modern novel, she would take centre stage. There is also one chapter, when Gervase goes to meet an elderly Mrs Carter-Hayes, That came out of the blue, something quite surprisingly emotional.

It was interesting that the story reminded us that for some, the war was played out ninety percent at home, and this is the life that is portrayed here. Fishing plays a major role. However, there is a lot of detail about the technicalities of operations, both on the base and in the air. But on a visit to London, there was hardly any mention of the effects the war had on the city.

This was a book club choice so not a novel I would have chosen, but an interesting one nevertheless.