A Day in Oxford

 

It was Alison's birthday choice for a visit to Oxford. We had some shops to visit before we had lunch at Comptoir Libanais, our favourite Lebanese restaurant on the corner of Westgate.

Alison had a wonderful chicken salad while I went for the Lamb Tagine which was superb. After lunch we went to Blackwells for some sheet music. I found a book about the birth of pop music by Bob Stanley that looked interesting.

Then it was off to Magdalen College which I had passed many times but never been inside. There were hardly any people at this end of the city compared with the shopping centre that had become crowded in the afternoon. It was so quiet in the college grounds, hardly any visitors so we were able to have a good look round. 

We started off in Chaplain's Quad which I thought was the best part of the college. The Great Tower dates from the fifteenth century. Then the Chapel (below) was very impressive.

My phone is not very good for photos  but the white Hydrangeas around the Cloister were fabulous.

 

At the end we took the path alongside the water meadow and the deer park. This fella had the most amazing antlers.

Our bus for the park and ride came almost immediately at the bus stop just up from Magdalen College. It had been a lovely day and Alison thought it was one of her best birthdays ever. And our girls won their semi-final in the evening!

Acanthus mollis

 

This year the Acanthus has had more flower spikes than ever before, all from one plant. The only problem was that the stalks were all falling over so next year they will need some form of support. Although I did like the fact that the flower heads were spread out. But after the extremely hot weather last week, it all became a mess. So a jolly good prune was called for and it seems that it may flower again.

Dahlia Figaro Mixed - Garden Ready Plants from Suttons

 

In May the 60 Dahlia plants I ordered from Suttons arrived and were planted in the border next to the dwarf wall and in pots on the back patio. They worked out at 7p for each plant including delivery. They have all survived and are now in flower. Possibly the best display of all the bedding plants that have gone in this border over many years.

Here are some photos of the plants taken last week.

When I first planted the Dahlias, the leaves were being eaten by slugs or snails, but once they became established not a single bite. Amazing.

Changes to the Main Border in 2022

 

Last year I posted some photos of the main border in the summer. This time I want to show how the border changes during the year. Starting with the photo above in May. The Alliums on the right then the tall Poppy and the Astrantia at the far end. Some close ups below.

Next up comes the border in June with the Penstemon at the front, the white  Philadelphus above and Geraniums in the centre. Probably the best time of year for this border.

The Delphinium Pacific Giant is always spectacular.

Now into July and losing some of the colour. But the pink Penstemon Firebird is doing well and the Lupin at the far end is coming out.

At the end of July there is not a lot of colour. A lot of the perennials have been cut back and hopefully will flower again in August. Watch this space.

Jack Absolute Rides Again at the National's Olivier Theatre

 

Despite the mixed reviews, I could not resist a new comedy from Richard Bean, the creator of One Man Two Guvnors. And who could resist an update of Sheridan's fabulous The Rivals from 1774? It was probably not the best idea. Here we have Caroline Quentin giving her all as Mrs Malaprop and while that character worked so well in the original period piece, this time those mis-pronunciations seem forced and quite silly. There are some funny lines but the audience seemed to laugh a lot more than me. Occasionally there was a remark that was just too familiar and borderline stupid.

The rest of the cast were fine and put their heart and soul into the performance. James Corrigan was consistently funny as the Aussie Bob "Wingnut" Acres. Peter Forbes was fine as Sir Anthony Absolute (nearly all the names are from Sheridan's' play) but he hardly deviated from a blustering shout. And Natalie Simpson (on the right below) brought sanity and credibility as Lydia Languish. 

Despite the use of the Olivier's superb technology as an interior scene slides from it's hiding place into the main stage, the cavernous auditorium was not suited to a comedy such as this. That is except for the one highlight that was the 1940's dance sequence featuring the whole cast and understudies. 

I cannot understand why what would be a family entertainment was full of swearing and bawdy humour. But the romantic scenes were much better, the meddling maid Lucy (Kerry Howard) with Dudley Scunthorpe (Kelvin Fletcher) below and the youngsters, Roy and Julia ( Jordan Metcalfe and Helena Wilson). 

What would have been better was using Sheridans' script and somehow transposed it to the 1940's. He wrote better gags. 

The journey into London was uneventful, the temperature had dropped from 40C the day before to a pleasant 25C. Lunch was a lovely hoisin duck wrap in Pret a Manger on the Southbank, perched at the big window. There had been a graduation ceremony at the nearby Royal Festival Hall and the whole area was full of gowns and mortor boards. One of which was being rescued from where it had blown onto a grill above where I was sitting and delivered to the student below. I had two minutes to catch the train home when I arrived at Marylebone and Alison picked me up from the station at just after 6pm. Less that an hour and a half from leaving the theatre. 

Jurassic World: Dominium, Elvis and Nitram

 

In those famous words from The Blues Brothers, we are "putting the gang back together". And some gang it is. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard from the first two movies in this trilogy are joined by Laura Dern, Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum from the original franchise. So it could have been a lot of fun. Unfortunately the film was let down by some of the worst dialogue you will ever hear. It is also predictable and terribly corny. However it is admirably filmed, some great sets and the actors, especially the old timers, did their best despite the script.

Somebody called it a "frenetic, dazzling, exhilarating mess of a movie". I guess it was hard what to include and what to leave out. For instance we get the whole song of Tutti Frutti performed by Little Richard. Why??? And then it almost completely misses out Elvis' time in the army and all those movies that came after. No GI Blues ? But I did like Elvis in conversation with BB King and those scenes at the Handy Club on Beale Street in Memphis. Am I one of the few who knew about W C Handy? His compositions as The Father of the Blues were the basis of Louis Armstong's LP which I still have somewhere.

I thought Austin Butler was fine as Elvis, the vocals and all the sound was great. Tom Hanks was eerily horrible as Colonel Tom Parker. The film did settle the question why Elvis never toured. Parker had no valid passport! His ripping off the money from the singer's sales and performances was awful. 

 

 I went into this film with only a rough idea of the ending, just knowing that Martin (Caleb Landry) did something bad. So I was unprepared for the terror demonstrated in the final part at the gun shop when he goes to buy a huge arsenal of weapons. He gets away with no licence as he was not registering the firearms. I'm not sure why they made the lead actor less attractive than Martin in real life. But I found his relationship with the reclusive Helen ( a fine Essie Davis) to be the best part of the film. Her death obviously had a part to play in Martin's deterioration and the final horror. But it was Judy Davis as the mother who made the movie for me. She is a brilliant actress and she was superb here. It was worth seeing for her performance alone.

Malibu Rising, Silverview and The Only Problem

This was my third book by this author and I thought the least convincing. Taylor Jenkins Reid has her tongue crushed against her cheek as the characters become less and less believable. So I read it in the same way, utterly preposterous enjoyment. Everyone seems to be the best at what they do, flawed but amazing. We do get to know the surfing Riva family as the book concentrates on their relationships with each other and their "friends". You can just feel the warmth of the sun and the pitch of the waves.

A typically fabulous plot from the last book from John Le Carre. Wonderful characters and clever prose "He followed her up the steps and with a sense of trespass entered the cavernous hall of a house that, in the language of estate agents, had long been awaiting modernisation". In the Afterword, the author's son, Nick Cornwell, describes how it came to be published after Le Carre died. He says "Silverview" does something no other Le Carre novel ever has. It shows a (secret) service fragmented: filled with it's own political factions etc etc". Nick's few pages does real justice to his father. Thanks Nick. I now have no more of his books to read, so some time will have to start again.

How can a story so trivial be so riveting. This is the class of Muriel Spark. I just could not understand the main character, wealthy Harvey Gotham, leaving his beautiful wife Effie for a run down cottage in France to study The Book Of Job. Then he is in a quandary when Effie's almost attractive sister Ruth turns up with Effie's baby. She has left her husband Edward, an actor who has recently left his religious calling.

I wasn't thrilled by all this Book Of Job stuff, others who are familiar with it will probably find it an intellectual delight. But for me it's the simple yet formidable prose that I love. And the story that in the second half takes an almost surreal turn of events. The penultimate part is crammed full of fast and furious dialogue with the French police that is a wonder. There is the trademark wit and moral conundrums that define these short novels. Brilliant. Just don't start me on Job.