The Garden in May

 I have already posted most of the interesting things in the garden in May. But above is the Lilac at the very far end that is never easy to photograph. But here it is in close up.

Alison was given this plant for helping at one of her events. It might be a Hydrangea so maybe not the best for our soil. But it's doing OK at the moment.

The Clematis Montana flowered at the beginning of the month.

The bedding border has been cleared and ready for planting with Dahlia Figaro Mixed.

And the foliage of most of the the bulbs has now been cut back.

My favourite plants

 

Of all my shrubs, the Weigela is the most dramatic. It was pruned hard in the Spring of last year as it become weak after all the previous years of flowering. The photo at the top shows light green leaves sprouting from the branches that were left. It obviously like being cut back as this year it has put on a wonderful show.

My favourite rose is the Blue for You. This is how it flowered last year and now has an abundance of flower buds like never before.

Unfortunately, the Delphinium Pacific Giant is no more, but these are a couple of cheap replacements that are about to flower. Of course I love the Alliums (see post of the 14th May) and some of the Geraniums. Will update later next month. 

How the main border has changed

This was the main border in January, looking very bare and sad. Then in March below a few bulbs were coming to life.

And now in the second half of May, all the shrubs and perennials have covered the border. It will be even better in June.

Campanula and Lobelia around the conservatory

 

As for many years, the Campanula around the conservatory grows across the path. This week I could hardly get past. So they were in for a trim and now have even more flowers thank goodness.

I also planted the bedding Lobelia around the other side.

Blue Iris in flower at last

 

It was a few years ago that I grew these Iris bulbs in pots and then after flowering  transferred them to the wildflower border. Every year they grew leaves but no flowers. So I did some research and found that they need feeding every two weeks from when leaves first appeared. And what do you know, they have flowered beautifully. 

There is also a yellow Iris in a pot that may also be better in a border. But it did flower a month ago.

Challengers, The Fall Guy and Love Lies Bleeding

 

When Challengers ended we never knew the outcome of that tennis match. Somewhere it said "it was never about who won". But that is exactly what tennis is all about. I enjoyed director Luca Guodagnino's Call Me By Your Name and A Bigger Splash, but this three hander was not my kind of film. Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor do their best with a good screenplay but awful story. Worst of all was the awful music, if you can call it that, because it overpowers the dialogue. Thank goodness there was not too much tennis, although the director's trick of filming the tennis balls coming right at you was, perhaps, the most memorable thing in the whole film. Beatrice Loaza in Sight and Sound says it is " a hot and heavy drama, but it's also full of breezy wit and bizarre, borderline uncanny touches that, if they don't always work, at least keep you on your toes, entertained".

Another movie where the sound dominates everything else was The Fall Guy. But what I liked best were all those scenes where we see all the people involved behind the camera. And there were lots of them. Of course there was the undoubted chemistry between the two stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. And the selection of songs was fine. It was just that the one over a sequence of clips showing the pairs early relationship was over far too quickly. However, I thought the main plot that only involves Gosling was pretty pathetic so there was not enough of the two stars together. And then the ending is pretty daft even though it just wants to show us what a stunt man can do. Reasonable fun. Jonathan Romney in Sight and Sound adds "They all bring characterful flesh-and-blood mischief to what could otherwise have been a calculated mirror game of reality and illusion".

Director Rose Glass is on a roll. I watched her creepy Saint Maud on TV even though I normally avoid these kinds of movies. And now her latest Love Lies Bleeding is the closest to a Coen Brothers film I have ever seen. Kristen Stewart brings that kind of unease we saw in Personal Shopper. Why she would fall in with bodybuilder Katy M. O'Brian is anyone's guess. Well we are in 1989 where Kristen's father (Ed Harris is streets ahead in acting terms) owns a gym. As expected, things turn nasty. Tom Shone in the Sunday Times said it was a "hard-knuckled, hard-boiled B-movie on steroids". As different as it could be to Glass's Saint Maud.

Another year of Alliums

 

I planted Alliums at least six years ago, maybe more. They appear every year with little fuss. I do nothing to encourage them and the foliage is just removed after the flowers fade. These photos were taken last week and they may even be better in a couple of weeks. 

The last bulbs in pots

 

In my post of 15th April, I extolled the virtues of the Tulip Spring Green, thirty of which I grew in pots. However, I ignored the fact that this was now too much for me and I had previously noted, "no more bulbs". This week I knew why when I had to dig them out with the old compost and replant them in the garden. Here they are now in the long border.

As this was far too much work, I hope that this will be a lesson for next year. Watch this space.

A Day in Oxford

 

Friday was a gloriously warm and sunny day and Alison and I took the train from Princes Risborough ( only a 15 minute drive away) to Oxford that stopped only at Bicester Village and Oxford Parkway. This is far more pleasant a journey than driving to Oxford and waiting for the park and ride bus to arrive. 

We headed first for John Lewis where we had a voucher for free tea and cake for two. Then stopping at a few shops on the way to the University of Oxford Botanical Gardens. We had been there before a couple of times but never in May. And we had a two for one voucher. There were not that many plants in flower but the Alliums were at their best. That is Alison's hand getting in the picture.

And these were some of the best of the others.

Fortunately we did find a couple of benches on our way round as the sun was very warm. The map below was invaluable.

Before we reached the gardens, we had walked down Cornmarket to Christ Church and then taken the Broad Walk along Christ Church Meadow arriving at the River Cherwell. Then leaving the gardens I wanted to look at the plaque just outside where the Jews of Oxford buried their dead from 1190. The reason being, I am currently reading Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins. Halfway through there appears someone who acts as a guide for the main character, taking in unusual places in the town, this being one. But also all the popular sites as well. 

So on our way back to the centre of Oxford, I did see that narrow street that gives the book it's title.

We headed off the High Street for a wander round the back streets including the Radcliffe Camera, Bodleian Library and Sheldonian Theatre before finding a table in the shade outside a small café for a welcome cuppa and cake. It was then time to head back to the station where we only had to wait five minutes for the train back to Princes Risborough and back home.

Amaryllis CARMEN from Father Gracy

 

I first planted this Amaryllis in 2022 and it has flowered every year. They are quite unpredictable so flowering three years in succession is apparently unusual. These have been in the same pot since planting, They do not need feeding or new compost as they have everything they need inside the bulb. These sit on my study window cill as they are not welcome downstairs. But I love them.

The far end cleared

 

Now cleared, the very far end of the garden was where I used to have three compost heaps, see below,  one for each year before the oldest was spread on the borders in spring and a new one started. 

That was why I planted the laurels to block the view from down the garden.

Now that moving the compost has become too hard, it was time to clear all the forget-me-nots and to level the last of the remaining compost over the whole area. This was how it looked in March before the forget-me-nots came into flower. 

Last week the forget-me-nots have been cleared and in piles ready for taking to the tip. Alison helped with that last week.

Then on Monday, in a gap when it was not raining, I spread all the remaining compost to level the whole area. There is just the one heap left from last year that I will decide what to do with sometime.  I just need to keep the weeds down this summer. There are also the remains of three tree stumps from the Aylesbury Prune that died a few years ago. They are gradually disintegrating.

Movies at Home: So Long, My Son, Amores Perros and I'm Your Man

 

So Long , My Son from 2019 is an epic movie from China, nearly three hours long. A riveting drama spanning over thirty years. Written and directed by Wang Xiaoshuai it plays forwards and backwards to tremendous effect. Although where we are in time does get a bit of getting used to. It focuses on the Chinese one child policy that was gone in 2015. I will not go into all those complicated Chinese names for the actors, but they portray the families with distinction. What was even more impressive was the cinematography, some of the long range exterior shots were outstanding. The long, three hour run time is a little padded out as the camera dawdles as it moves between rooms and for some household chores. 

Not for the faint hearted, amores perros (a rough translation is bad love, although perros is also dogs) is a 2000 award winning film from Mexico.  Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, (21 Grams and Babel are excellent movies) it follows three separate stories that become interwoven towards the end. First is Octavio (Gael Garcia Bernal) who cannot stand how his brother treats his wife, whom he secretly adores. He has a fighting dog, Cofi. Secondly, Valeria is a stunning supermodel (Goya Toledo) involved in a bad accident. Last of all is Chivo, seemingly a down and out, but he does have his own place. Ex-army and dangerous. Emilio Echevarria is superb.

I'm Your Man (or in this case, your robot) is a lovely French film from 2021. In the lead role is Maren Eggert who I had never seen before. Of  course I knew Dan Stevens from Downton Abbey. Also Sandra Huller from The Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall. But it was Eggert who was worth watching, and no wonder winning best actress at the Berlin Film Festival in 2023. Stevens hardly has to act in his role as a robot, but it is Eggert who steals the show. She was just brilliant.

Cormorant at Weston Turville Reservoir

 

When I visited Weston Turville Reservoir last week, I saw a Cormorant splashing it's wings in the water. Exactly like the video on YouTube called "Cormorant washing in Long Water".  It then flew onto a buoy to dry, just like it was suggested on the internet. 

Unfortunately the camera on my phone is pretty awful, especially using close up. But here it is. I was the only person there and spent ages just watching the antics.

Inside Cinema - Shorts - 21 to 30

 

The next ten in my notes on "Inside Cinema - Shorts" starts with Episode 21 Bumbling Detectives narrated by Justin Chang. He tells us these films are "taking the edge off something serious" and hoping the viewer will work out whodunit before those bumbling detectives. Such as Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in Hot Fuzz. Unlike those films full of slapstick and pratfalls. Such as Michael Caine as Sherlock homes in Without a Clue, Elliot Gould as Philip Marlow and Daniel Craig in Knives Out: "I suspect foul play".

Nikki Bedi whips through lots and lots of Indian films in Episode 22's Taboo Breaking Bollywood. Of which I had never heard of one. Or the directors or the actors. This must be because these particular movies have no singing and dancing but are more along the lines of social realism. 

Episode 23 is Star Wardrobes introduced by Gavia Baker. The tile is a terrible pun. It is all about the costumes, production design, the look of the Star Wars films. George Lucas wanted them all to be distinctive, futuristic, even fascist and militaristic. All except our heroes looking more naturalistic with muted colours and soft fabrics. Then the elaborate wardrobes of  Padme Amidala played by Natalie Portman. Then the costume of the main baddie Darth Vader, all black.

Hannah Woodland is the narrator for Episode 24 Cats Entertainment. Again, we rush through films such as 1959's Bell, Book and Candle with Kim Novak and James Stewart, then Donald Pleasance as Blofeld and his cat in From Russia with Love in 1963. On to the horror films like 1977's The Uncanny and animated pictures such as Coraline from 2009. Then the last twenty hardly register from 1934's The Back Cat to 2018's Can You Ever Forgive Me. Were they just going for the record?

Another mad rush through some dark Christmas movies is Pamela Hutchinson's Episode 25 Unmerry Christmas. I was glad they included It's a Wonderful Life that is such a miserable film to put on each year. And I hardly count Miracle on 34th Street as unmerry even if Kris Kringle gets arrested. But some are really funny like 1984's Gremlins and Home Alone in 1990. Some films are predictably included but some not. Emma Thomson's horrible moment in Love Actually is always upsetting. 

Ashley Clark starts episode 26 Millennials on Film with, possibly predictably, Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring from 2013. Then on to 2012's Spring Breakers, both with all these awful youngish people. There were some films I did not want to be reminded of but better were The Social Network from 2010, Greta Gerwig's Ladybird from 2017 and 2016's Personal Shopper, all of which were excellent.  For some reason we are shown lots of documentaries such as Minding the Gap from 2018 before the narrator extolled the virtues of Natalie Portman in 2018's Vox Lux. One to look out for: " a millennium clarion call" and someone "thriving against the odds". 

Above is dear Paddington holding on in Episode 27 Locomotion Pictures. Jake Cunningham whips through lots of clips of trains on film. Most very familiar. But not 2016's Japanese movie Train to Busan. I did see the riotous  Snowpiercer from 2013, Bong Joon-ho's  post apocolyptic thriller that I wouldn't mind seeing again. Lots of westerns with trains including One Upon a Time in the West. Ending with some animated films and Paddington. 

Tim Robey introduces Episode 28 Perfect Storms. There is, of course, lots and lots of rain. So, of course, singing in it. Tim says "does cinema ever do light drizzle?". Not for Gene Kelly. Then not only rain but hurricanes and blizzards. We are shown a clip from Forces of Nature from 1999. "It has the worst weather day for a wedding in entire film history". Goodbyes in the rain include 1993's Remains of the Day and Bridges of Maddison County from 1995.So in films "it never rains but it pours". Just ask Andy MacDowell and Hugh Grant in Four Weddings and a Funeral. Thirty years ago this month.

Christina Newland again, this time looking at make-up in Episode 29 Cosmetic Cinema. Above is Melanie Laurant applying war paint in Quentin Tarrantino's Inglorious Basterds. Reviewed on this blog on 3rd September 2009 and my post "Revenge of the Giant Face" on 4th May 2011. As Christina says "make up in movies is far from cosmetic". Flaming Youth from 1923 is a very early version but that was before it dashed through so many films. I was more interested later on with make up as a templte for sadness or disaster. Such as 2017's I, Tonya, Edward Scissorhands in 1990 and Dangerous Liasons in 1988. 

Episode 30 is Who Killed the Erotic Thriller presented by Catherine Bray. We are shown all those Michael Douglas movies from the early nineties "Lots and lots of Michael Douglas" but also many Hollywood A-listers. But who killed it off and where are they today? Apparently it was Showgirls that bombed in 1995. It seems to be left to TV series such as Game of Thrones to take up the banner.