Inside Cinema - Shorts Episodes 51 to 60

 

Alex Dudok de Wit takes us through lots of animated features in Episode 51 Beyond Aardman. From Camberwick Green in 1966 to The Wombles, Postman Pat, Bagpuss and The Clangers. We get a potted history of stop motion and puppet animation. And right up to date we have Tim Burton and Wes Anderson joining the fray. I have put The Corpse Bride on my to see list.

What is Barbara Windsor doing with her arm on Sid James? They are Beside the Seaside in Episode 52 narrated by Pamela Hutchinson. There are lots to see, from the Carry On films through to 2012's terrific Byzantium. Brighton Rock from 1948, Whisky Galore (1949), A Matter of Life and Death three years earlier, Get Carter (just the ending gets it to this list), Quadrophenia from 1979 of course, ("When Churchill talked about fighting on the beaches he didn't imagine the mods and rockers"), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), Local Hero (1983), Never Let Me Go (2010), and Ammonite in 2020.  Jumping back to 1938, we see Carol Reed's 1938 drama Bank Holiday. But it had to end in the waves on the beach in Park Chan-wook's Decision to Leave. 

Episode 53 is all about the great British night out in Rave Britannia by Ellen E Jones.  The above photo is of very young John Simm and Danny Dyer in 1999's Human Traffic. Pub crawls and bowling, have we not done it all? We start down the pub in 1960's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Ad then a wild change of direction to all those dance floor movies. It obviously could not ignore 24 Hour Party People, but the newer rave films passed me by.

Here is Cher in Episode 54 ..... The Cher Factor by Anna Bogutskaya. So not only is she a singer but "a talented actor". Hmmm. Well there is a long history of pop singers making it onto the big screen. (Maybe an episode about them would be better?) But here we start with Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. Then the superior Silkwood with Meryl Streep, and more.

Hanna Flint narrates Episode 55 Strong Female Characters of which there are many. "In each new wave of feminism, we find empowerment in a male dominated world". We see clips from so many action films from Linda Hamilton in the Terminator films, Sigourney Weaver in the Alien franchise and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn in 2020's Birds of Prey. And many more.

Could I please pass on Episode 56 Fat Females on Film with Grace Barber-Plentie.

But Episode 57 Nuns on Film by Pamela Hutchinson is brilliant. I thought we were running out of themes, but no. So 1947's Powell and Pressburger classic Black Narcissus is a must see. Convents seem to be great locations. From 1985's Agnes of God to Doubt from 2008 and 2013's  Philomena. These are all great dramas. Shame about the more recent horror films.

Talking about horror, episode 58 is The Jump Scare with Mike Munger. Did I really want to watch this? But when I saw Gromit in an early clip, I thought it might be OK. From 1925's The Phantom of the Opera when he has his mask removed to more recent scares in The Shining, Psycho, Jurassic Park and Jaws. Well those were OK. But the more modern horrors I could do without, now just a cheap, lazy trick. 

Episode 59 is Queer Villains. It's Casper Salmon who shows us far too much of Divine. However, Hitchcock's Rope looks interesting. I didn't realise how many Bond villains were gay. That's Javier Barden above teasing James in 2012's Skyfall. 

Last of these ten is episode 60 Jukebox Musicals with Dewi Evans. Extended highlights of Moulin Rouge along with Mama Mia, Sunshine on Leith (Hurrah!), and Rocketman. All before we track back to 1952's Singing on the Rain. Just to compare one song with that in 1939's Babes in Arms. "Good Morning" is sung in that film by Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. A longer version (in colour) is on YouTube.

The Buddha of Suburbia at the Barbican Theatre

 

I had waited for The Buddha of Suburbia to finish it's run at RSC Stratford as I knew it was going to transfer to the Barbican Theatre in London. (My very favourite theatre - more later). The only reason I had chosen to see this play was the director Emma Rice, who also adapted the novel with it's author Hanif Kureishi. I first saw one of her plays when she was co-artistic director of Kneehigh. Her Rebecca came to the Oxford Playhouse where, in my review of 20th November 2015, I said it was an "exceptionally clever presentation". After that unfortunate time at The Globe, she was back at the Oxford Playhouse with her new company and Wise Children. My blog post of 16th November 2018 I called it "sheer entertainment" with a "cross between a play, a musical, cabaret and revue". Then again at Oxford came Malory Towers, see post of 4th October 2019: "full of Rice's theatrical magic". It was at the National's Lyttleton Theatre that I went to see her Wuthering Heights (post of 18th March 2022 - "the staging is, as always, quite brilliant").

So there was no question that I would get to see her latest production. A single seat in the fourth row and I heard every word. We are watching an immigrant family in 1970's South London. Hmmm. However, our narrator Karim (a superb Dee Ahluwalia) is mixed race with a Pakistani father and English mother. He tells us at the start that he was born in England and so is very much English. 

So this is a story about family, and about some of those difficult years in that decade. But we get the clothes and, particularly, the music of the age. No singing from the cast this time, but lots of dancing to those old tracks.

But this is mainly a serious story, interrupted by Rice's typical high jinks. However, it does feel more like snapshots of their lives rather than a coherent narrative. It did seem to sag in the middle, and the two and a half hours (plus interval) could have done with a good chunk left out. The characters themselves were always interesting, I particularly liked Natasha Jayetileke as Karim's best friend Jamila.

But, as ever, it is Emma Rice's creative adaptation that we go for. "Wildly stunning, inventive, often subversive, and unashamedly populist" said one review. 

As for the journey, Alison dropped me off at Tring Station, from Euston the Northern Line to Moorgate and an interesting walk through the city to The Barbican. An early start for the performance at 1pm, but that meant I was away before 4pm, even though rush hour was well underway.

As for The Barbican Theatre, a quick trawl of this blog found four Shakespeare plays I had seen there as well as The Wizard of Oz in 1987 and Three Sisters in 1989.

Art of Film on Sky Arts - Series 2 Episode 5 - David Lean in Black and White

 

Our host Ian Nathan introduced this episode describing David Lean's "early films grew to define Britishness". "A technical virtuoso, a natural director, a master of iconic images". And his editing "a marvel". We hear about his childhood and the first films he went to see. He was given his first movie camera and soon became a tea boy at Gaumont Pictures. He worked his way up due to his enthusiasm and talent. 

He was soon recognised as a great editor and Neil Norman tells us he became known as the best in Britain. Steven Armstrong added that he rescued films. Kim Newman said that at all times he wanted to produce quality work, no matter what the subject. Lean struck up a relationship with Noel Coward who had come back to Britain from Hollywood during the second world war. He wanted to make the propaganda movie  In Which We Serve that was released in 1942. He wanted to direct his own performance but had no interest in any other scenes. So these he let to David Lean as co-director. It was he who brought in that intricate flashback structure.

The two then formed a production company Cineguild Productions with Coward as writer/producer and Lean as director. Ian Nathan says that "every film they made together is now considered a classic". Neil Norman tells us about 1944's This Happy Breed that was based on the stage play. Then in 1945 came Brief Encounter with Celia Johnson (see separate post) followed by Great Expectations in 1946. This was Lean on his own, steeping himself in Dickens and writing the adaptation himself. Christina Newland thinks he "streamlined Dickens incredibly well". His editing was classic. The casting was superb with Alec Guinness straight out of the navy and the start of a lifelong partnership.

Guinness plays Fagan in Lean's 1948 Oliver Twist, convincing the director with a tremendous audition. We are told that Lean pictured Victorian London so well when the city "comes alive". Then three films with Lean's then wife Ann Todd. The Passionate Friends from 1949, Madeleine in 1950 and The Sound Barrier in 1952.Ann was a big star at that time. Lean's last film in black and white came in 1952 with the black comedy Hobson's Choice based on the stage play. A kind of retelling of King Lear. What came next were the big epics and that is where this episode finishes. But "Lean is already a genius".

P.S. I did happen to meet Ann Todd when I was a boy in London in the mid nineteen fifties. She frequented my father's shop on Kensington High Street and we were invited to her house in Holland Park. 

Garden in late October

 

Well into autumn and the white impatiens I planted in early June are still in flower. The odd frost does not seem to have made any impact. I wasn't going to plant hanging baskets, but just sticking some bedding on the top seems to have worked. 

This time last year I had cleared the bedding border, but these dahlias have just gone on and on.

This was the acanthus in July. It had spread so much over the years and a month later had flopped to the ground. Drastic action was called for.

What I found after clearing the foliage was a massive root system. There was nothing for it but to dig out most of the roots and leave just one healthy looking piece. 

A few years ago, I took a piece of that acanthus and planted it in the long border. Again this had become overgrown. I left one piece as the photo below and planted another I had dug up further down.

Yesterday I spent ages clearing all the faded asters from the wildflower border.

My photos from this time last year show quite a few roses still in bloom. This year there are hardly any.

I also wanted to compare the leaves on the Silver Birch. This is how they looked on the 4th November last year.

Below is how they look today.

By Myself and Then Some by Lauren Bacall

 

It all started quite well, but it turned out not to be the book I had hoped for. In fact, the majority of the second half is all about how Lauren Bacall's husband Humphrey Bogart became ill and eventually died. Yes, I did skip most of that. Even after she meets Bogie as a teenager, the book is nearly all about their relationship and not her films.

Her early story is fine, about her Romanian background, about how her father up and left when she was only eight. We hear about her schools and moving in with her grandmother when she attended a high School of 5,000 girls. A year in New York at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Then "I started my professional Modelling career in May 1941. I was still sixteen". Working as an usher on Broadway and lots of auditions.

Her big break comes with a small part in the theatrical production of "Franklin Street". She is still only eighteen but the play didn't complete it's trial run. However, a modelling job for Harper's Bazaar takes her for two weeks into Florida, and was so successful that Lauren ends up as the cover photo for March 1943. She is still only eighteen. This turns out to be her big break as the big film studios became interested. The events that result in as screen test in Hollywood are, perhaps, the most interesting in the book.

It's big director Howard Hawks who signs her, "he always wanted to find a girl from nowhere, make her into his dream girl". She gets to know Hollywood, some of the stars, but no work. Until, out of the blue comes "The Have and Have Not", her first big role, playing opposite Humphrey Bogart! This is the start of their friendship and later affair, she's nineteen and he's in his early forties and married three times.

What follows is a story of their romance and later marriage at the expense of her work in movies. So it's Bogie, Bogie, Bogie. And all their friends. Even her next film "The Big Sleep" is hardly mentioned. Nor are her later films so I wont even bother to mention them. Except, perhaps "Designing Woman" that I have reviewed on my blog. But before then, Bogart has begun to be seriously ill and the book gives over to page after page of hospitals, part recovery and eventually death.

"By Myself" was originally published in 1978 and then some twenty seven years later came "And Then Some", an update from Lauren, now seventy, and of very little interest. And to cap it all, of the many biographical books I have read, this is the very first without an index. Cheap or what.

Art of Film on Sky Arts - Series 2 Episode 4 - The Secret Life of Film - The Script Supervisor

 

Until the advent of modern technology: video playback, polaroid, laptops, monitors etc, the duties of the script supervisor (or continuity girl as they were used to be called) were crucial to the seamless production of a film. They had to make sure that everything looked right between takes, even though they may have been filmed days or weeks apart. The weather, costumes, make up and props had to look exactly the same as the first take. Kim Newman tells us that the continuity girl or script supervisor had to "make sure the audience never realises the scenes were shot out of order". So the coffee cup had to be in exactly the same place, the glass was still half full. Even the delivery by the same actor could change between takes. 

They had to work closely with the director to make sure everything was perfect. They would have to stop filming until every last detail was correct. We hear from the elderly Angela Allen who found a job with the Alexander Korda studio. Traditionally this role always fell to a woman, Sarah Mason might well have been the first. Steven Armstrong says that when she initially took on this role, it prevented so many re-takes that the studio were amazed at the results. "It saved us so much money" in re-shoots. Ian Nathan adds that "you have to be the difficult person on the set.

Some directors always wanted to use the same continuity girl on every film. David Lean was one. The programme finished by looking at the number of sequels there are in the big blockbuster movies. This is a real challenge in the way the actors look. There is some talk about how some things do creep through, which in themselves can become a kind of cult.

Classic Movies on Sky Arts - The Story of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express

 

The story of this luxury train journey from Istanbul to Calais is just too familiar. But Neil Norman says that this adaptation from 1974 is "perhaps the best of any Agatha Christie novel". It certainly has one of the greatest casts ever assembled. Christina thinks that the director Sidney Lumet known for as a "New York street director" should take on such a British movie. But he did come out of the theatre as did Agatha. His film Twelve Angry Men had been a success. The producer was John Brabourne who was a cousin to the Queen. He had already produced Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet  But he had hard work in convincing Agatha to adapt this one of her novels as she had suffered major disappointment with a number of early film adaptations. This was when (under financial pressure) she sold the rights of her books to MGM  Although the 1957 film Witness for the Prosecution was very good with a superb cast.   

We hear about Agatha's background, being so well travelled. In order to get the best possible cast, they first turned to Sean Connery on the basis that the rest would follow. "Glamour and fun". The characters in some ways take on the persona of their most famous movies. Anthony Perkins is almost Norman Bates. We hear about 37 year old Albert Finney playing Poirot, not entirely likeable. The train itself was built in Elstree Studios and we hear how they filmed in such confined spaces. Agatha actually attended the film's premier and loved what they had done. It was a big hit world wide, especially in America where it established her reputation. It gained nominations for six Academy Awards, including one for Albert Finney, and won best supporting actress for Ingmar Bergman. 

Celestial Navigation, Old God's Time and Bourneville

 

Anne Tyler is one of my favourite authors and, having read all of her later novels, I am back tracking to earlier books, of which "Celestial Navigation" is one. It has the most wonderful beginning. Jeremy is a 38 year old bachelor and still at home. We first think he is just a bit difficult, but it turns out it is more than that. When his mother dies, he has to tell his sisters Amanda and Laura who live a long way away. But guess who has to do everything. The author has to describe Jeremy in the third person (his sisters tell their own story) and it's hard for her to tell us what it is like to be him. Yes, he has learning and behavior difficulties but it's up to us to put a name to his condition.

People make allowances especially as he is left alone to mange an old house full of boarders who never really take advantage and give him some support. A new boarder arrives, Mary Tell with a young daughter Darcy. Her story is quite heartbreaking, she married the wrong man. "I'm entirely dependent on a man I don't really know". The novel then becomes a story about Mary and Jeremy, their life together and their family. It's all so surprising given Jeremy's affliction. They are still in the same house, some people stay, some come and go. Tyler gets inside the head of this awkward but harmless man. Sometimes we suffer as he does. There are uplifting moments and the prose shows the maturing writer. But generally is a fairly depressing tale.

Tom Kettle has settled into retirement after a notable career as a senior detective with the Irish constabulary. On his own in an annex of a rambling mansion. But he actually retired nine years ago and who should suddenly turn up on his doorstep but two of his old team. They never really explain why they are there and perhaps a visit to the station would help. When it takes until halfway for that to happen, we realise this is all about Tom's life. For instance Chapter 4 begins with nearly six pages of unbroken prose. No paragraphs, no breaks. Concentration on the writing is a must. Then who should arrive but his old boss. Two visits in two days when he hardly ever sees a soul. Another conversation but still no indication of why he is there.

We hear about some of Tom's previous cases as he tries to think why he might be required. He also talks about the little changes in old age. Not just the interruptions of sleep for the toilet but "a hundred other intimations of infirmities ahead". When he forgets his cap the February sunshine is "beginning to cook his scalp". There is a lot about old age that resonates with this reviewer.
We hear about his childhood in care and that was not good. We hear a lot about his wife, they both have their stories of being in care. These are painful memories. But Tom tells us how they met, the honeymoon and then the children. Happier times.

So it is not until half way through that Tom makes his way to the station and we still don't know what they want to talk to him about. There is one particular case that rears it's head in Tom's thoughts. Again it involves members of the clergy and abuse. So this is not a happy story, far from it. Nine years of retirement has been a blessing to calm Tom's memories, but here they are again. For me, it's only Barry's superb prose that kept me reading. Boy do I need a happier book next time.

In some ways this book feels far too familiar in it's portrait of Britain from the end of the second world war through to 2020. So less of a novel, just how one family is traced through the years. I was six months old for the first chapter "VE Day 8th May 1945". Obviously I cannot remember the celebrations and my father is still not back from the war. There seemed to be more emphasis on Churchill's speech on the radio than how Sam and Doll Clarke and their two children were coping. Mary is eleven years old and she provides the main thread as we travel through the years.

The book then fast forwards to 2nd June 1953 and the "Coronation of Queen Elizabeth 11". I was eight and my memories are on my blog. Including crowding round a new tiny TV and how bored I felt as the broadcast went on and on.

Next comes 30th July 1966 and the "World Cup Final" at Wembley. Sometimes the book is far too contrived as it is here. Mary is now married to Geoffrey and they have a son Peter. They meet the other half of the family from, you've guessed it, Germany. I was twenty one and had that season ticket for all the games in London.

I was not sure that the "Investiture of Charles, Prince of Wales" was a major event on the 1st July 1969. But this chapter is like a short story, where Peter is eight and David Foley is ten. It is drafted from a diary David kept for that holiday in Wales. It is terribly boring.

Then "The Wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer". It all seemed very obvious with the family huddled around the TV. That chapter was, of course, followed by the "Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales". One of those I remember exactly where I was moments. I felt that this was the best of all the chapters so far as it shows the different reactions of each member of the family. Later on there are a few marvelous pages where Peter is talking to his mother Mary, and how they can now communicate so much more.

"The 75th Anniversary of VE Day" on 8th May 2020 reprises the first chapter when I was six months old and here I am 75. Somehow, this last piece is by far the most interesting and best written. Little things from the past that seemed trivial at the time now take on greater significance. We are, of course, preparing for lock-down, and all those other familiar restrictions from only four years ag0.

Sight and Sound Magazine - November 2024

 

EDITORIAL

When Mike Williams starts to talk about Any Human Heart (a great book by William Boyd) I thought this might be good. But no, its all about a documentary called Eternal You "the creation of an AI afterlife". Give that a miss.

I skipped past OPENING SCENES about life on the West Bank, and there was nothing interesting in EDITOR'S CHOICE at the BFI London Film Festival. 

IN PRODUCTION 

Only that a new Baz Lurmann project "Jehanne d'Arc" after he abandoned his last film.

IN CONVERSATION

Two critics talk about the new film The Apprentice about Donald Trump in the 1970's and 80's. On at my local Odeon next week. 

THE PICTURES

This is a superb piece about "LIFE.Hollywood", two volumes that chart Life Magazine's photographs of behind the scenes of film sets 1936-1972. If the four published here are anything to go by, they should be amazing.

I passed on the INTERVIEW with the director of the animated feature The Wild Robot, and MEAN SHEETS with posters of Godzilla posters of the 1950's.

THE LONG TAKE 

My four favourite articles starts with Pamela Hutchinson talking about a new stage version of Dr. Strangelove, one of my all time favourite movies. With Steve Coogan ("dream casting") taking on the how many different roles? "It is the first time that the director's estate has allowed any of the director's films to be adapted for the stage". Just opened at the Noel Coward Theatre in London with a script by Armando Iannucci and directed by Sean Foley. Some early five star reviews. Maybe, for me, the film is just far too familiar.

THE MAGNIFICENT '74

Jessica Kiang this month selects Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. She calls it "subversive in a subtler way .... than it's notoriety might suggest". She gives us a run down of the plot before concluding that it may be "a manifesto for vegetarianism".

TV EYE 

It's all about Slow Horses, although Andrew Male never tells us that it's an Apple TV show. Maybe hoping for a gratuity following his grovelling support. But what made me really angry was when he says "Mick Heron's excellent series of comic spy novels". Has he ever read one? There maybe a certain droll satirical element in the seven I have read, but comic, no! If the TV series is actually comic, then I'm glad that I don't get to watch it. Male talks about the "chaos and incompetence" of Slough House. Nobody gets into MI5 if they are incompetent. These people have made a mistake that results in their banishment, but crucially, they normally save the day.

FLICK LIT

Iris Murdoch's novel The Severed Head was made into a film in 1974. I have tried to read her books, but gave up. Nicole Flattery tells us that "the book might be "odd" but the film adaptation by Dick Clement is "sheer weirdness". Ian Holm stars which gives Nicole the opportunity to say that four years after his death, his reappearance in Alien: Romulus  "was extremely distasteful". Holm appears alongside an all star cast and Nicole analyses the book and it's adaptation in some detail. A film to be "puzzled over". Or maybe not.

STEVE MCQUEEN

The big feature this month (ten pages) is about the director's new film Blitz, based on the bombing of London in 1940/41. The hero is a young black boy. Typical. I skipped through all the pages. Will I watch the film when it comes out? It will only be shown in "select UK cinemas" before "streaming globally on Apple TV". So probably not.

FAIRY TALE OF NEW YORK

A study by Beatrice Loayza of Sean Baker's new film Anora that won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. All about a lap dancer "who stumbles into marrying an Oligarch's son". How does that work? This is the director's eighth move of which I enjoyed his The Florida Project. His new film is "pleasurably chaotic" with some nice shots of Brighton Beach.  I remember Mikey Madison from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I thought it would get only a limited cinema release, but I think I saw the trailer at my local Odeon.

LIVE AND LET DIE

Any new film from Pedro Almodóvar (now 75) would be of interest to me, but this one is his very first in English. The Room Next Door stars Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore. Maria Delgado tells us that it is "an unsentimental melodrama" where most of the film is given over to these two marvellous actors talking about life. So "rooted in dialogue". She talks to the director and there are a couple of lovely stills from the movie. If it is on limited release, I might just have to break my rule and go some distance to see it.

THE VENICE FILM BULLETIN

Only notable for Almodóvar winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival courtesy of Isabelle Huppert's jury. The only other notable film for me was an adaptation of Jim Crace's book  Harvest that our book club read and I reviewed on this blog on 24th April 2014. Kieron Corless watched all the films at the festival and he says that the standout "by a distance" was I'm Still Here about the real life disappearance of an engineer.

REVIEWS: FILMS

A rambling review of Megalopolis (maybe intentionally like the film?) This was the only one of the first nine new films reviewed that I had even heard of. Then Small Things Like These, adapted from the Claire Keegan book reviewed here on 14th July 2023. The trailer for the film seems a difficult watch. Then comes Anora and The Room Next Door (both see above). Another five follows that again I had never heard of and then The Apprentice. See In Conversation above. "A profoundly forgettable saga about the rise of Donald Trump. However it seems "remarkably inoffensive" and just a "villain origin story". A French/ Belgium film The Crime is Mine looks good, based on the 1934 play. A thriller/courtroom drama. Lastly Joker: Folie a Deux. Enough said. Nothing interesting on DVD AND BLU-RAY. 

BOOKS

A new book called Box Office Poison sounds funny, all those flops. Also One Shot Hitchcock where "fifteen  scholars" each explore a single frame from a Hitchcock movie. From 1927's The Lodger to Frenzy from 1972. That might be good.

FROM THE ARCHIVE

From the Summer Edition of 1968 comes an interview with French director Jean-Pierre Melville, and in particular his film Le Samurai. I would never have been interested except this is the very same film that I was going to see at The Rex Cinema last week except it failed to screen past the opening credits. But here are six pages with some lovely stills from the film. The movie describes "several parallel worlds which never overlap but merely brush against each other from time to time". Lead actor Alain Delon "is a mystery, a complete enigma". I hope the Rex shows it again once the wrinkles have been sorted. Or find a DVD.

ENDINGS

The Miracle Worker is from 1962, little known today and I'm not surprised.

The swans are back

Early this week on a walk around the village, I found that the swans had returned to Weston Turville reservoir. I have no idea where they went to all summer. The two cygnets have now grown up. The other swan was dawdling somewhere. I was glad I had my phone with me.

The following week I was walking along the canal path and found two more swans. Hopefully they will stay and have a family.

The Garden in October

 

There are a few flowers that are hanging on in the middle of October. The dahlias didn't seem to mind the frost we had this week.

The odd rose is still trying to flower.

The astrantia are on their second blooming.

The campanula are sheltered around the conservatory. Again flowering for a second time after being cut back.

The asters are a late flowering plant. Just a shame mine are a boring colour.

Perhaps the most amazing flower is the hydrangea. In it's first year in the garden it has flowered again.

Last of all, the dianthus in the pots on the side patio and against the wall at the back of the house have been the most successful of the annuals.  I have made a note for next year.

Daffodils Poeticus Pheasants Eye/Recurvus and the Far Round Border

 

Yesterday I cleared all the plants from the end of the far round border. The achillea were far too tall and despite being supported, they were falling over. Next to them was what I came to believe was a rogue weed that was again too tall. I left the white anthemis nearest the camera, but these will also be moved elsewhere.

The border was soft enough to dig over with all the recent rain. I was amazed to find that the soil was really deep. I had bought two very cheap bags of compost that apparently were just right for a new border, and these were added and raked over. 

I then planted the ten daffodil bulbs around the edge. I had cleared lots of the roots from the old plants but I need to see if any still come up in the spring. Especially that weed. The daffodils will be easy to compare with any old roots or weeds. In the spring my thoughts at the moment are for a perennial fuscia in the centre and some fuscia bedding around the edge. There is a lot of shade from the hedge but these should do fine. And I can again look out for anything that shouldn't be there.