The Garden in May - Experiments and New Arrivals

 

I missed taking a photo of a robin in the bird bath, so a thirsty pigeon will have to do.

I will start with the Calendula seeds planted in fibre pots that can go straight into the garden or into pots, and in normal plastic pots.

This is how there are now.

The ones planted in the plastic pots have already been transplanted into pots outside and are are doing fine.

However those in the fibre pots seemed to have stopped growing. The seeds were planted six weeks ago so the single use fibre pots below have been a failure.

The Penstemon "Heavenly Blue" arrived and are still how they came and growing in the conservatory.

The Hosta "Fire and Ice" went straight into the pots outside. Two have survived but the third is missing in action.

The three new Astrantia Venice below seem to be OK. The tips are changing colour.

The new Agapanthus  below is thriving in the conservatory. Time I moved it outside.

Some of the bulbs I planted as an experiment (se posting 15th October 202) have done better than others. New post to come soon. The six new Verbena plants I also bought online are doing OK next to the side patio. I will have to keep an eye on the Aster you can see at the top of the photo as they are quite invasive. I have just dug up a huge batch in the main border where they are encroaching into my best perennials. 

I have taken bits of roots and leaves from some of the existing Astrantia and moved them around the borders. Update to come when, hopefully, in bloom. 

Same with some Penstemon.

On to the other borders. This is the Potentilla "Goldfinger" that has been in the long border for maybe twenty years. I cannot ever remember giving it a good prune, but as it seemed to have died, I tried what was recommended and chopped away. It had covered what is now shown as bare earth. There are signs of something happening, more in time.

I thought i had lost the Heuchera "Spearmint", but here it is with the first pink flowers. Is that quite early?

The Verbena Bonariensis(below) that I only planted last year that I thought was dead was just resting. I cut off all the dead stuff to reveal the new growth.

 

The Clematis "Montana" is always a good show in spring, although it is hidden round the side patio. 

I thought I would end with Betty on an old piece of carpet next to the compost heap.

I Am Alfred Hitchcock

 

I thought, not another programme about Alfred Hitchcock, this time on Sky Documentaries. But this production by Network Entertainment of Canada goes right back to the beginning of his career with things I I did not know. Like his first three films in the UK were turned down for release. But the third called Lodger was shown to a band of film critics who demanded it be shown. It was so successful that the first two were eventually released as well. 

All through the early 1930's Hitchcock made a film every year until in 1934 with The Man Who Knew Too Much and 1935 with The 39 Steps these successes showed the director that thrillers were the way to go. We also heard about his relationship and marriage to Alma Reville who was a great help o his films, and about Joan Harrison who became his assistant and was a great help with his female characters. 

I was surprised as most people when Hitchcock committed himself to a seven year deal with David O Selznick  as his first foray into the Hollywood. he found that the studio always wanted the final cut and this caused huge arguments. That is until Hitch found a clever way to edit his films that no-one could change. The programme reached the release of Rebecca in 1940 and the rest was familiar history. But we do get some interesting anecdotes which kept me watching.  

Tring Book Club - The Overstory by Richard Powers

 

This was the first time I could not finish a book club choice. I gave up just before half way for reasons I shall explain later. Once I got used to the first section, of what were seven short stories about the different characters, I found there were two or three that were quite good. But in Mimi's story, there are a couple of pages where we rush through some of her history. And there are other times this happens and it made my head hurt. It was a shame as I had made so many notes about the seven sets of characters so that I would be able to follow their stories as the book progressed.

So when these stories finish, I hoped the book would settle down into a traditional narrative. But no. There are far too many diversions to the other characters. It made my head spin. I guess that for some people with a great retentive memory, reading this for hours at a time, it would all make sense. But for my aged brain I could not keep up. Again I went back to page 224 where far too much happens to Mimi (again) and then there are eleven changes in the different character's stories in the next forty odd pages. That is where I gave in. Just don't start me on trees!

Listening to two of the members of book club, I realised there was lots to learn behind the different narratives. I seemed to have missed it all.

The Pursuit of Love - Soundtrack

 

The most amazing thing about the BBC's new period drama The Pursuit of Love is the ultra modern soundtrack. There are numerous links on the internet to the list, here is just one.

Listen to every song from the Pursuit of Love soundtrack (telegraph.co.uk)

Movies at Home: Rules Don't Apply, Arabesque and Scribe

 

With an excellent cast it should have been good. But without a decent script or director they were lost. Yes, it was beautiful to look at and could have been an intelligent drama. But it was just boring.

Arabesque was director Stanley Donen's follow up to the highly successful Charade. Unfortunately it was not in the same class despite two heavyweight stars in Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren. It seemed that the English locations were more important than the screenplay. The inner Canterbury Quad of St john's college Oxford, a tiny street off Pall Mall, Regent's park Zoo, Trafalgar Square courtesy of a camera at the top of  Nelson's Column, British Museum, Waterloo Station, and Royal Ascott, See what I mean?  But it was great to look at despite the predictable plot. 

Now Scribe (alternatively called The Eavesdropper) did have a great plot. Lead actor Francois Cluvet was excellent, having remembered him from Tell no One. Full of sinister conversations and political machinations, it was only let down by a muddled ending when our too nice hero joins in with the violence. 

The Coldest and Driest April

 

There was an air frost somewhere in the UK every single morning in April. It was very cold for April and the second sunniest on record. But even more extraordinary for the South-East, there was very little rain all  month.

The statistics show that we only had around 10% of average April rainfall so this means we had no more than 7mm of rain throughout the whole month. So even after a wet winter, the earth in the borders was cracking. 

Fortunately, the lawns had enough moisture deep underground to keep green, even though the grass was hardly growing, and May has started very wet. The lawn is a carpet of catkins from the Silver Birch trees, so they must all be very healthy. 

The Driver's Seat, In Summer Season and The Midnight Library

 

Almost a short story at a hundred pages, Muriel Spark has conjured up a black comedy without any laughs. It has been described as "unhinged" or "brilliant" when I would say surreal and imaginative. Is it that the narrator has dreamed the last days of Lise? Because we know what happens to her very early on, discomforting though this may be. And because no-one in their right mind would have planned it that way. It is obvious someone is not in their right mind, either the narrator or Lise.

On the subject of the narrator, it is as if he or she is a fly on the wall, following all the odd intimate actions of Lise, without understanding what they mean. "Who knows her thoughts? Who can tell?" This gives the story that elusive quality for which the author is well known. So, yes, very weird, discomforting and, most of all, highly original. Saved in the end by Spark's brilliant prose. I was very surprised to find a film was adapted from this novella starring, of all people, Elizabeth Taylor. That must be weird too.

Why on earth did middle aged Kate marry the much younger Dermot? He is the epitome of a wastrel relying on his wife and mother to subsidise his idleness. I cannot but compare him to Harold Skimpole in "Bleak House". But Kate did know Dermot before her husband died and was obviously an attractive proposition.

The story is a forensic examination of a well off family rather than revealing any real plot. But the exchanges between the various characters are never less than intriguing and superbly written. There are some very funny pieces as well as occasional bleak episodes. The feeling of impending gloom ends in a devastating climax. But it is the dialogue in which this author excels.

It's Mrs Elm who Nora meets in that fantastical place called The Midnight Library and tells her that she has a choice of just not "parallel lives. Some are more ....... perpendicular". When she explains The Book of Regrets, we are prompted to think about are own. But these other lives for Nora are not all what they might seem. Even though I was looking forward to Nora's other life with The Labyrinths, it was not what I expected.

When Nora meets Hugo, there are quite deep philosophical conversations about what it is to exist. And we are treated to bits about "open quantum wave function" and "quantum superposition" whatever these might be.

Matt Haig is good at combining a decent narrative with clever prose that, though written in the third person, sometimes feels like the first. A little bit sentimental at the end, but who doesn't like a bit of sentimentality. I had originally avoided this extremely popular novel, that had been at the top of the charts for a while, because of the fantasy element. But it was entertaining and well written, so I was glad I took the chance