Clearing the Camera

It has been about a month since my last post and I need to clear my camera of its usual detritus. Apologies in advance for any unrotated photos - I invariably forget to turn them before uploading and, once done, it is beyond my meagre IT capabilities to correct them. Most of the ones you have to turn your head to view are flyers for various plays we have seen. Perhaps I should remember to hold the camera in landscape mode before taking those; it would save a lot of angst!

Here goes:

For his birthday back in December, I bought R a one day blacksmithing course to make a chef's knife. The forge was near Welwyn Garden City, so he had an early start and I had most of the day to myself - a very rare occurrence! I love the knife that he made and it sits proudly on my rack in the kitchen - it's the one on the far left in the photo below:

An evening at the National Theatre - courtesy of Vue Cinema! Helen Mirren played Queen Elizabeth II and the play explored her relationships with her many Prime Ministers. It was excellent and the time flew by:

A production of '1984' at The Corn Exchange. I have to admit that it's not my favourite book, but R wanted to see it and he enjoyed it, even if I wasn't so keen. That's not a reflection of the Box Tale Soup Company, they are excellent, I just find the story depressing and rather too close to reality at the moment!

By comparison, the one man production of 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' at Arlington Arts was stunningly good. You knew that you had been acted at! We were on the front row and it was quite scary in parts.

A trip to Baddesley Clinton, a moated manor house near Warwick, with my friend, C:

A Mother's Day trip to the Victoria Rooms in Bristol to hear E play in a concert. I loved every minute!

It was the 250th anniversary of American Independence and the programme was based solely on American music. Funnily enough, we had also attended a concert by the Newbury Choral Society at St. John's Church the evening before (no photo). That was also a celebration of all things American, so it was a bit of a theme for the weekend!

We met E after her morning rehearsal and headed to the East Village vegan cafe in Clifton for lunch. They did a very nice tomato soup:

Inside the Victoria Rooms:

Afterwards, we walked to the centre of Bristol for a Chinese Hotpot supper. You choose your base, a form of protein and a selection of vegetables, which you then add to the stock and simmer at the table until tender. It was tasty and fun, although R was hungry again by the time we got home! When we left, the heavens opened and we ended up catching an Uber back to the car rather than getting soaked.

My Mother's Day flowers:

A New Era production of Arthur Miller's 'The Price'. The first act was entertaining, but the second dragged on a bit!

A walk at Sydmonton Court and Watership Down. Sydmonton Court is the country home of Andrew Lloyd Webber and the public footpath leads right through his estate. Apparently, he tried to get the path moved but the locals objected and so you can walk right by his house and through the grounds, which I admit must be rather annoying for him!

Shepherd's Cottage (undergoing restoration) - the former home of Richard Adams, overlooking Watership Down:

 

A trip to Silchester - it was dry but quite cold and windy.

We sheltered behind the Roman wall to eat our picnic lunch:

A trip to Stourhead with my friend, S, and her dog, A. A National Trust property in Wiltshire with a neoclassical house and garden, it is frequently used as a film set - Mr. Darcy first proposed to Elizabeth Bennet at the Temple of Apollo, just visible across the lake. Incidentally, I have really enjoyed the BBC's 'The Other Bennet Sister' recently.

Finally, a trip to the Watermill to see 'Victoria'. We hadn't planned on seeing this until last weekend. We went for a walk to Bagnor and were sitting on a bench at the top of the hill overlooking the theatre, eating our lunch. A lady came plodding slowly up the hill and I told R to scooch up so that she could sit down as well. We got chatting and when I asked if she had come far, she informed us that she was staying at The Watermill as she was performing in their current production. I recalled that 'Victoria' was playing and enquired which role she had. Of course, she was the titular character!

I Googled her when we got home - her name is Amanda Boxer and, amongst many other roles, she played Mrs. Ryan in the film 'Saving Private Ryan'. I haven't seen it personally but believe that it's quite a big deal!

Anyway, we immediately booked tickets and saw 'Victoria' last night; it was brilliant!

Well, that's my camera all cleared. I hope everyone has a lovely Easter and that the weather stays fine for the Bank Holidays. I'm off to sort out my greenhouse and then do a bit of gardening and go for a swim. The local lido is now open again, and I had my first outdoor swim of the year on March 31st - absolute Heaven!

Toodle pip for now. x

St. David's Day

Happy St. David's Day to any Welsh readers out there. It's March 1st and the first 2 months of 2026 have whizzed by.

I'm taking a quiet day at home today. R is off on a one day blacksmithing course that I bought him as a birthday present, and I am recovering from the small bowel MRI that I had yesterday. I was referred last August and, between you and me, I think that my referral got lost in the ether. After chasing it up, they rang me on Friday and offered me an appointment for the following day. We had to travel to Banbury, about an hour away. It was actually a small private hospital that the NHS sometimes uses for scanning purposes. The MRI was situated in a trailer in the car park, but the prep (cannula insertion and drinking the 1L of disgusting bowel distender with laxative effects) was done in a small private room inside. The room had an ensuite with loo, for which I was very grateful! Still traumatised by the laxative experience before my colonoscopy last year, I was worried about needing the loo whilst in the scanner and on the hour journey home. Luckily, the effects didn't kick in fully until I was home; possibly the Buscopan injection that they give you during the scan to relax the intestines helped.

If you've never had an MRI, the prep is the worst part. The scanning machine is very noisy but they give you ear plugs (which it is best to ram right in!) and headphones, so you can follow the instructions. I kept my eyes shut to combat the claustrophobia and, if it wasn't for the fact that there is a lot of 'breathe in, breathe out, breathe in and hold', I think I may well have nodded off. The scan took about an hour and then we rushed home before the Buscopan fully wore off. When it did, the rest of my evening was spent mostly in the downstairs loo!

Anyway, that's quite enough of that. We've had several trips out over the past month or so - 3 of which were birthday presents, which I will get to in a moment. 

January saw us heading to Bristol to visit our youngest and take her out for a birthday lunch. Kibou is a Japanese restaurant with a delicious vegan (and GF) selection of food. Their sake wasn't too bad either!

Ingenious and beautiful sake bottle in a flask of hot water:

The food was delicious and we may have overordered just a tad. E took the leftovers home in a takeaway container for dinner the following day.

For R's birthday, L had bought him 2 tickets to see the 30th anniversary tour of The Fast Show. To be honest, I was never much of a fan but R liked the show back in the day, and it was a day out. I loved the London Palladium. Apparently, Bruce Forsyth's ashes are buried under the stage - he used to perform there a lot and wanted his remains to be near the sound of theatre, music and dance. As predicted, the show wasn't really to my taste. I enjoyed the cast talking about how they met but the rest of the show left me rather baffled. There was a lot of innuendo best left in the 1970s, and I was rather like Margo in 'The Good Life' wondering why something was funny. I was definitely in the minority though, R and the rest of the audience laughed non-stop for 3 hours. My favourite part was a film clip showing some of the late Caroline Aherne's best bits. I found some of those very funny, as well as being unbearably poignant.

A night at the Corn Exchange. It was enjoyable if not terribly memorable:

A trip to Longleat Safari Park for my birthday present from R - an aardvark feeding experience! It was an incredibly rainy day, which had its pros and cons. Firstly, R had forgotten his coat(!), so we stopped off at a Lidl en route and bought a cheap and cheerful padded waterproof from their middle aisle. It will now live in the boot of the car to combat any future moments of forgetfulness! The rain may have put a bit of a dampener on the outside bits, but the dreadful weather did mean that it was relatively uncrowded. I imagine that the drive through safari can get quite frustrating, not to say hot, during the summer months. Here are a few of my favourite bits - the photos aren't the best owing to trying to take them through rain spattered windows:

Lemurs sheltering from the rain:

Some rather bedraggled ostriches:

The monkey section - enter at your peril!

I loved the bat cave where you can stand watching them swoop around and coming very close. It's not for everyone though - some people seemed a little spooked by the experience!

Then it was time for the highlight of the trip - meeting Frankie, one of the park's aardvarks. Our appointment was for 3pm and, being nocturnal, Frankie was still asleep when we arrived. This allowed us time to get up close and personal, whilst learning all about her. Her snout was adorable, a bit like a large squishy marshmallow, but her tail was solid muscle! They are solitary creatures (her mate, Benny, lived in a separate enclosure nearby) with amazing digging capabilities. They also use their tail to cover their footprints to avoid predators.

When it became apparent that supper (or breakfast in Frankie's case) was imminent, she woke up and became very active extremely quickly! I'm not entirely sure that R had thought it through when it came to the feeding part! Imagine if you will, 2 vegans feeding a very enthusiastic aardvark with live mealworms followed by a raw mince chaser! Luckily, gloves were worn; it was the closest that either of us had come to meat in decades, but Frankie adored it. She was literally climbing all over us in her eagerness to get at the food and, despite the non-veganness (is that a word? :O) ) of it all, I loved every second.

My birthday present from L was a trip into London to see 'Shadowlands' at the Aldwych Theatre. She was my plus 1. It was an evening performance and, rather than travel back late at night on my own, I stayed the night at L's flat, enjoying a sleepover with her rabbit, Felix. I also booked tickets for the Picasso exhibition at the Tate Modern in the afternoon.

The cafe did a very nice vegan and GF apple and cinnamon cake - it was much nicer than it looks!

Dinner was a pre-theatre dosa at Sagar's:

The play was fantastic. L didn't really know the story of C.S.Lewis and Joy Gresham/Davidman. The ending, therefore, came as a bit of a shock. It's not often that you don't have a happy ending in plays, or even a bit of ambiguity or sense of hope. This one was just sad. I really enjoyed it and the acting was excellent.

Interval pink G&T - we traditionally share a cocktail with 2 straws!

A trip to the Unravel yarn festival in Farnham. I arrive early and leave when it starts to get too crowded. I bought some alpaca yarn to make the Hobbiton Vest.

Valentine's Day roses and getting out my veggie seeds.

Finally, I'm still joining as I go on my Prague blanket. When we visited Prague a couple of years ago, we didn't buy any souvenirs. Then I saw a video where 'It is a Sarah' began a blanket inspired by the colours of the buildings in Prague. I thought it would be a nice reminder of our holiday and decided to follow suit, with Lucy of Attic 24's Fireside Blanket pattern. To be honest, I'm in 2 minds about the colours; Sarah's were better but I went with what I had. Occasionally, we toy with the idea of getting a camper van. I'd love an old VW one, but fear that I would really need one with a loo! If we ever get one, this is the blanket that will go in it.

That's all for this month. I'm spending the day sowing some more seeds in the greenhouse and potting on some houseplants, all undertaken not far from the bathroom! How about you, anything exciting happening in your corner of the world? 

Toodle pip for now. x