The things you find

original cast

I had got a blog sorted out for today. At least in my head. But then everything changed to more important matters. First of all, Trekkies have been gathering for a Star Trek convention in London this month: 19-21 October.  Got to admit it has been an amazing year for London. First of all Mrs. Queen celebrates her sixtieth anniversary as Mrs Queen. Then came the Olympics, followed by the Paralympics and now a Star Trek convention, which this year has five Star Trek Captains all present and correct. My favourites are Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard otherwise known as William Shatner and Patrick Stewart.   
Am I getting excited or what! 
I am a Junior Trekkie, in as much as I loved the first few series, but never progressed to the costume or make-up stage. The idea of getting decked out does rather appeal though. The question is as what. I'm grappling with the fact that despite my aspirations, I would never have been cast as an Elf in Lord of the Rings - height problem. Or maybe they did they have short elves and Tolkien simply never got round to writing about them, and now obviously, never will. So Star Trek has got to make up for it. I quite fancy playing Uhuru the Communications Officer in the original series. (That would be me in the back row second from the right). Driving the Starship Enterprise instead of Sulu would be good. (That would be me in the back row first on the right). Warp factor 9 Lt. Shearing. Beam me down Shearing. Oops no that means that I'd have to be the whizz engineer, Scotty - don't think so! I'm not good with a spanner.  This is all too much. I'll just have to content myself with watching the DVDs of the original series. Devil in The Dark is one of my favourite episodes featuring The Horta. Terrifying at the time, it now looks like a speeding brown blancmange with acne and a fringe. Still good ideas in the script though. Or The Menagerie - a two-parter all to do with  mind control, illusion and other things.

Then came the news that Superman had resigned from his post with The Daily Planet. This is serious stuff. You know things must be really bad if even Superman has given up. Does this mean that the all American hero is going to disappear for ever? Who will he be replaced with? Wonder if there's any chance that the Lone Ranger and Tonto will come back with their trusty steeds Silver and Scout. Nice little clip here. Will have you on the edge of your seats! Not that I'm regressing or anything, but according to my mother, I used to watch this every week, and every week I would run round the back of the television set to see where all the cowboys and horses and disappeared to.

Having suffered a double whammy of missing a Star Trek convention and a superhero resigning, I thought I'd go outside and do some gardening. Beautiful afternoon and after all the rain we'd had, the beds had dried out enough so that I didn't get covered in mud as I walked around pruning and weeding. Started cutting back one of our rosemary bushes that had grown too big and was becoming a bit of a thug. The branches were so thick, I had to climb into the bush to be able to cut it back. I'd taken off a couple of pieces, then saw carefully balanced on a thick branch but wedged against our house wall an empty, but perfect birds nest. It was an amazing construction and completely hidden from view. Whichever bird built it had a good eye for a secure spot. I took a few photos of it, then left it intact. Had no idea it was there.  Cheered me up no end.



PS It looks like The Lone Ranger is coming back. There's a film being produced with Johnny Depp. Well who else could it possibly be!

The Arts Crowd

Autumn Bell

Having spent thirty+ years immersed in the London arts scene - career and for fun - the decision to move away wasn't an easy one. Our choices of where to move to were heavily influenced by the degree of arts stuff available. We breathe the arts, so continued access was very important. Sounds very smug I know, but with both places we've pretty much aced it. Bradford on Avon (BOA) has been a creative town for centuries and continues to attract all sorts of artistic talent, many of whom are nationally (and internationally) very well known. Bath which is about 8k from BOA is packed with arts events in all sorts of conceivable spaces and all year round, as is Bristol. Then there are annual music and literature festivals in nearby-ish Cheltenham, Salisbury and Gloucester.  And of course London isn't that far away so we usually go back at least a couple of times a year.  We're there the weekend before Christmas.

Our French life is similarly busy with arts events.  From time to time we'd do the usual touristy things of visiting chateaux and gardens. But pretty much all of them organise special themed events and late night openings as an extra way of attracting visitors. Living half the year in France we've gradually become aware of the depth of the creative life in the region. Obviously there's a lot more happening during the season, but being around regularly, you get to know those smaller hidden places and spaces which operate all year round and which we always support when we're here.

Some of them I've already mentioned in earlier blogs and there's more to come. But as far as well known faces are concerned this side of the Channel, the Loire has certainly attracted some 'star' turns. Two of the best known are Leonard da Vinci and to give him his full name, Joseph Mallord William Turner. A quick drive over to Amboise will bring you to the Clos Lucé - Leonardo da Vinci's last destination, which is dedicated to his memory and creative genius, with fabulous working scale models in the house as well as the gardens. Turner was totally besotted with the Loire and appears to have sketched his way along the Loire via Brittany. Whether or not he came to Chinon or Cravant even, I've no idea, but he certainly went to Amboise and Saumur which is another big town to blog about at some stage. The Tate has at least one of Turner's French scenes in its collection. Turner also encouraged other British artists to experience the Loir, including Samuel Proute (architectural watercolour), William Callow (landscape, engraving, watercolour) and Clarkson Stanfield. He was a real turn up. I had heard of him as being an exceptional marine painter, but it turns out that he also worked in the theatre as a scene painter, including the Drury Theatre in London.

Calder mobile: Saché

Two more recent names are Max Ernst and Alexander Calder. Max Ernst lived in Huismes about 8 k from Chinon, with American artist Dorothea Tanning who, amazingly died in January this year aged 101. Calder lived in Saché, which is a bit further away from us at around 22k. There's all sorts of information about him (and Ernst) on the web. I'll never forget the first time we drove through Saché, which is a sweet place but not overly special and there in the centre of the village was/is an enormous Calder mobile. The Chateau at Tours which we visited recently for another exhibition, staged a massive retrospective exhibition of Calder's work a few years ago, which included some filmed pieces of his amazing miniature circus and photos - including shots with his friend Max Ernst. Wonderful collection. 

Anyway if you want to see more, there's a lot of information about all three artists - Calder, Ernst and Tanning - on the web including youtube. It's worth having a look.

What's the French for. . ?

I love the French language as much as I do English. If I didn't I don't think it would be possible to live here. I've always preferred the sound of the lyrical languages such as French, Spanish and Italian. There's something uplifting, expressive about them and they make me smile. But gutteral languages such as German just have never appealed to my ear and I never enjoyed the feel of the language on my tongue. Which is perhaps why I gave it up at school as soon as the opportunity presented itself. 

I can't imagine what the effect would be if, one morning you woke up not only disliking the sound of your own language, but not having any interest in it. Luckily I've always been fascinated by words and they've shaped my life sometimes in the most unexpected ways. Now of course, out of choice, I've two lexicons to play with.

I hadn't appreciated until relatively recently, that at least 43% of English comes from French. Our neighbours here and our co-conversationalists found this quite intriguing. Given our countries shared histories, it's not surprising that language would be part of the cultural exchange. But it's only since I started studying French again and regularly using both languages that I've become aware of the cross-over. Many 'every day' words in English are the same in French. On occasion they are even spelt the same, or there might a one letter difference. Some words are of French origine, but over time have acquired different meanings in each country.

During the summer the grand-children of our neighbours Norbert and Jacqueline came round for an English lesson, to try and ease their worries about starting to learn it at school in Septembre. So I got about 100 words together just to start them off, which were either exactly the same in either language, or had a one letter difference. Of course pronunciation is clearly différente and important to get right. And each word in French comes with gender definition. However the look on their faces as the réalisation began to sink in, that they already knew some English words was just wonderful to see. 

Here are a some which are so obvious, but I'd just stopped thinking about the connection: chef, diction, blancmange, cuisine,orange, table, impossible, ballet, jungle, patron, discipline, adorable, judo, vampire. lion, panorama.

The link below gives an A-Z of English/French cognates.

French language

If not now then when?

Top Girls - Caryl Churchill's play popped up in conversation the other morning. I've just checked up when it was written. I couldn't remember.  Thirty years ago - 1982. Can't quite believe it. I've always enjoyed the device Churchill uses of mixing historical characters - factual, fictional and mythological with those of 'today', as a means of tracking the female condition/situation. And it coincided well with our group's conversation, during which we discussed and attempted to choose another period to live in, as opposed to our own time. 

The characters in Top Girls offered an interesting selection of time and place to give us a kick-start. Pope Joan a legendary female Pope who apparently was in the lead spot for a few years during the Middle Ages; Isabella Bird a 19th century English explorer, writer and natural historian; Dull Gret who appeared in a Breughal painting-I think in 1562; the concubine Lady Nijo from 13th century Japan and Patient Griselda who appears in Chaucer's The Clerk's Tale (Canterbury Tales), although P.G., seems to have been adapted from an earlier text by Boccaccio. None of us girls at the conversation fancied being concubines. There was something appealing about Isabella Bird who bore some comparison to Alienor of Aquitaine in terms of travelling about, and crossing oceans and vast landscapes. A French friend Bernard who regularly comes to the conversation sessions ( phonetic pronunciation = Bearnar) fancied being a Troubadour and seemed happy if a few of us wanted to tag along.  Mike volunteered. Difficult for me though, because probably women (as in early theatre) weren't allowed to perform. Then someone reminded Bernard he couldn't take his car, so the whole trip was cancelled.  

The idea of being a Time Lord was far more interesting at least as far as I was concerned. Being able to leap backwards and forwards, preferably without changing sex has always appealed to my imagination. Gender issues apart, the main drawback with the Time Lord c.v., is that you're saving the world 24/7, which doesn't leave much time for sight-seeing. So no easy answer to the question of 'If not now, then when?'. Rather than living permanently in another time, there are people and events I would truly like to see.  Quite a few of them are musical moments such as hearing Mozart play or if you believe the film, the moment Glenn Miller discovered his sound. There are all sorts of unanswered historical questions about the pyramids I'd love to resolve. What's the real reason dinosaurs are extinct? Far Side Cards would amusingly have us believe it's because they smoked too many cigarettes. Scroll down the link here - it's about the seventh image.

One region and period that intrigues apart from the Plains Indians in the United States, is Andalucia in Medieval Spain. I came across 'The Ornament of the World' by Maria Rosa Menocal a few years ago. It's riveting stuff, although academics/specialists of the period feel her writing is a little light-weight. But as an introduction it's terrific and describes a time when Muslim, Jew and Christian communities created a culture of tolerance which lasted for at least five hundred years.

Too many options. It's as difficult as trying to pick your eight favourite records for Desert Island Discs, which we tried to do one Christmas. Or if you really want your brain to go into overdrive - the ultimate dinner party - who would you invite to your last meal?

The whole conversation was brought to a close by one of Bernard's jokes. 
 What do you call a mad man who throws himself into  the river in Paris. . .?

InSeine. 

I think I'd better bring this blog to a close.

What a great few days!

Winter flower on the hydrangea

Monday 15the October some friends of ours arrived for a couple of nights on their way down to Spain where they're in the process of restoring a house up in the Pyrenees. Two of them, Jane and Bob, live in Bradford on Avon and we see each regularly. Jane's daughter Sarah was with them, who is married and lives and works with her husband (they have their own practice) as an architect, also in Spain. So Sarah was going home. Jane and Bob had been to once us before, but that occasion, they were on their way back from Spain to Bradford on Avon. For Sarah this was her first visit. We had a really good time together. Dinner at home here Monday evening - the wine was flowing, so a late night. Tuesday 16th was our wedding anniversary (41st). Having finally managed to get up and make coherent conversation, we went for a walk round the village and then headed down to our local restaurant L'Auberge for lunch. We're so lucky to have this place - just ten minutes down the road. That is if you're not going for a wander round first. It's one of those gradually disappearing places that offer great food at a great price. Lunch at € 14.50 offers a freshly prepared menu with a choice of starter, either a buffet or a hot dish, which this time was a leek tartelette. Three choices for a main dish - steak, beef casserole or fish followed by a cheese board. Finally a dessert from five possibilities. Wine is also included - 250 cl. person or half a litre for two, unlimited bread and water. Coffee is the extra and any pre-lunch drinks. It was all just wonderful. We'd reserved a table in advance and they'd given us the round table in the window, which was ideal. We'd wanted the others to be able to see everything that was going on and from this table it's possible.  As usual we were looked after very well. After that there was a visit to Fontevraud Abbey which they all just loved. Unfortunately they also found the impossibly delicious cake shop opposite the main entrance to Abbey. So back home for tea and cakes. We were treated to lunch and cakes - so spoilt rotten. Loads of chat and discussion in the evening and singing with Mike accompanying on the ukelele. Up earlyish this morning (17th) - 7am, as they needed to have some breakfast and get underway as soon as it was light - which at the moment here is about 8.00am. Didn't envy them their drive - at least eleven hours - a long haul, including a stop for lunch. Fingers crossed they arrive safely.

 

Looks like being a great day

Monday 15 October has got off to a very good start. It's SUNNY!!!! If it can only stay like this for the week and dry things out. The second good thing is that we have some friends staying for a couple of nights from Bradford on Avon (BOA), on their way through to Spain. The third good thing is that another close friend of mine from BOA sold six pieces of work over the weekend at an annual Art Trail, which has a very good reputation. The first time I believe she's entered it. So so pleased for her.


Anyway this is a necessarily short blog. I need to dry my hair. Then we're into Chinon for French conversation. In thirty minutes so I must get a move on.

Also it's our wedding anniversary tomorrow, Tuesday 16th - so no blogs as we're out all day. Loads of news on Wednesday.

The Vendange is not underway

A friend sent some information yesterday about a wine producer in Sussex (my county), or West Sussex to be more precise. Nyetimber wines, who produce terrific sparkling wine. They have had just had to scrap their entire 2012 harvest because of the weather, which has badly affected the grapes ability to mature. They rate quality above everything else. This was the company who supplied the wine for the Queen's Royal Barge during the jubilee festivities. The impact will be felt in three to four years time apparently. I've attached an newspaper article about it and their website. 

There have been some 'local' producers on FB giving up dates on how their harvest is going. Laure Dozon at Ligré has had a very good harvest. Another Chateau de l'aulée in Azay le Rideau has had a bit of a struggle with theirs, but it seems to be coming together. Both producers make excellent wine and we buy from them regularly.

It's very difficult to understand fully what's going on locally here in Cravant with the wine harvest. Since my last blog about it, there's been no activity in the village. It started Wednesday then stopped. Plenty of equipment and people waiting to get going, but we've had such heavy rain pretty much ever since that nothing and no one is moving. Today, Sunday, it's more of the same. Producers have parcelles of vines with different soils, all over the place to provide the fabulous range of flavours that all of us here are accustomed to drinking, and from just one grape. Cabernet Franc  But the balance between sun and rain is crucial as part of that process. 2012 has been up the creek in that respect.

I just hope that there are any 2012 harvest casualties amongst the Cravant wine producers.