Theatre in the Rain

On Saturday evening David and I went with friends to see Much Ado About Nothing by the Rain or Shine Theatre Company.  It was an outdoor event and with the rain we have been having recently we dressed accordingly, waterproof trousers and coat, woolly hat, gloves and scarves - I know it is the middle of June!

We were very wise, it hammered with rain but still the actors continued into the dark and stormy night!!  Sounds lyrical but it was very soggy and great fun.  Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy and quite 'light' for Shakespeare so even David understood and enjoyed it.  The audience were laughing at all the right places and we all enjoyed ourselves.

Rain or Shine Theatre Company, Much Ado About Nothing

The play was staged at the Manor House in Corsley so we did not have far to travel.

Started the evening with a supper of casserole and potatoes with chunks of bread.  The casserole contained 1 wild boar, 2 deer and 3 haunch of beef.  Apparently some wild boar had escaped locally and had to be shot as they are a danger in the local woods, so he was very tasty.

Later in the evening we had coffee and hot chocolate with Drambuie, with apple and rhubarb cake (home made by me!)

Great evening out, even with the rain.

A May Sunday

Well what a wonderful day!

A friend called and asked if I would like to take Socx (our dog) for a walk with his ferret.  I did not know that you could walk a ferret on a lead but that is what he does now he has a small harness that fits the ferret.  So Socx and I went round to his house but that is where the problems started, Marcus could not catch the ferret and when he did Socx decided that a small furry creature needed to be attacked and shaken to death - which is after all what Jack Russell dogs do.  I am so glad that Socx is small enough that I can just about hang onto him and the ferret only got a nip on his back.

Needless to say the ferret and dog walk did not take place and I took Socx to the town park for a good run around, sorry ferret!

This afternoon the weather did not really know what it was doing and it was just a bit too windy to snooze in the garden after lunch so I retired to the summer house and 2 hours later I woke up!   So up for a cup of tea and get the garden ready for Lyn & Fraser who came round for a drink by the chiminea.  We were lucky that the thunder did not arrive until later and then the best bit of the day in the low evening sun with all the rain, a rainbow just glowing in the sky.

There is a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow and it is the friends we had just been drinking and chatting with, just grand!

Garden

I do love my garden and this Easter we have been blessed with the most amazing weather so I have spent the last 2 days working in the garden.
Well not working all the time, yesterday I did fall asleep after lunch and woke about 2 hours later but that is what gardens are for!

When Stuart and Eleanor were young children we would go out every weekend for a walk in the countryside or visit an English Heritage or National Trust site.  We lived in RAF quarters and the gardens were never inspiring, mostly a green space with a green oil tank, so they never took a lot of looking after and we had plenty of time to go out every weekend.

Patio and summerhouse in our garden

Now my garden is so interesting that I am glad to have the weekends to spend in the garden without having to go out.  On a bank holiday weekend it is wonderful to have the weather to just sit and read the newspaper or like this evening we had dinner outside by the chiminea and then I sat out for the rest of the evening just feeding the fire and lighting candles.  I have a lot of candles and lanterns in the garden and it takes about 1/2 hour to light them all but then the glow is magical.


I sit in the small summerhouse next to the patio, light the candles and drink a glass of wine just watching the sky and trying to spot the bats as they leave their roost.



Tomorrow I will have to have a bonfire with all the wood that I have cut down today, my hand is rather sore with using the secateurs all afternoon, so I will have to rest it tomorrow.

Or I could use the chain saw but then there will be more to burn!










Perhaps I will do my sewing in the garden, or sit next to the pond and watch the tadpoles and newts - another favourite activity of mine.   I know that I am very lucky to have such a wonderful garden and this Easter we are all lucky with the glorious weather.

Happy Easter. 

Night at the Gin Joint

What fun we had on Saturday evening, The Sahara Sisters danced 4 routines at Broughton Gifford Community Hall in aid of charity.

A 'Night at the Gin Joint' was a cabaret of talent and we were honored to be asked to close the show with 'The Hot Sisters' routine Hot Stuff.

 Helen did the routine and found the red sparkly material for our outfits.

This is Helen ready for the 'Little Egypt' routine which she also choreographed.

Just after dancing 'Buttons' the only place we could take a photo was in the car park

This was our swan song, the last time we performed Hot Stuff - we think enough people have seen it and will get bored seeing it too often.

Buy 'Hot Stuff'

Birthday Party

Last Saturday I had organised a 'mid decade' birthday party for my friends and family.  I so enjoyed the chocolate fountain that I had 5 years ago that I wanted an excuse for another one.  

And I was not disappointed!! It was lush.

Me sampling the fountain!

The Sahara Sisters were kind enough to come and dance for us, with me joining in of course!

'The Hot Sisters'

We danced burlesque, Bollywood and Egyptian.  The Sahara Sisters are very versatile. 

Birthday cake

A very kind friend made me a wonderful Birthday Cake which was mostly consumed that evening along with the Sausage & Mash with Red Onion Gravy served up by Melanie. 

That evening we collected money for a Flour Mill for Ameena & Abult in Luxor and we raised £355.50 which with the money I have already saved means that we can buy the mill and truck it back from Cairo.  So a big thank you to everyone who has made this possible, I am looking forward to telling Ameena & Abult when I visit them in May.

The Perigee Moon

Last Saturday evening I was driving to Swindon with 3 friends to dance at a 'Hafla' (party).  Part of the route took us along the M4 motorway heading east as I drove over a rise in the road there in front of us was the moon but not an ordinary moon, it was HUGE in the sky.

We were all amazed how beautiful the moon looked and no-one had a camera, so I have found the best photos to show you what we saw.

David said that it was a 'Perigee Moon' which refers to how close the moon is to the Earth.  It was such a wonderful colour and we had caught it just as it broke over the horizon.  The moon was just so orange with red craters and marks, even later that night it was hard to realise that the silver small moon high in the sky was the same object.

This really is the closest colour I can find to what we saw.

It was very distracting trying to drive and look but we were lucky on the motorway to drive towards the moon as it rose in the sky for about 15 minutes.

How lucky we were to see such a moon!

Paintings

Last weekend David and I visited the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and whilst David went off to see the Ancient World section I headed to the Pre-Raphaelite gallery as this is my favourite period for art.

I do not like all Pre-Raphaelite paintings but this one really caught my attention.

The Afterglow in Egypt by William Holman Hunt

I love her face and the colour of her dress and it looks so rustic and being set in Egypt it also appeals to me.  I would love to have a print of it and hang it in the flat in Luxor, so I was looking on the web to see if I could order a print online and I found that Hunt went through several stages with this painting and that there is a slightly different one, that may have been earlier.

I think that I prefer this one as her dress looks richer and I like her carrying the wheat on her head.

Silver Favourites by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

My love of Pre-Raphaelite paintings started years ago in France when I spotted a poster that really had me fascinated.

Silver Favourites was the first poster I bought for our home












Closely followed by these pictures

Coign of Vantage - Alma-Tadema

Flaming June

Nausicaa

The Music Lesson

I get a thrill when I get the chance to see the real paintings.   'Flaming June' is a massive painting over 20ft high and wide, I have seen it once in real life and was just mesmerised at the shear scale of the art.  Wonderful.