Did somebody nick them?

It's no good, I simply can't seem to find the time or energy to update much any more. When we're not working our way through Star Trek (all of them)/Warehouse 13/Sanctuary/Mission Impossible season 4 (the one with Leonard Nimoy as Paris)/all 4 Ip Man films/The 4400/Town Called Eureka/TMNT/ and eps 11 - 26 of TF: Earthspark (on its way) I'm trying to sort out mum T in Babbacombe, organising a walk-in shower (back is so painful now getting in and out of the bath, even with a seat and a step, is positively dangerous), all the garden stuff, and trying to get the house as much future-proof as we can before Ken retires (next June) and our finances take a bit of a hit, I just don't have the inclination any more.

Sorry about that. Maybe now I've said it things might ease off a bit.

Fingers crossed. Hope everyone else is doing well!

Later addition - we managed to see the aurora borealis (faintly, but definitely!) tonight...

Labels: busyness, domesticity, films, TV series

Sunrise late November...

Yes, still here, with a very brief roundup of the end of a very very busy manic year.

So many of these pics are so me...

Our 33rd anniversary was great. We went with amber: I gave Ken a really good piece of the gem (in a little round Indian wooden box), and he gave me a bottle of amber oil perfume -

Wonderfully blingy bottle (which I'll have to make room for in the display case when it's empty) and gorgeous fragrance.

We had lunch at the Black Castle, now a little run down (not surprising after the last few years) but the atmosphere is as warm and comforting as ever and the food wonderful! Had perfectly cooked rare rump steak with delicious cheesy chips, and their choctastic ice-cream/cream/maltesers/biscuit/chocolate dessert...

Yule...

Joke here, for anyone that remembers the effect of moonlight on Saiyajin...

One of Kai's presents, bought as a sort of calming fidjit. This is what he did with it...

Watched the Doctor Who special... Hm. Well, we thoroughly enjoyed it, even though I can't stand Catherine Tate and Donna is my least favourite companion. But the new Doctor looks like he's going to be really really good! Cheeky grin, sparkling eyes, and a wonderful compassionate, quirky, intriguing nature. The first episode (the one with the goblins) was fun and bears that first impression out nicely. Looking forwards to the series.

On the subject of Doctor Who, Kai and I found a little angel in the CLIC charity shop in Keynsham. Looks kind of sweet at first sight...

... until you see the eyes...

Shades of the Weeping Angels, anyone?

Media

We watched ALL the Star Wars films in order. No intention of watching them again, but it was good to finish them.

Sue gave me Guardians of the Galaxy 3 for Yule, which we watched and thoroughly enjoyed. It's an interesting MCU thing, strangely heart-wrenching in places, and a good way to end the phenomenon. I don't think we're likely to bother with any forthcoming MCU films, as what I've read and seen so far hasn't been terribly appealing, but we'll see.

Currently working our way through Warehouse 13: reached season 4. I only remember seasons 1 and 2, so it's all quite new and intriguing. I love the way the characters keep referring to other films and series - "allons y" anyone?

Hoping to re-watch Good Omens 1 today, as I found series 2 online and we're itching to watch it (hopefully tomorrow)

Will finish here for now. Wishing everyone a really good, happy and healthy 2024!

Catch you later.

Labels: busyness, Dr Who, films, wedding anniversary, writing, Yule

Yes, I'm still here...

Something GoodTwin - or Sue - said on their thoroughly enjoyable visit earlier made me start thinking about why I just have to have music playing all the time (even if it's just in my head). I think it goes back to the first piece of music I ever remember hearing - Telstar - when I was age 4 (or maybe 5). I fell in love with it, and have needed music ever since. Windmills of Your Mind, Born Free, Ring of Bright Water, Bright Elusive Butterfly of Love to start with, then The Monkees, Tyrannosaurus Rex (and later T. Rex), Focus (saw them at Exeter Uni when I was in College), The Adverts, The Cramps (saw both in concert at Stirling Uni), and from there it just exploded, from rock to punk to heavy metal to classical to anime tracks to oriental to trance and beyond. Latest finds are GÃ¥te and Einar Solberg (Kai's recommendation - am buying cds of both as Yule presents.)

There is more music on the planet than I can ever get to hear, alas!

Many many years ago I bought The Far Pavilions, and enjoyed the read. I found it again at Tesco recently (they have a small bookshelf with donated books you can buy for whatever you think they're worth, but please at least 50p as it's for charity) so bought it, reread it, then rewatched the series The Far Pavilions. It's a nice complement to RRR, which remains a firm favourite and which I now have on DVD!

Other watches...

Escaflowne - actually rather good, and rather sweet, with an intriguing ending. Glad we have it.

Found the complete The Champions in a charity shop in Wells a couple of years back, and we finally got around to watching it. Hm. Well, it treats Sharron as equal to the males, which is a definite positive given its age. But the rest has NOT aged well at all.

I picked up Continuum series 1 a few years back, and we watched it, and enjoyed it enough to want to watch the rest, but not at the prices anyone was asking! Then Sue loaned us series 2 and 3 - many thanks Sue! - and I was able to pick up series 4 at a sensible price. It's... interesting, but not enough to want to get the missing seasons.

I'd heard about Transformers: Earthspark some time back, but wasn't too keen on the character depictions, plus apparently Starscream wasn't in it. Then I found he was, so I bought the first 10-ep DVD...

Well! Right from the start I was pulled in. It's astonishingly inclusive for the time. The main (and extremely strong) female character is an African-American ex-marine with a prosthetic leg: her Polynesian husband is the gentle cook and housekeeper of the family: their son and daughter are treated absolutely equally. There's a female Muslim agent in GHOST (Global Hazard Ordinance Strike Team), and Nightshade is the first non-binary transformer (and a beautiful design too!) The story is great. I can't WAIT for the rest to become available on DVD!

See here for more info - T:E at Wiki

Kai and I decided to rewatch some old films... Defence of the Realm (I guess you had to be there), The Illustrated man - not great, but imaginatively done. The book is better. Nope, still most enjoyable once you get into it! And The Dish, which is a quiet little classic, great fun.

And Space Sweepers!! Finally managed to buy it! Fantastic film. Also found that there's a sequel to The Wandering Earth (The Wandering Earth 2, appropriately enough) which I've preordered. Should get it in time for Yule.

I seem to have developed a passion for Korean films...

I bought the complete The Expanse series of books - all nine of 'em! Kai's finished them all, I'm on book 6, and Ken's just got to book 2. I was planning to finish the lot before rewatching the complete six series The Expanse DVDs, but we couldn't wait. It's an amazing phenomenon (though series 6 does leave a lot of open questions and feels hurried, but it does bring the TV version to a satisfying end, so there's that, I guess...) Really enjoying the books!

Just so you know, Somerset is twinned with Atlantis, apparently...

New radiator (and wall paint.) Badly needed, and looks SO much better now.

Old

New

Babbacombe.

Back in late August (I think it was) we got a phone call on a Saturday letting us know that mum T had had "a very nasty turn" (the doctor's words) and been taken in to hospital, and of course was worried about the dogs. Neighbour had made sure they had food and water, and that the lights were on, but couldn't stay - so Kai and I ended up getting the train down after our 'flu jabs.

Oh wot fun... the trains were gridlocked around Temple Meads: the one we aimed for was nearly two hours late leaving, so we had to get a taxi from Newton Abbot to Babbacome. It was dark and quite cold when we got there, and the key wasn't in the keybox, so I had to go wake the neighbour for us to be able to get in. (No, we don't have one yet, mum had her lock changed a while back and forgot to get us one.)

Well, the dogs were OK, but the flat is now in a disgusting state, dog crap everywhere and it smells horrible. (Apparently mum lost her sense of smell after a bad bout of 'flu a few years ago, so she doesn't notice it.) I tried to sleep on her bed, which although it's a hospital bed it's set up for her and was unbelievably uncomfortable for me - took a week for my back to recover - and as the old recliner is now in terrible condition Kai opted to sleep on the floor - not at all healthy but we had no choice.

After a few hours dozing on and off we pretty much gave up and just endured til morning. I went shopping to get a few bits in for meals, and when I got back we had a call saying mum had discharged herself (with her doctor's agreement) and was on her way back by ambulance...

She didn't look great, and apparently had automatically expected us to stay on to look after her and the dogs, as when I told her we had to get back to Bristol, she got annoyed, then sulked and wouldn't speak to us for an hour. Where she thought we were going to sleep I do not know. Anyway, we took the dogs out for walk (the first and probably last in a month) and headed back to Briz soon after getting back. Didn't arrive home until after dark, aching and tired and really not very chuffed.

To add insult to injury, it meant I missed my one and only chance to see the entire Unicornfest unicorns all in one place before they were auctioned off - really pissed off about that. We hadn't been able to see them all as they were widely scattered across the county. I did manage to find a massive pdf of the auctions though - have turned it into a much smaller couple of jpgs here

I'd like nos 1, 19, 27 and 49 please...

Current upshot with Babbacombe is mum has a personal assistant going in twice a day, every day (Ken sorted that out), but she's no longer on the Cinnamon Trust's list as she simply wouldn't accept the times their dog walkers were available - wanted to have them at her chosen specific times. So what's going to happen to the dogs later I really don't know. Debbie at the Cinnamon Trust advised me that kennels and dog homes are not legally allowed to take in unvaccinated dogs, and while Poppy and Misty were jabbed originally, that was about 10 years ago and they've had no boosters since. And the Pomeranian Rescue group I was in touch and had things organised with no longer exists...

Families!! 'ood 'ave 'em?

Have some random photos...

I found the bell jar I was looking for for Deadpool in a new charity shop in Keynsham.

My smaller Deadpool has changed position, because why not?

The people at the end of the road have an owl on their roof (not sure what it's made of but it's kind of cute)...

Kai and I found a very angry pig in the St Pete's charity shop. I couldn't resist it...

People are still putting knitted toppers on our local Post Boxes -

Our solitary pumpkin did us 3 meals!

Our last raspberries, picked in November.

Over the last... 20? 30? 40?... years I've picked up a surprising number of rather nice perfume bottles. They get horribly dusty here though, so I found a really good display case for them.

PLEASE NOTE!!! I am NOT collecting perfume bottles, so please don't get me any more!

The garden is beautiful at this time of year.

Ella, relaxing.

We're now rewatching Jason Bourne films, just for a bit of mindless violent fun (no, that's not really fair, you have to keep your wits about you to make sense of what's going on). Kai and I are planning to rewatch Drawn Together at some point, it's been years and I remember it as being the least PC, raunchy if not downright pornographic cartoon ever. And an awful lot of fun!

Found Warehouse 13 complete series: will be watching that after Yule.

Now looking for the complete series of Sanctuary...

It's our 33rd wedding anniversary this year (22/12/23) and for once we're going out to dinner - 2 pm at the Black Castle, our old regular when we first bought the house. The new tradition is 33rd is amber or iron, so we've gone for amber. Photos later, if they turn out!

Yes, I am still here.

Sooooo... Not much point saying it's been busy, you already know it always is. Though it has been slightly compounded by the 'nothing's ever easy 'round 'ere' state that always applies to our house and family.

So, mum-in-law. Our LPA's have been accepted, and there's a new Co-op bank account in Ken and her names so we can handle her finances for her. Except that they haven't instituted the standing order we tried to set up a couple of months ago to handle her care, which is now overdrawn. Cue a stern phone call from Ken tomorrow. Also, after setting up the carers for her, she's decided she doesn't like them and doesn't want them in the flat any more, so she's back with no-one to help her with anything. [headdesk] Ken suggested she move in with us while we a) build an extension or b) find a suitable care home which accepts dogs (there aren't any), which would be a complete disaster - it would mean Kai sleeping on the sofa for however long, and what do we do with her Pomeranians? I can't see Ella accepting them into the family. And they don't have a garden in Babbacombe: they do their business on newspapers in mum's conservatory (read: my room in Briz, as that's the closest to a conservatory that we have). After having all the new carpets laid a couple of years ago. And we'd need to have a walk-in shower built, as she can't use the bath. (Fair enough, I want one anyway, but preferably when we can afford it!)

No. Sorry, I love her dearly, but I am not prepared to have everything turned upside down like that. I have more than enough to do without the extra work, if nowt else...

So Ken is communicating with his opposite number at Torbay Council and their local Age UK, and seeing if a different care package is possible.

On the health front, I'm having horrendous problems with my teeth. Have just come off a course of antibios for an infection in my jaw, and think I'll need a root canal or extraction for the back teeth that're causing all the problems. Will see my dentist as soon as I can, but might not be til Nov. [another headdesk]

But we have finally put up the new Venetian blind in the kitchen, Ella's doing excellently, and the garden's been great this year.

Yes, that's our first marrow. The second one was even bigger...

And to our joy we've had damsel flies at Roeg's Pool!

Not quite so much fun when a dragonfly flew into the lounge, however.

Kai rescued it and let it go again.

And the wisteria has been fabulous this year - everyone's been stopping to admire it!

As always, I settled down to watch the RHS Chelsey Flower Show 2023 - and from the first garden onwards my jaw started dropping. It looked like ours! And it seems we were about 30 years ahead of the curve, as the emphasis these days (and for the foreseeable until humans start looking after the planet) is on REWILDING. Recycle, sustainability and rewilding are the keywords. (And I had a quiet chuckle to myself at the thought of BND's complaining about our 'shithole of a garden' when actually we are right up there doing exactly what's needed.) We are thoroughly justified (and ancient) - which reminded me we hadn't watched Misfits of Science in ages (the link being riding an ice cream van. No. I have no idea how my mind works.) So we did rewatch, and really enjoyed it! Great fun.

(Not sure if I mentioned the insane amount of noise we've been subjected to from next door over the last few months - drilling and grinding so loud we can't hear ourselves speak - literally. I finally went out to take a photo of the cowboy's van parked out there - at which BND came out and mouthed off about all the 'unpleasantness' being my fault, then scuttled off indoors before I could reply, the coward. HOWEVER... the next Sunday the noise started up as bad as ever, which is illegal in Briz on a Sunday. So I recorded it and reported him to Bristol.gov. Next thing I knew he'd been threatened with an ASBO!! Haven't heard a peep out of him since. Though I know he's MOST unhappy atm as the vixen has brought her cubs into both our gardens - and dug a hole behind his shed big enough for the cubs to lie in it with only their ears showing... So much for his grass.)

So we're leaving the top as a grassy meadow, digging up the grass and levelling the bit between the greenhouse and the meadow, and planting wildflowers there as soon as we can get to it. Also, took the decision to cut down the greengage, the green apple and the old palm, and replace with two spindle trees and a prunus offshoot.

Note Aug 15th - Green apple and greengage now gone. New trees to be planted in the autumn.

We haven't managed to do the Unicorn Trail, but I have taken a few pix of the ones we've seen in our travels.

Kai and I took a trip to Sand Bay (round the shore from Weston-super-Mare). Bleak but lovely spot - planning to go back again when we can make time, and walk along the beach.

That's Birnbeck Pier in the distance.

I went down to Exeter 4th Aug (Dawn and Kai were supposed to come too, but Dawn got a mild dose of covid and Kai had an upset stomach. Hopefully next time) to meet up with Wendy, my oldest friend. (We met at Exeter College in 1974 and have been friends ever since. Is that some sort of record!?)

Caught the Exeter Ferry to Double Locks pub for a fantastic lunch, then back into town to have a look around. It's been years since I was there - I was born there - and an awful lot has changed. However, there is a Molton Brown shop in Princesshay! I was able to sniff a few more of their perfumes and ended up buying a little spray of Oudh parfum, discovered that my absolute favourite Russian Leather has been renamed Dark Leather (I assume because of Ukraine), and was gifted a sample spray of Neon Amber, which I love. It's our amber/opal/iron wedding anniversary this year, so Ken said to treat myself to a spray. Now planning a return trip: Kai wants to check out the Antique Market at the Quay (lots and lots of lovely old clocks...)

OK, media...

Finished watching Agents of SHIELD from start to finish. The last season is wonderful, as if the writers thought, "eh soddit, let's have fun now we're finishing!" A completely bonkers joy from start to finish.

Then it was on to Agent Carter, another firm favourite. A positive crime it never went beyond two season.

Koi... Mil Gaya was a surprise. A Bollywood version of ET, but a really good film! Most enjoyable.

Kai and I watched all of Designated Survivor. Enjoyable, but it deteriorated after season two.

I found a number of 'recommended classic' films going cheap so bought up a selection - Looper, Lilo and Stitch, 12 Years a Slave (one of the nastiest films I've ever seen, but damn good all the same. Just made me dislike humanity (hah!) even more), and Green Wing. Oh ye gods, that's gross. Horrible horrible series, not the least bit funny and with no likeable characters at all. I could only watch the first two eps, so maybe it got better, but I really don't care. I have far better things to waste my time on...

Finally found Soldier's Girl (bought because I really like Lee Pace's acting) and it is rather good. Not for everyone, but a really interesting take on the subject.

Finally watched Firefly and followed it with Serenity. OK, quite fun, but a bit too much cowboy and not enough sci-fi for my tastes.

Kai had never seen Escape from New York, and I fancied watching it again, so picked it up along with (the FAR inferior) Escape from LA. Fun, if a bit dated now.

Then we had a bit of an anime splurge: The Cat Returns - fun! - Plastic Little - um... well, a bit of everything crammed into 48 mins, OK I guess but not exactly gripping - then followed it up with Paprika, which is fabulous! Awesome soundtrack - I bought it right away (amazon mp3). The Yt video of the parade gives you some idea - Paprika Parade.

Wings of Desire has been sitting on the bookcase waiting to be watched for years, so last night Ken and I did. It's amazing, a truly wonderful piece of work. Tonight we followed it up with City of Angels, which could be seen either as an American remake or (which we prefer) the 'continuation' promised at the end of the German film. Important to watch the German one first, however.

Ken and I watched the first season of Continuum - and it's really quite good. Now looking for the other three seasons...

Oh, and I'm plodding through the Jason Bourne books, as we have all five of the films... Yers. Well. The film are really vastly different to the books, and I'm sorry, but car chases, foot chases, and gun battles do tend to work better on film than on paper. Nuff said.

Nearly there! Decided it would save webspace if I just link to Yt vids of my cremation playlist, so here you go. Just in case anyone's interested!

The Void - Muse
Alive - Phil Lober
Bliss - Muse (lyrics here.)
Windmills of Your Mind - Noel Harrison
Another Day - Dream Theater
Fly Above - Mahmut Orhan & Sena Sener
Live is Life - Opus
Northern Cross - May'n
Live to Rise - Soundgarden
The Galaxy Song - Monty Python
For The Women Who Write - Judy Small
Leave it All Behind - Cult To Follow
What I've Done - Linkin Park

The Tai Chi is still working splendidly. I now know the sequence well enough I can exercise to music instead of using the DVD - this music, which is simply beautiful.

This has taken me all day to type up, so will post now with no promises of when I can post again! I have had a quick look to see if there's anything I can add to the blog to let visitors sign up for alerts, but I'm using the practically defunct heritage classic format, and I can't find anything. If I do I'll add it next time!

Stay safe all! Later...

Labels: books, films, mum Taylor, nothing's ever easy 'round here..., unicorns

Quick update before Beltain dawns..

As ever it's been manic. I've visited three residential care homes to get info about what's available for mum-in-law - I think St George's is going to be the most suitable, assuming she can decide whether to move up here or not. Problem is no homes will take dogs, and she doesn't want to be separated from Poppy and Misty. But we can take Ella in to visit her if she moves up here. Will see. Ken and I will be signing up for Power of Attorney as soon as we can get the forms from the various agencies involved.

Over Oestre we rewatched Jesus Christ Superstar and followed it up with Life of Brian which Kai had never seen. We've now watched up to Avengers: Endgame and are currently working our way through Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (managed to find the dvd sets of the last two seasons - currently near the end of season 6 and will prob finish all of them by the end of next week....)

And I've sorted out my funeral plans - direct cremation with South West Cremations, all paid and organised. Have even given them my playlist:

1 - The Void - Muse
2 - Alive - Phil Lober
3 - Bliss - Muse
4 - The Windmills of Your Mind - Noel Harrison
5 - Another Day - Dream Theater
6 - Fly Above - Mahmut Orhan & Sena Sener
7 - Live is Life - Opus
8 - Northern Cross - May'n
9 - Live to Rise - Soundgarden
10 - Galaxy Song - Monty Python
11 - For Women Who Write - Judy Small
12 - Leave It All Behind - Cult To Follow
13 - What I've Done - Linkin Park

I'll try to upload the mp3s next time I update. The most important track, which I've asked to be played during the actual cremation, is the last one. I love the lyrics, so perfectly me...

In this farewell,
There is no blood
There is no alibi
Cause I've drawn regret
From the truth
Of a thousands lies
So let mercy come and wash away

What I've Done
I'll face myself
To cross out what I've become
Erase myself
and let go of what I've done

Put to rest, what you thought of me
Well, I clean this slate
With the hands of uncertainty
So let mercy come, and wash away

What I've done
I'll face myself
To cross out what I've become
Erase myself
And let go of what I've done

For what I've done
I start again
And whatever pain may come
Today this ends
I'm forgiving what I've done

I'll face myself
To cross out what I've become
Erase myself
And let go of what I've done

What I've Done
What I've Done
Forgiving what I've done

OK, enough for now - next post will have more news and a few photographs! Wishing everyone a happy Beltain!

Labels: busyness, films, funeral plans, mum Taylor

# Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor pontificated this at 10:45 pm

... and two thirds of March for that matter...

Sooooooo...

On the 10th Feb Kai, Dawn and I went into town after dark to the Bristol Light Festival...

I did get camera video footage of most of them, but Butch has been playing up again and I can't get them to play the right way round (they're either on their side or upside down, and Kai's not sure why...) But here are a few still pix of three of the sites.

Musical pillars of light (activated by moving in front of the sensors in the base of each side) in the bombed out church in Victoria Street...

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The dancing lights along the new pedestrian bridge to Castle Green.

The touch sensitive light-up musical pillars in the centre of Broadmead.

Probably the most interesting site was down at the harbour, where mermaids were swimming with sharks and fish and turtles under the water. Gorgeous!!

Both my birthday and Kai's were quiet but very enjoyable. Many thanks for the pressies, Carol and Sue!

Media...

Slumdog Millionaire - most intriguing little film!

How To Train Your Dragon phenomenon - films, shorts, TV series... Kai's latest obsession. There's an awful lot of them, but they are an awful lot of fun!

World on a Wire. Hm. Matrix precursor and not bad, but could have been a quarter of the length and still made sense.

The Simpson's Movie. I'm not fond of the Simpson's, but we bought this for Kai years ago when a friend thought he'd like it. So finally watched it. And to my surprise it is really rather funny! Thoroughly chuckleworthy.

Then of course there was Everything Everywhere All At Once. Wow. Deserves all the praise and Oscars it received.

And we're currently working our way through the MCU films (all 30 of the current ones, although we only have 29 atm as Quantumania isn't out to buy yet.) We're up to number 10 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier - tomorrow!

Apart from that most of my time recently has been taken up by trying to find residential care for mum Taylor up here in Briz, as she really can't look after herself anymore. The problem is finding somewhere that will take the Pomeranians (Poppy and Misty) as even though she's signed up with the Cinnamon Trust she doesn't want to leave them. I understand Ken's brother and his wife in Exmouth are investigating getting her a regular (preferably daily) carer so she can stay at home. She's 98 on Friday... It's been a bit of an experience and I've visited two homes so far, both of which have their very good points, but it may be that she'll be able to stay where she is, which I know she'd prefer. Will report back when I know more. Ken and I are going down to visit her on Thursday.

Of course, there's been lots more going on, but that's the main things. We're all fine-ish (my back is getting worse, looking into getting a mobility scooter at some point in the future) and Ella is a vocal delight! Will be starting getting veg seeds planted soon...

Later!

Labels: birthdays, days out, films

# Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor pontificated this at 10:20 pm

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Aaaand another quickie before February... 

Later edit: we took the telescope out to look at comet C/2022E3 last night. It's somewhat underwhelming - a faint fuzzy balll with a brighter centre - but it was still nice to see it to start 2023.

We all went down with that vicious flu-like bug right after New Year - K&K aren't too bad but I'm still coughing. It kind of interrupted the beginning of the year. But we spent a fair bit of time watching films - not going to bother linking to IMDb this time as I'm a bit rushed.

We worked our way through the Sean Connery James Bond films - Dr No, Goldfinger, and Thunderball - and they got progressively worse and worse. They have NOT aged well at all: the mysogeny and chauvinism is thoroughly cringe-worthy, though to be honest I only bought Thunderball for the Vulcans... Still, mildly interesting for the social commentary they offer.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service is much better. George Lazenby is a pretty good Bond, and it was lovely to see Diana Rigg in an early róle (also spotted Joanna Lumley in a VERY early róle). And off at a complete tangent, Ken and I went to Wells and Glastonbury last Friday and found No Turn Unstoned, written by Diana Rigg (looks good, will try to get to it asap) and on the bus back Ken commented that as a young'un he was taught piano by the actress's aunt!

Found this in a charity shop in Glastonbury...

Thought about offering to sign it, but it's missing its cover and rather battered, so didn't. I love the selection of books it's with, though!

We've been working through the How To Train Your Dragon epic - it's Kai's current obsession (Moomins last year, MLP the year before... Takes after me, he does!) When I say epic, I really mean it - it's three full length films, four (? or more? I lose track) short films, then umpteen TV series... see here if you're interested. We're currently on Season 4 of Race to the Edge, but I'm not watching every ep. Some of them are a lot of fun, some just irritating, but most of the characters are interesting.

Have some photos!

Yes, she climbed onto the settee between K&K by herself then burrowed under the blanket. Stayed there for half an hour too. Quite a character - with an insanely accurate internal clock when it comes to food. It's her dinner time and she's making noises to remind me...

Kai and I bussed to WsM the other week, for some sea air and a meal at Revo,and there was the most glorious sunset as we started homewards...

Right, Ella's had her dinner, time to get ours prepped. Catch you next month!

Labels: days out, Ella, films, TV series, Weston-super-Mare