I’ve posted a photo of these Globe Thistles before but they keep catching my eye in the garden. The bees and butterflies love them and the umbellifers. The other variety of Globe Thistle below is just starting to show its lovely bluish purple hue.
There is a rose bush in the garden but the truth is I don’t really like roses. Chris Packham half-jokingly calls Daffodils “naffodils”. I like those but for me roses are too showy and dense and pleased with themselves. The same goes for carnations.
One of my three small container ponds has unfortunately dried out and will need to be restocked next year. The other two just keep giving with zero input from me after their initial planting. What a beauty this lily is, twice the size of any I’ve had before.
A café where we stopped for lunch in Devon was selling candles amongst other things and I stopped to inhale one, sea salt and driftwood. It smelt like … sea salt and driftwood. I left it behind thinking £20 was pretty steep but regretted it when I got home and tracked one down. It’s made by “bobella co” where you can order refills. The wax is soy and turns a gorgeous honey colour when lit. On top of that comes a paper lid embedded with wild flower seeds.
I’ve started watching the second series of The Undeclared War on Channel 4 starring Simon Pegg. It’s not completely terrible but it really isn’t great either and the acting is pretty wooden. I’ve started to think Pegg can’t really act at all. In the first two episodes at least you can almost hear the director saying “Simon, can you do your exasperated face now … now your tired one” – and that seems to be his entire range. As Scotty in Start Trek he was much the same.
Much more impressive is the prequel to the brilliant mob saga Gomorrah. In one episode of the original nothing really happens at all except that one guy travels from one city to another but the tension is absolutely gripping. And as I wrote recently about the French language, Italian is so much more mellifluous and seductive than English. There’s an excellent review of Gomorrah: Le Origini in The Guardian by Jack Seale. The series is set in “… the filthy bustle of Secondigliano, a broken quarter of northern Naples which, in 1977, has been abandoned by God and government, leaving organised crime as the only alternative to destitution … Sashaying forcefully through the throng is Angelo (Francesco Pellegrino), with his messianic collar-length curls, eyes that seem to mascara themselves and an array of spectacular leather jackets. Kids gather to gawp when his car skids to a dusty halt and Angelo, chest hair and medallion nestling in the open collar of a patterned silk shirt in two exquisite shades of brown, emerges and strides to his next appointment.” I especially like “eyes that seem to mascara themselves”.
I am still loving A.A. Gill’s memoir Pour Me: a Life. He really spoke to me on the subject of sport which he was never any good at. Nor am I although I can manage racket sports (my hand-eye coordination is not terrible) and am a good swimmer. Like Gill I hated team sports, especially football. Rugby horrified me and still does. A boy was killed at my secondary school playing rugby and that’s why they have had padding round rugby posts ever since. “Sport is ridiculous” says Gill and I agree. It was my friend ‘Skylight’ Martin (see A Deer Sanctuary, Geezer Butler and the Ridglan Beagles, the Badger Cull, Fire Kites – Animal Wild and The order of adjectives – Animal Wild – I have told the same story twice I see) who first opened my eyes by pointing out that sport is demeaning to its participants. It’s a brilliant point and suddenly years of shame at being less than enthusiastic and competent melted away. Boxing just appals me. Why would anyone let themselves be exploited in that way, risking brain injury as is now well known? As another friend recently said, a punch is never a good way to resolve an argument – single punches can and do kill.
Yesterday I visited the purpose built art gallery The Base at Greenham business park to see an exhibition: Simplicity and Complexity by Jin Eui Kim. Primarily a ceramic artist he creates optical illusions. The pieces seem to move and change shape. I loved the pieces which were displayed making the best use of the generous space and were perfectly lit. I had bought a ticket online for a specific time but it was all rather odd – there was no one else about at all. Only when I left was there someone at the reception table so I dutifully showed the QR code on my phone. She seemed to have no means of scanning it and I am not quite sure she knew what it was. “That’s for today is it? And you paid for it?” She then proceeded to ask for my name and postcode for no apparent reason. All very odd. I tried to paste these images in using the WordPress gallery option but it cropped some of them terribly badly which seems outrageous.
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