February books and trying something very new

I finished la Peste this month. Every time I hear about this current virus I think of Camus' beautiful portrayal of the human spirit at such a time. This is one of the texts I studied for my Masters dissertation, and in it I tried to look at the portrayal of Christianity in Camus' work. One of his life-long friends was a priest and he spent long times with him. Sartre accused Camus of expelling Christ from the front door of the house, only to let him in at the back. I think this sums up Camus' respect for people of faith. But then Camus just respects all people, all the time, with all love and compassion. He certainly captures all the stages of illness and its accompanying fear that we're experiencing now. 

 Staying with the French theme this month, I reread Cyrano because I was very much hoping to get to one of those theatre to cinemas link-ups that you can do now. James McAvoy is currently playing Cyrano, in what looks an intriguingly edgy interpretation of Rostand's play, in the National Theatre in London. Our QFT (goergeous arty university cinema) was showing the link on the Thursday of half-term. Did I mange to book tickets before they sold out? No. Is the next and final showing on the same night as Jo's Spring Concert, now that he has finally joined the school choir? Yes.

I love this play. I love Gerard Depardieu's movie of it. I love Steve Martin's Roxanne, and we all watched it over half-term. Thankfully Mattman laughed in all the right places, and forgave us for making him sit down with us! Sadly, I will not be loving James McAvoy's version any time soon!

And then came this special gift of a day, when I think you should always do something special, because it's a free day! A once in four years opportunity to have a whole 24 hours extra!  So, today I spent the whole day at a sewing class. Not just slightly wonky sewing to line a little crochet project. Not travelling to Glasgow so that your accomplished chum can sew your curtains for you. This was real live me at my machine all day with expert tuition and a very nearly finished real live "simple" skirt at the end of it. A garment! I think making a garment is a very good thing to be able to do! 

I can't claim to have done that yet, mind you. I still have to hand sew the top of the waistband and run a seam around the hem. I might have done all this tonight, but I've just got back from watching Emma with some friends from church. What a visual treat that was, and it certainly puts a "simple" skirt into perspective! I don't think I'll be embarking on any of those yellow coats, blue waistcoats, or floaty gowns any time soon, or indeed ever at all!

The Last Book of the Year

 I was determined to get to twenty-four books by the end of this month- surely it is possible, even in this uncomfortably hot sandwich time of life, to read two books a month?! So, in the interests of both speed and relevance, I reached a few nights ago for this Platonic ideal of a Christmas book.


We are having a wonderful Christmas break, with just the right balance between exciting things and time quiet at home, or indeed long mornings in bed! We have been up a misty, snowy mountain, into town with sales shoppers, to the cinema to see Voldemort and Professor Snape try their hand at the Star Wars genre for a little change, and have cooked and cooked and fed and fed.


Already feeling alarmed that this time, even this time, will pass, I dearly want to hold on to Scrooge's resolution (in the absence of any others) that, "I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year."

We had a wonderful sermon this morning, from three passages at the start of Luke- passages where different characters from the Nativity narrative are told not to be afraid. If I had two resolutions for whatever shall unfold next year, this would be the second!

Apparently, as farcebook said last week so it must be true, an old Irish tradition is to light a candle in the window on Christmas Eve to promise hospitality to the traveller. Always late, I'm lighting my unlit Advent candles tonight. They are a pale imitation of that bright moon shining beyond the pane, but they reflect our desire to shine what light we can here where we are. You are always welcome! May you know God's blessing and light in your heart, and all the year, with much love from the Meadowplace,

Mags and men x 

Paddington 2

 Friends invited us to come along to see Paddinton's big screen movie sequel last Saturday. Oh, it's just beautiful. It's all golden and shiny and full of wholesome ideas. We all laughed and laughed, and we all cried and cried too. Admittedly we laughed not just at the script, but also at our friend who guffawed outrageously at Phoenix Buchanon's lines. Quite soon we were guffawing in anticipation of his guffawing. It was all fantastically delightful, but would be even better if you decide to leave it until the holidays. Perfect Christmas viewing. (Certainly better Christmas viewing than any of the other Big Store Christmas mini-films this year, I would propose. Although Marks & Spencer have scored the goal of the merchandising year in this little bear!)

 I did love Mr Gruber's shop and, on the subject of merchandising, PB's hat. If M&S were selling red fedoras with a South American ribbon, I'd be right there. We have, I must confess, already bought their PB tree ornament and some of their PB wrapping paper. This from a woman who bans all discussion of Christmas until after the first of its month, and who doesn't get her children to write Christmas lists. Yes, M&S are doing a very fine job. I'm amazed they don't have PB marmalade in the food hall. Do they?

 I was concerned at PB's incarceration. I wasn't at all sure that this was a plot twist with potential. I was wrong. From the blessed pink sock, redeeming all of us who have ever dyed their manly menfolk's clothing pink, to the pink-spectacled transformation of the penal system, all was well, all was well, and all manner of Oliver Twistian reference was well.

 Speaking of Dickens, Hugh Grant was a gloriously dirty Magwitch, alongside the whole catalogue of his felons. I'm not sure how much he enjoyed the gamut of Phoenix Buchanon- on Graham Norton two weeks ago, I thought he seemed decidedly cagey about his involvement.  And actually, I enjoyed the catalogue of other actors, token or main, so much more even than him. It was a treasure trove of faces, popping up everywhere, like that gorgeous book at the centre of the plot- Jim Broadbent, Peter Capaldi, Joanna Lumley, Eileen Atkins, Ben Miller and Tom Conti. It made me think of a whole queue of darlings lining up to be allowed in to play with Hugh, Hugh and Julie.

 Here are my two top stars, though. Brendan Gleeson as Knuckles nearly broke my heart! Did you see him as the guard in The Guard? The first thing I am going to do when my boys turn 18 will be to watch The Guard with them- it is too, too rude to put before them now, but if you haven't seen it, love Ireland, and are not easily shocked by expletive, you might want to watch this. You have been warned. I missed him in Hampton with Diane Keaton. I might want to watch that.

However, Sally Hawkins: the beautiful, creative, flowing, funny Mrs Brown. Does every mum in the land want to be like Mrs Brown, and live in a house with a cherry tree mural growing up the stairs? And not minding her seventies kitchen? I was the same with Maggie Gyllenhaal in Nanny McPhee 2, after which I wanted a Shetland tank top to wear over a tea dress in my bright green living room. I was also the same when I watched Margot in Despicable Me- tweed jacket, glasses, worried expression. It's very clever what these movie people do- although I think Louisa May Alcott did it just as accurately in Jo as well.

A friend thought PB2 quite political- I found it less so than PB1. You could undoubtedly write an essay on how both movies argue against a Brexit stance, and/or any harsh immigration policy. Certainly, Mrs Brown's final adventure leaves one in no doubt about what the producers think about all that. Our guffawing friend was very much in favour of the film, and he is most vociferous when it comes to "Down with things like this". Indeed, he spotted the ten commandments in one of the songs? I was sorry I'd missed that, so if and when you do give yourself one of the greatest possible treats of this strange and not-yet Christmas time of the year, do listen out for that!

View in my dining room

Sorry for the frantic splurge. I'll try that again in smaller steps! Hallowe'en disco for Jo tonight. He has been planning this costume since August, but obviously we were still right to the line with needle, thread, facepaints and last minute toast.

Minions, yes, believe me, we could all do with a cellar full of these!

Busy

Today I have:

• Raided the dressing-up cupboard for costumes for two wise men from the East
• Taken all strawberries round the supermarket without anyone drawing blood
• Bought everyone lunch at the supermarket to avoid having to make it and then wash it up afterwards
• Made Christmas cake
• Made jammy Christmas stars
• Totally out of the blue helped another mum organise a puppet show for P4's Got Talent next Thursday. This involved digging out the puppet theatre, the puppets, packing Jo off to his co-puppeteer's house for an hour, and writing Scene One of Christmas in the Noisy Jungle.
• Roasted a chicken for dinner
• Made chocolate cake
• Made rest of dinner
• Ate and washed up dinner
• Made crowns for two wise men from the East and helped them decorate same
• Dug out gold ball thing from attic and negotiated frankincenese prop. Third time lucky...
• Made courgette and walnut bread, staving off nut allergy boys from kitchen door long after they should have been asleep
• Made vegetable soup with chicken carcass
• Sat down with husband and eaten toast

The question now is- what would Margaret Claus do next? Would she go to bed with Father Christmas, or would she stay up and make the shortbread for the second of tomorrow's two parties after the Sunday School Nativity? I think we all know, even if we haven't seen Arthur Christmas! I am very much looking forward to tomorrow's Pause! (It just might not happen until the last mulled pie has been eaten...)

fraise's favourite films of the fortnight

Prince Charming and I actually left strawberries at home (with a responsible adult) last week and went to have our (my) addiction to facebook challenged by The Social Network. Yes indeed! I had been bowled over by Claudia Winkleman's debut on Film 2010, and still had her resounding praise for the script resounding in my head. What a script! I loved the movie. Intelligent, imagery-packed, very challenging time well-spent. I would have to suggest, however, scepticism over closing scene?

This week obviously called for The Family Holiday Film, and the choice was made by Cooking Catherine who wanted to see Despicable Me 3D "with us". I suppose accompanying a family of small boys is the perfect excuse for a family of very quite nearly totally grown-up boys to be there! Fine choice. I worried that it was slightly subtle for the strawberries but they said that they had liked it all- especially the bit where he loses his trousers. We're very much at the toilet humour stage here!

I loved, loved, loved Margo. I want her glasses and her jacket. I did also love Edith's attachment to her hat. I imagine she would feel without it as I do in this trying-to-cut-down-on-facebook stage. Which, in fact, mirrors Mattman's struggle this week to stop sucking his fingers, which in turn necessitates going to sleep without Duckie, but I digress...

I thought one opportunity was lost in the film- Gru should have turned out to be a children's author. I was absolutely convinced that this would be the denouement. Alas no. But it does leave me wondering how many arch villains turn to more constructively creative jobs at times of amoral crisis. Left-handed Housewife- any thoughts?

(This was my now weekly Alphabe-Thursday panic. There being no thought in my head other than surviving half-term and working out what on earth to do about our annual Pumpkin Party being on a busy Sunday...)

Julie and Julia

Nedboy confesses himself most "chuffed" at all the wonderful comments, and he promises to make further guest appearances. Me, I haven't dared raise my head since! Instead I have been discovering, light years after the rest of the bloggiste community, the joys of Meryl Streep and Julia Child and the wonderful Julie who makes me weep and laugh and smile at her romantic relationship with her husband!

And the food! And the feel of Paris! And the blogging! I'm loving it in small doses as I curl under a blanket at lunchtime, just before walking down the increasingly leaf-wet hill for Jo. It's a nice way to end September!

Monday's Greatitudes 210-220

It's a cold old evening out there in Strawberry Land tonight. I know this to be true because I have just spent five minutes standing in my sock feet at the top of the drive looking westward at a fabulously darkening sky in fruitless search of "the lovely beacon of Venus hanging bright in the cerulean sky". Thanks for that, Armagh Planetarium Blog!

And also thanks to Ridley Scott for nearly my latest night in a while! First a perfectly acceptable evening viewing of the wonderful A Good Year (which, no, seems to have absolutely nothing to do with Peter Mayle other than Provence and a brief comment to writing a book), but then to decide to sit up and just watch the start of Kingdom of Heaven? It ended at 2am. I can see why it failed at the box-office, but my goodness some of those lines should be emailed day and daily to all involved with the Middle East or war at all.

A week is transpiring indeed to be a long time in politics- I'm sure our little politicians are most restless indeed waiting for phone calls from London, and from whom? Democracy is a wondrous thing, and it is certainly making for very good television!

On another wide wide level I have been thankful this week that Mothers Day in America (as in France) falls in May. There has been so much encouragement and blessing from so many beautiful posts, especially this one.

And on a very narrow Tearful Strawberries level there has thus far been no lamentation in this house even with a stinking cold belonging to the asthmatic strawberry whose stinking colds have led to the most hospital admissions. The count is at two bad colds since November's little stay in Isolation, no less, and the lovely steroids are defending the breach in the wall as valiantly as Orlando Bloom.

Thank you.

Lesson ?- To have faith

Oh but I have smiled and laughed and cried this afternoon! And as soon as I stop smiling and laughing and crying I'm going to fit myself out in tea-dresses and tank-tops!

Don't let a lack of small children keep you from this film- not if you value your dresser of tastefully mismatched china and your bedecked wellies! Or even just Maggie Smith...

If you liked this...

(and I did, oh I really did) then I'm sure you've also wondered at this...

The only difference being that Cooking Catherine and I didn't want to take off the glasses that would propel us out of Underland!