A Family Idyll

Some weeks are just so good.

Unfortunately, they are the weeks when life gets in the way of blogging.

Weather doesn’t come into it,  neither do minor concerns like household jobs, a routine visit to the doctor’s surgery, hair appointments or shopping trips, all of which featured in my diary.

But theatre visits are most definitely among my reasons for happiness. This is the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon. Although The Merry Wives of Windsor is a bit of a potboiler, and we have seen the play before, this was my first visit to the newly rebuilt theatre.   I’ll never tire of Shakespeare and a visit to the RSC is always worth the two+ hour drive, particularly, when someone else is doing the driving.  (Thanks, Frank.)

But  must the cafeteria and the bar really charge such extortionate prices for a sandwich and a drink?

Walkies to introduce Millie to the scenery were part of the programme too, of course.

She’s now had a full week with us, has settled in nicely and shown herself to be a well-behaved and sweet-natured member of the clan. When somebody asks after her breed, we say ‘labradollie’, which is feminine and describes her perfectly. We think she approves of her new outlook on life and the empire to go with it. She has also taken to gardener, which she made clear when she helped him with raking leaves into a crackling heap.

She has explored Valley’s End and the hills and woods around us and was not put off from leading me on for hours in spite of drizzle and rain, mist and fog, and squelchy, slippery mud underfoot more or less everywhere we went. Beloved and I must have been insane when we took her on just before the onset of winter. What’s more, my feet are crippled, even my callouses now have callouses. (Come on, Sharla, where are you?) I haven’t walked like this for a year. In spite of her stumpy legs Millie is a tireless rambler.

And yet more culture:

another theatre treat was a performance of Shakespeare’s ‘Timon of Athens’, this time courtesy of ‘Arts Alive’ bringing the National Theatre to a Village Hall near you and me. We have seen other plays this way; if you are a theatre lover and your local cinema offers you the chance, I would say these screenings are well worth attending. The cameras are focused directly on the stage and the actors, which means that even people with dodgy eyesight won’t miss a twitch, a scowl or a love-lorn sigh. Sitting in the auditorium I don’t always see the expression on the performers’ faces.

 National Theatre Live is the National Theatre of Great Britain’s groundbreaking project to broadcast the best of British theatre from the stage to local cinemas around the world. 

Each performance is filmed in high definition and broadcast via satellite to over 500 venues in more than 20 countries. (From the NTL’s website)

Today was the first full day at home for over a week; I decided to do some cooking and came up with some smoked salmon mousse made out of off-cuts which had been languishing in the freezer for months and this very tasty chicken casserole with peppers, courgettes, carrots, green beans and celery.

I find cooking and spending an hour or two at the kitchen table and the Aga very therapeutic, Beloved helps with the vegetables and he takes care of the dishes; Millie assisted by hoovering up any dropped bits.