After a very long and stressful day with lots of travel issues the day before we decided to cut our least important day trip and just rest on day two.
So we didn't go to the town of Ottery St Mary (it has the word Otter in it!!)that was the birthplace of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. But that is no big loss. There is literally nothing to do there but go to the church where Coleridge was baptized and mooch around the garden centre. It just wasn't worth it spending money on a taxi when we were tired.
So instead we wandered around the extensive gardens. There were three nature trails.
There was this cool hollowed out tree that you could stand in. We each had a go. Spiderman leaning like Jordan Catalano and me being silly. No surprise there.
There were interesting statues scattered all over the grounds. There were several statues of children at play. The pear was made from horseshoes.
Despite being winter, there were many beautiful green spaces like this rock garden.
There was also this cool Monkey Puzzle Tree which makes a great tongue twister. Go on. Try it. I double dare you.
There was this weird sculpture like a giant CD that was called "The Portal" which basically means it was a Star Gate. I attempted to climb inside and go to another dimension but was thwarted by being too short. Story of my life.
Lastly, the obligatory selfie.
Stay tuned for a grand day out on the Jurrasic Coast tomorrow in part the third.
Hello lovelies! We're back! Did you miss us? How could you because I didn't tell you we were going!
We have been planning this epic holiday for some time to celebrate some milestones in our lives. Can you believe this month is 31 years since our first date? It also marks 30 years since the Amazing Spiderman and I were exchange students with the LC/MC Overseas Programme. We got engaged on that trip and decided not only to get married but to somehow emigrate to the UK. On this trip we decided our future and here we are.
So as our LC/MC experience featured both English lit and science we wanted to take a holiday that covered both of of those subjects. But more on that later.
First, how did we get there? Well, this is where the bad beginning happened. Travel can be expensive so we were going to "around the world in 80 days" it and take a variety of public transportations. We were supposed to catch the Megabus at 2am to take us to Bristol. Then from Bristol we would catch a train to Salisbury then change trains and go to Crewkerne where we would get a taxi to Cricket St Thomas. That was the plan.
What actually happened was the Megabus never showed up. That had never happened before. They are supposed to update on Twitter if a coach breaks down or is running late but there was nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Dim. This was Mega Annoying as it was bloody freezing and we waited 3 hours in the middle of the night shivering at a bus stop. So at 5am we ran to the train station and shelled out £70 for emergency train tickets to Bristol. Now we were pissed and broke. So 3 hours to Bristol, 2 hours wait in the train station then and an hour to Salisbury and another hour to Crewkerne. By this point we (read this as me) were tired, cold, hungry and generally grouchy. I wanted nothing more than to taxi the 6 miles to Cricket St Thomas and have a nap but there were no taxis. None. We called around and all the taxi companies were busy and it was an hour before one could pick us up. So by then I was REALLY tired, cold and hungry and my back was killing me.
But then we arrived and it was all forgotten. Like the agony of childbirth once you see your lovely child.
We were staying at the very posh manor house that was used as the location for Grantleigh Manor in the Britcom To the Manor Born. We were given a complimentary glass of perry cider and shown to our beautiful room in the historic manor house.
Our room was stunning.
View from our window.
We ate the complimentary snacks and crawled into the cloud like bed and slept until dinner time then toddled along to the posh restaurant for our three course meal. My only complaint about the food would be there were vegan options and there were gluten free options but not much overlap. But we still found plenty to eat and the highlight was a v/gf warm brownie with a scoop of coconut based salted caramel ice cream for dessert.
And did I mention it was like Geriatric Junction? We are the youngest people here by far.
Despite a rocky start it ended up a very happy ending . It also proves I need food and sleep to be a decent human being. Stay tuned for part 2!
Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you
sitting comfortably? Good. Then I’ll begin.
This week we look at an early animated film version of
Cinderella. It was produced by the Laugh-O-Gram Studio which played an
important role in early animation. It was started by none other than Walt
Disney himself and many of the early pioneers of animation got there start
there. In 1921, Walt Disney contracted Milton Feld to animated twelve cartoons.
Of the twelve, seven were retellings of fairy tales. Of the original seven
fairy tales only four survive--Little Red Riding Hood (1922), The Four Musicians of Bremen (1922), Puss in Boots (1922) and Cinderella (1922).
This film bears all the hallmarks of early cartoons—bouncy
animation and flickery camera work. It tells an interesting story. It also contains some helpful speech bubbles as well as title cards to help you
understand the upcoming scene.
Cinderella has but one friend, her cat, who is seen in
the opening shot helping her dry the dishes which in my opinion is unhygienic.
She lives with her lazy, homely stepsisters who are seen slobbing about,
reading magazines and eating bonbons.
Then we see the prince whom the caption describes as a
wonderful fellow. Which he is not because he is seen on horseback with a rifle chasing a bear and shooting it in the butt repeatedly. Then it gets even more bizarre.
We happen upon what can only be described as a bear jamboree where bears play
jazz and do the Charleston. All the bears are having a
whale of a good time until the prince arrives. He chases them into a cave where
he massacres every bear at the party which I think is meant to be funny, but
just made me angry. A wonderful fellow, my
ass.
Then we see an invitation to the ball bearing the
curious date of “Tuesday, Friday the 13th.” The prince has his dog
deliver all the invitations on a scooter (seriously, I am not making this up.) The dog gets into a wreck (dogs should not be
allowed to drive a scooter!) and is seen all bandaged up with a crutch. Some
well-meaning idiot asks, “Are you hurt?” to which the dog rolls his eyes and
smacks the man over the head with the crutch. Now that was funny.
The fairy godmother changes her gown into a typical
flapper outfit (it is the 1920’s after all) and gives her a snazzy Model T
motor car to go in as a carriage. Her cat is the driver of the car (what is it
about this film that lets pets dive vehicles?) They arrive at the ball and it
is love at first sight not only for her and the prince but for the cat and the
dog. Together each couple cuts a rug until the dreaded midnight curfew. Interestingly,
the clock shows you 10:00, 11:00 and midnight which is helpful to see the
passage of time. Most stories seem to have her arrive, have one dance to fall
in love and then it is time to high-tail it out of there.
She runs away and loses a shoe and then it gets weird.
The next day the prince follows what he thinks are her footprints. He and the
dog crawl along the street looking at the shoe prints with a magnifying glass,
but alas! It is not her footprints, but rather a surly ducky wearing shoes. I
told you it got weird.
We see the two stepsisters and Cinderella sitting
outside under a tree when the prince and his dog approach. Her cat immediately pulls
the dog behind the tree to make out while the prince tries the shoe on
everyone. After the second sister tries it on, he turns around and exclaims, “Ah!
You!” and everyone (the cat and the dog, the prince and the Cindergirl) live
happily ever after.
You can watch it here:
That’s all for this week. Stay tuned next week for a
Betty Boop Cinderella.
Hello lovelies! I have long been a fan of poverty campaigner and chef Jack Monroe. Her meals prove you don't need expensive ingredients to make a healthy meal. I have recently discovered the fact that you can follow her on Facebook which means recipes pop up on my feed, I get inspired and then we make them.
Or rather we adapt them. Can I ever follow a recipe just like it says, Spiderman wonders to himself.
No. No I can't.
I did use fresh lemons where she uses bottled lemons because I had some, but if you don't use 1/4 cup lemon juice. Also I used kale instead of spinach because...kale.
100 g kale, de-stemmed and torn into bite sized pieces
Smoked paprika for serving
1. Cook your onion and garlic in a splash of water or oil
until softened.
2. Rinse the lentils in a sieve and tip them into the
pan, followed by the stock and the turmeric and chilli flakes, then stir gently. Bring it to the
boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes.
3. Grate the zest from the lemons and squeeze out the
juice. Stir the lemon zest, juice, and the kale into the soup. Cook for a few minutes
until kale softens.
4. Ladle into bowls and top with a sprinkle of smoked
paprika.
I might even throw in an extra 1/4 cup lentils the next time just to give it more staying power, but the lemon was lovely and bright and contrasted well with the earthiness of the kale and the smokiness of the paprika.
Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you
sitting comfortably? Good. Then I’ll begin.
We have been looking at silent films for the past few
weeks. Several have had impressive effects for their times, but also some
stylised overacting (which I suppose you have to do if you have to mime everything.)
This week we look at a feature length silent film made in 1914 and starring “America’s
Sweetheart” Mary Pickford. Her acting is really quite good for a silent
film and it is no wonder. She was a feminist pioneer actress and businesswoman.
Wikipedia tells us:
With a career spanning 50 years, she was a
co-founder of both the Pickford–Fairbanks Studio (along
with Douglas Fairbanks) and, later, the United
Artists film studio (with Fairbanks, Charlie
Chaplin and D. W. Griffith), and one of the original 36 founders
of the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences who present the yearly "Oscar" award
ceremony.
She was awarded the second ever Academy Award for Best Actress for
her first sound-film role in Coquette (1929)
and also received an honorary Academy Award in 1976. In
consideration of her contributions to American
cinema, the American Film Institute ranked
Pickford as 24th in its 1999 list of greatest female stars of classic Hollywood Cinema.
You go, girl!
My overall opinion is that the acting is much better and
more subtle than the other films, but the effects are rather same-y. It does however have helpful title cards to help you understand what the upcoming scene will be about.
Because
this is a long film I will use Wikipedia again to help me summarise.
Cinderella is a kind young woman who lives
with her wicked stepmother and ugly stepsisters. They abuse her and use her as
the housemaid. One day Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters refuse to help a
beggar at their door, but Cinderella offers her food and drink. The beggar
woman is revealed to be a beautiful fairy in disguise, who then secretly helps
Cinderella for her kindness. One day when Cinderella is sent to gather
firewood, her fairy godmother summons a troupe of fairies who secretly gather a
bundle of wood for her. Cinderella meets Prince Charming who is walking in the
woods, and each is smitten with the other in their short encounter.
NOTE:
This is typical of Cinderella tales where her kindness must be tested to see if
she is worthy of magical help. Also the meeting in the woods and falling in
love is exactly how it happens in the pantomime version of Cinderella.
Soon, a ball is arranged so the prince may
choose his future wife. The sisters visit a witch-like fortune teller in the
woods, who predicts that a member of their family will be chosen by the prince.
The sisters are delighted, thinking it will be one of them.
That night, the stepsisters have nightmares
of the old fortune teller, while Cinderella has pleasant dreams of fairies
dancing.
NOTE: This reminds me a
bit of Macbeth where the witches tell him no man born of woman can defeat him
and he totally doesn’t think there might be any other possibility and styles
himself as invincible. And why are there always dancing fairies in a silent
film? I wonder if this is all silent films or just fairy tales?
When the stepsisters leave for the ball,
Cinderella is left behind. The fairy godmother appears asks Cinderella to bring
her a pumpkin, some mice, and some rats. The fairy transforms the pumpkin into
a coach, the mice into horses, and the rats into grooms and footmen. Finally,
she changes Cinderella's ragged dress into a gown fit for a princess (with
glass slippers, of course). She tells Cinderella she will to be back at home
before the clock strikes midnight, for then, her fine dress will turn into rags
and the coach and servants will become what they were before.
NOTE: Here we have all
the elements we expect from a Charles Perrault version—pumpkin, mice, rats,
glass slippers and midnight curfew.
The unknown lady who arrives at the ball
charms the guests, and especially the prince. He and Cinderella slip away to
the garden. Their flirtations are interrupted by the clock striking midnight.
Cinderella rushes away, losing one of her slippers, and she arrives home, a
ragged cinder girl once more.
Cinderella tosses on her bed, suffering a
surrealistic dream in which evil-looking dwarves ring the midnight bell and the
numbers on the clock's face dance and scramble wildly. She is awakened by the
arrival of her step-family, who kick her out of bed and set her to her daily
drudgery again.
NOTE: This motif of
being tormented by clocks was also featured in the 1899 version.
Later, heralds announce the Prince's wish
to marry the woman whose foot fits the lost shoe. The sisters go to the palace,
and a comic scene ensues as each tries to force her too-large foot into the
dainty slipper. The Prince learns that every girl in the kingdom save one has
tried the slipper on and failed the test and announces that he will bring her
to the palace himself. Finding Cinderella, he escorts her to the palace, where
the slipper fits her. Her beautiful raiment is magically restored, and all bow
to the future princess. Although a courtier suggests that this is an excellent
opportunity for Cinderella to have her stepmother and stepsisters beheaded, she
forgives them all.
NOTE: Cinderella is always
nicer than I am. Off with their heads!
The prince and Cinderella again sneak away
to the garden. When midnight strikes, Cinderella panics and starts to run away
again, but her fairy godmother reappears and blesses her, assuring her that a
good and noble spirit is always rewarded.
NOTE: I quite liked this
happy ending. Cinderella will not be able to sabotage her own happiness by
running away and her virtue is rewarded. Sadly, virtue should be its own reward
because you can be a good person and bad things still happen but, in this case,,
we get a fairy tale ending.
You can watch it here. I feel the film below has
better quality (less blurry) but it only goes until she leaves for the ball.
Here is the whole film of slightly less good quality (title cards also dubbed into what I think is Spanish)but shows you all the way to the end of the film.
That’s all for this week. Stay tuned next week for the
Laugh o Gram version.
Hello lovelies! I go through periods of food obsessions. This is one of those times. I recently ate some hummus with za'atar on it and it was love at first bite.
What is za'atar, i hear you cry? Well, I am so glad you asked. Za'atar is a spice mixture consisting of various woody herbs, sesame seeds and lemony sumac. it is often used in middle eastern cooking.
Even the name is cool. Za'atar. The two letter a's separated by an apostrophe just amp up the coolness factor. Or should that be the Z factor?
I searched online for recipes and found half a dozen...some had cumin and coriander which gave it an earthy quality, but I wanted fresh and woody--like a forest in the sunlight. Because this is how za'atar makes you feel--like you are forest bathing on a sunny day.
I made my recipe as simple as possible. I couldn't even be arsed to toast my sesame seeds and it still turned out amazing. I had everything in my cupboard except for sumac which I bought at Tesco. Don't leave out the sumac. This tart, lemony red spice gives it the sunshine taste.
It starsLouise Lagrangein the title role. Lagrange was a French actress of the silent screen who starred opposite Valentino. I personally do not think much of her silent acting skills, but perhaps I am not wise to the subtleties of the silent film era.
This film is 14 minutes long and there are some
surprisingly good effects in it, but a few “what the heck is going on” moments.
Perhaps that was indicative of all silent films, I don’t know. Perhaps if you
had never seen talkies you would be able to follow the plots better.
This film has useful title cards which set the scene. We
begin with The Invitation to the Ball. We see our heroine weeping as she is
chastised by her stepmother and stepsisters. She does a lot of weeping, which
is really just putting her face in her hands and shaking her head to give you
the impression of sobbing, but as every good crybaby knows—sobs come from your
shoulders. A man enters the room and comforts her and wipe her tears. I
thought because he touched her on the face to wipe away her fake
tears was meant to be her father since he was so overly familiar, but I wasn't sure. I think he is. He opens the door and lets in a clumsy man from the palace who brings news of the ball. This becomes clear after
some wild gesticulating and a jig to indicate there will be dancing. The clumsy man from the palace seems to fall down in every room they go in. I presume this
is some sort of comic relief (because watching people fall down is funny.)
As you would expect, she isn’t allowed to go. She lays
her head on the table and pretends to cry when--and I really have no idea what
this is even after watching it five times—some sort of goblin appears out of a box
on the kitchen wall. My husband said “Is it meant to be a rat? Or a cat?” But
it definitely has a jester’s cap on and tries to repeatedly taunt or frighten
her throughout the film. I genuinely have no idea, so if you do please leave me
a comment. Then her fairy godmother appears and seems to chase away the goblin
acrobat. She summons a hoard of dancing girls (why are there always dancing
girls in togas in silent films?) who appear to weaving a giant fishing net (I
kid you not) which turns into a fancy gown for Cinderella. I suppose if you had
them weave a fancy gown with actual thread it wouldn’t show up on film.
They go into the lounge and the goblin does a somersault
and becomes a man in period clothes in a very good special effect. He then throws
two chair cushions on the floor which become footman. I presume he is meant to
be the driver of the coach, but then he spends a few minutes teaching our heroine
how to dance and bow and other things she might need to know when going to a
royal ball. A minute ago he was some sort of hobgoblin and now he teaches
deportment.
There is a big orange warning card to remind her to be
home by midnight followed by a fantastic
special effect of a pumpkin becoming a coach. Then she is whisked off to the
ball which turns out to be an outdoor affair. It is some sort of garden party
where is quite hard to tell who is who (these white period wigs make it very
hard to tell people apart.) While other people dance, she walks for ages in a circle with someone that I thought must be the prince but then after her long
walk she is introduced to someone (without a white period wig) and they dance
so HE must be the prince. Then cleverly, the musical accompaniment begins to
chime twelve times and she runs away leaving her shoe.
The escape was the strangest I had ever seen. She is
running down a road and is suddenly attacked by that inexplicable goblin (for
the love of God, please help me figure out what he is!) and then is seen to be exaggeratedly
limping with a whole search party twenty steps behind her. They catch up to her
and the prince seems to ask a “Have you seen a lovely maiden pass this way?”
sort of question which she violently shakes her head to say “No.” He doesn’t
recognise her in her rags, and she breathes a sigh of relief.
The next scene is the most extraordinary. She sobs
herself to sleep resting her head on the kitchen table. Then her fairy
godmother appears and with a wave of her wand the entire kitchen wall explodes
like a bomb went off. THE ENTIRE KITCHEN
WALL. She doesn’t wake up at all despite a huge chunk of masonry landing on
her leg. This leaves a handy hole to view
the palace and see them plotting to try the slipper on every available maiden.
Then--in an amazing trick of reversing the film footage—the wall flies back up
and puts itself back together like a jigsaw puzzle.
We then see them trying the slipper on every maiden in
the land, and I do mean every maiden--rich or poor. We see ladies sitting in Chippendale
style chairs in a garden (rich) and a lady with an apron chasing a huge flock
of chickens (poor.) They both are unsuccessful at getting the slipper to fit. They
go to her house and she takes off her wooden clogs and lo and behold –the slipper
fits. Suddenly he recognises her, and they get married in colour. That’s right
folks—the last few minutes of this early black and white film were hand
coloured in a sort of garish Easter egg colour scheme. And they lived happily
ever after.
You can watch it below:
That’s all for this week. Stay tuned next week for a
longer silent film starring Mary Pickford.
