Another wild and stormy week – what are the chances of that? Storm Henk has been responsible for this week’s climate calamity – more flooding, more saturated fields which can’t be doing much for the crop of winter wheat which is in the ground. Hmm, whoever decides the names for storms is already at “H” and we’re only seven days into the year. I suspect we’ll have to go around the alphabet several times if this trend continues.
And although we’ve not had the extent of storm damage as coastal areas and up north, we’ve certainly had more than our share of rain. One of our lovely neighbours took the following photo the other day of the “brook” at the bottom of Brook Street.
This is generally a gentle little trickle in which children and dogs play in more clement weather. Hard to tell from the photo but I guess the water is about four feet deep – the footbridge is completely submerged.
We’ve had a very hectic end of the week/start to the New Year. On Thursday morning we had some arborists arrive to take down two trees and reduce the height (and width) of several others. Both the trees which had to be taken down were, sadly, in a sad state and needed to be taken down before they came down in a strong wind! (Thankfully, they got here before Storm Henk was able to bring them down). We’ve already planted three replacements but the garden will look distinctly different next time you visit.
Then, on Thursday evening we had another of our Moreton Pinkney Film Nights with fish and chips and our lovely neighbours. This month’s film was The Great Escaper starring Glenda Jackson, in her final film role, and Michael Caine. It’s based on a true story that made national news about 90-year-old pensioner Bernard Jordan, a D-Day veteran. It seems he was a bit late in applying to go on an organised D-Day commemoration trip and so decided, on the spur of the moment, to make his own way there. He absconds from the care home in which he and his wife live and makes his way to France where he meets up with other veterans. Meanwhile, the care home has no idea where he is and they alert the local police. He is ultimately found, safe and well, in France and becomes an international “hero” on his return to the UK. Quite poignant and well-acted as you would expect from two such well-travelled stars.
On Friday we were out to lunch with our very good friends Pete and Sally Taylor-Wilkins in honour of Sally’s 70th birthday – she was always the baby amongst us. Pete had booked lunch at the Red Lion in Bloxham which was excellent – the atmosphere was lovely and the food was outstanding (or at least mine was – the House speciality 12-hour slow-cooked pork. I think Penny though was a bit underwhelmed by her Thai scented salmon fillet served on egg noodles and vegetable ribbons). I would be more than happy to frequent the establishment again but it’s a bit of a trek. Still, I’m sure you’re delighted to see that I am still in training for this year’s Olympics in the Eat for your country category.
Saturday, we had Jessie for an overnighter which is always fun. Of course, like any seven-year-old she is full on but, as always, Penny takes care of the heavy lifting so from my perspective it’s always a joy to have her for a visit.
The reason for the overnighter is that we are off later today to take her and Annabelle to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford for a production of The Box of Delights. We’ll let you know next time what they made of it.
A couple of films/series we watched this week which are possibly worth a mention. Early in the week we watched Adaptation with Nicholas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper and a host of other familiar actors including a cameo by John Malkovich. It’s old – released in 2002 – but I’d not seen or even heard of it previously. Chris Cooper won the Oscar for best supporting actor and both Cage and Streep were nominated for Oscars for their performances. It’s about a screenwriter struggling to adapt the non-fiction book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orleans into a film. It’s a bit off the wall and wacky but very good fun.
We’ve also just finished watching the television series Mr Bates vs the Post Office which is outstanding. It’s on ITV in the UK so those of you here can catch it on ITVX – I’m sure it will be streaming on some platform near you in the near future. It’s about one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history where hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters and postmistresses were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a defective IT system.
Rather than confront and address the issues in their IT system which were responsible for the errors, the Post Office lied, covered up and persecuted the innocent sub-postmasters, many of whom lost their homes, their livelihoods, their health and, in some cases, their lives. Throughout the whole sorry saga, the Post Office made (and continues to make) every effort to evade responsibility – those at the top who knew of the faults in the system and yet still deliberately destroyed the lives of so many have still not been held accountable and those at the bottom, the innocent sub-postmasters, have had their lives ruined and many are still waiting for their claims for compensation to be settled. Although you will be seething by the end, it’s an excellent production and a lesson in how a corporate Goliath lies, cheats and covers-up in order to destroy those who work for it, all to protect the bottom line.
Finally, I was struck by the juxtaposition of two articles in the Guardian recently.
On the one hand there is an article highlighting how devastating the Climate Crisis has become and, on the other, optimism about the end of fossil fuels. I suppose one’s position in reading these two articles is somewhat like a being a glass half-full or glass half-empty sort of person. I’ve always thought of myself as a glass half-full sort of person but, on this issue, my glass is virtually empty. Phasing out fossil fuels is not coming quickly enough and climate destruction will, I fear, only accelerate.
And finally, finally, our favourite diplomat sent us the following. I had seen it before but it certainly sums up what it means to be British for a sadly significant number of Brits.
One of the British national dailies asked readers: “What does it mean to be British?”
Some of the emails were hilarious but this one from a Swiss man was a winner:
Being British is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, then travelling home, grabbing an Indian curry or a Turkish kebab on the way, to sit on a Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV. He buys a holiday home in Spain, skis in France, likes Swedish women and has a Romanian au-pair. And the most British thing of all? Suspicious of anything foreign.
Meanwhile, keep happy, keep smiling, keep exercising, be good, be careful, and keep safe. And be gentle to wasps and bees.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg