Moonrise Kingdom

Went to the cinema yesterday to watch Moonrise Kindom and really enjoyed it very much. It reminded me strongly of Son of Rambow, which I also enjoyed very much and a time where children were less supervised and actuially went outside to interact with each other and away from adults. All the performances were lovely and, as with all Wes Anderson Films, the art direction was flawless. A really beautiful walk down memory lane!

The only thing that makes me a little sad, is the thought that children today will never know that magical feeling of exploration and self discovery because they are ralely unsupervised and have learned to see the outside world as dangerous rather than exciting.

Men!!!

 I was tidying my email folder and came across these...

What is there to say, but DO NOT let the men in your life get hold of the hair clippers!!!

I know we have a heat wave, but honestly!

Catch-up: Sweeps Festival

 At the beginning of the month, I went to the Sweeps Festival again, a firm yearly ritual by now. As ever, it was fabulous, with a super atmosphere despite the cold and the rain that threatened, but never actually materialised.

 Off to the castle to observe the master plate spinner:Carol!!!

Till next year........

Catch-up: Magical Woods

 At the beginning of May Annegret and new Beau, Nick, went to Elham Valley to see bluebells. It was a little misty, which gave the woods a magical air.

Heady scent of bluebells making us silly...

First orchids on the downs.

A lovely afternoon!

Week-end adventures

seedlings in drought

Up on the allotment, there was good and bad news:

poppies in sunshine

 At home, I sent some quality time with all my thousands of animals: the new hive colony is happily buzzing away and I saw my first damsel flies at the pond!!! After years of wildlife desert, finally the regular pond dwellers are making and appearance. Almost as if they needed to make sure the water would stay for a couple of years before entrusting their next generations to it!

 The noodle loves nothing more than lying in the sun with me.......

In the afternoon Uli and I went to our society beekeeping meeting, where this month Elvin and David demonstrated their Natural Beekeeping Apiary. What a super opportunity to show Uli some of the stuff that fascinated me so on my course with Phil and Heidi at the Natural Beekeeping Trust last year. 

Pictures of great meeting and lovely orchard apiary may be found HERE!

Want to know how to catch a swarm of bees?

How to catch a swarm of bees!!!

and What can go wrong!

Belmont

Last week, Maria and I went on a lovely afternoon trip to Belmont House, with lunch at Macknade's, my favourite shop in Kent!

It was really great weather and Belmont is such a beautiful, hidden gem of a house. We joined a tour of the house, which was very fascinating despite the fact I am neither an army, cricket or clocks enthusiast. It was given by a lovely lady, who is a friend of Penny's and I wondered yet again, whether there is a single person in Kent that penny does not know!?!

My favourite rteasures in the house were some really interesting watercolours by Michael J Cazabon, a French artist from Trinidad. There was something about his works that I really liked. 

Maria really enjoyed some of the restored textiles on show, I think.

Sadly, photography was not allowed, probably to protect the 10 million pounds worth of clocks, so here only an image of Maria with the compulsory estate cat.

London

Well, almost unheard of, I am back on the train early!!!
Why? Well, it seems to be the day where all the London Planes are shedding their fluffy seeds and the strong breeze carries them everywhere: basically, I have continuous itching, sneezing and coughing fits.
I had hoped that this would not be an issue inside the British Museum, but somehow I was unable to see anything from my streaming eyes, so the enjoyment factor was virtually NIL. I am impressed at how hermetically sealed St Pancras Hotel is, where I was perfectly ok during my business meeting this morning and over lunch.

Oh well, I shall have another evening in the garden then with my cat!

Celebrations

What with the impending Diamond Jubilee, the arrival of THE TORCH - all hail the torch!!!!! - and the Olympics approaching, I am beginning to feel a little exhausted by all the jolliness required of me in the near future while Western Civilisation is going to pot.

I am on my way to London today, where it will be worse, of course! I am also really sad that I won't be seeing Izabella because she is too sick to come out. Poor woman! I am much reminded of my own sickness, which, compared to what she is going through was really a walk in the park. In any case, since she follows these pages, I am making renewed vows of updating these pages, as well as the allotment blog, so that even if she can't travel on her own, she can at least travel with me!!!

So, first things first, here starts my Cambridge catch-up with a few of images and includes my visit to my favourite museum: Kettles Yard.
As usual, when finishing the post, click 'NEWER POSTS' at bottom until you come to end of Canbridge reports.

Lovely Day

Well, the sun was beating down today, there was no wind and my lovely new assistant was holding the fort, so I was able to go and do a bit of pottery. I cycled over to the studio in Folkestone and it was absolutely lovely: the sea was still like a mirror and there were loads of swimmers already, both human and canine. Brrrr!!! It must be punishingly cold!

Finished the horse for Lucy, which I am happy with and started a few more cormorants for exhibition in the summer before Leigh met me for a nice coffee in the harbour. That was busy, too, with children playing in the fountains, the fishing fleet returning on the tide and the first visitors queuing for their fish and chips. The evening was spent having dinner outside in the garden, with the Noodle sitting on the fence surveying his territory.