Hats, Hatchards and a High Street dinner

We thought we would go to the Darwin Exhibition at the Natural History Museum and set off for South Ken only to find that the queue to get in – just to the Museum, was down the steps, through the garden, passed the wildlife garden, out of the gate and up Queens Gate. It would probably take a couple of hours just to get to the front door. So, we decided to visit the V&A, next door, where the crowds were less dense!
Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones was our chosen exhibition, and we nearly got in for free with our Art Fund cards. It is an exhibition reflecting one by Cecil Beaton in the 1971 – in fact the V&A’s first fashion show. This exhibition is a collaboration between V&A and Stephen Jones, world famous milliner. He has been producing hat collections twice a year for twenty years as well as working with many famous fashion houses and designers. I find this quite interesting as Grannie trained as a milliner in Manchester in the 1930s at a well known milliners, Jones of Manchester.
The exhibition is wonderful, with hats in displayed in ‘shop windows’, grouped in topics such as Inspiration, Creation, The Salon and The Client. The displays included some very old hats – the oldest we saw being and apprentice’s hat from the 1550s, as well as Stephen Jones creations from this year. We saw some beautiful creations as well as some weird ones, but all were great fun and beautifully displayed. In the centre of the exhibition there is milliner’s workshop with shelves stacked with the tools of the trade, half made and finished hats. The visitor can see into this workshop through several windows, each giving a slightly different view – the wooden heads, the sewing machine, boxes of feathers, flowers and other accessories overflowing the work tables. There are hats you would wear to Ascot Ladies Day and others that graced the King’s Road in the 60s; Queen’s hats, star’s hats and hats for you and me! A really fascinating collection, and yes, I’m sorry we missed Mr Darwin, but I’m not sorry we saw this great exhibition.
To continue our ‘day out’, we made our way to Green Park tube station and walked down Piccadilly. Our aim was to browse around Hatchards Bookshop, but first we came to Fortnum and Mason and who can resist a look in the windows, and we just had to go inside.


After wandering around the food, we made our way upstairs to look at all those amazing articles one never knew you needed! But sense prevailed and nothing was bought! However, we came across a stand of Stephen Jones hats, which were duly photographed, as that was strictly banned in the V&A.


There is also a display advertising the exhibition on the staircase.


So Hatchards came next and we couldn’t resist a copy of The Return of John MacNab, having a John Buchan fan with us.
We had consumed most of the day, so we made our way to the train home and walked up the High Street from the station to enjoy a glass of wine in the bar of The Farriers before we had dinner in their bistro - Upstairs@the Farriers. It was a lovely way to end such a jolly day out.

Dancing at Lughnasa

I always wondered what Lughnasa was, when I read that the play Dancing at Lughnasa was being performed. Was it a place in Dublin – a bar or dance hall or club, maybe? So when we decided to sample the delights of another performance in the CQS space at the Old Vic, I really had to find out.
Apparently, Lughnasa ( pronounced ‘loo nasa’ ) refers to the 1st August Celtic Harvest Festival, which is celebrated in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Bilberries are a key feature of the festival; the boys thread bilberries to make bracelets for their girls; and on the first Sunday in August, the young folk pair off for the afternoon to go bilberry collecting up the hill. There is a lot of singing and dancing, and before they come back, the girls leave their bracelets up there. Then there are sporting contests like horse-racing, weight throwing – and it is thought that the Highland Games are the modern version of the Lughnasa Festivals in Scotland. Perhaps these contests are the representation of the battles to protect the crops that are ripening from disaster.
This production is the first in the West End since Brian Friel’s play premiered in London, October 1990; and a wonderful cast has been gathered under the direction of Anna Makmin: Niamh Cusack, Michelle Fairley, Simone Kirby, Susan Lynch, Andrea Corr, Finbar Lynch, Peter McDonald and Jo Stone-Fewings.
The play is narrated by Michael, the adult, illegitimate son of Chris Mundy, the youngest of the five sisters who live just outside Ballybeg. He has returned to the empty cottage and his reminiscences of the summer of 1936 are the basis of the play. The sisters make ends meet with Kate’s wages as a teacher and the small amount that Agnes earns making gloves, with a little help from the rather slow Rose. The summer of 1936 seems to be a turning point when the sisters realise that perhaps they are too old to attend the Lughnasa Festival dance; when Kate learns that her job at the school is in jeopardy; and when Agnes finds she no longer has a market for her hand made gloves as the factory made ones are cheaper. Their brother, Jack, returns from his priest's job in Uganda adding to this mix and there are sporadic visits from Gerry, Michael’s father, who announces that he is off to fight in the Spanish War.
The story twists and turns and looking into the ‘cottage’ and its garden in the CQS space at the Old Vic, we are completely taken up with the fates of the characters. It is with sadness that we learn from Michael’s final monologue what has befallen the family, which includes the deaths of Agnes and Rose, destitute in London. This is the Old Vic at its best and after this production the theatre will be returned to its original format. Whether or not the CQS space will be a future possibility only remains to be seen.

The hibernating snails

When visiting Danebury Hill Fort we came across this strange sight - probably hibernating snails. They were very specific, clustering only on the east side of a few carefully selected trees, in nooks and crannies and firmly stuck to the branch or trunk.

We also found them, sparsley, on some yew trees, but here the birds had obviously had a good feast judging from the mounds of empty shells lying on the ground.

Danebury Hill Fort

Today we visited Danebury Iron Age hill fort with friends who live in Smannell. Danebury is estimated to be about 2500 years old, putting it in the mid Iron Age, which stretched from 700 BC to AD43, and it is thought that it was occupied for getting on for 500 years up to when the Romans arrived. Nowadays you can see the ring of outer ramparts and the entrance, and there is also a distinct high point within this ring, which would have been the focal point for ‘village’ meetings and religious ceremony.
When the fort was constructed the first part would be to dig the outer ditch; then, using this earth the ramparts were constructed. In the beginning a timber wall would be used as the front support of the rampart, which eventually rotted away. Although two gates were built originally, the people filled in the west gate and only used the east gate for access.
Danebury was occupied by a community of between three and four hundred people for over 400 years. They were farming people who grew crops; kept sheep and cattle; wove cloth from the wool; and made leather goods from the hide of their animals. These the Danebury people would trade for iron, copper, tin, salt among other commodities. The fort was built, probably, to protect the people and their livestock and grain from raiders. This was done by the whole community slinging stones at would be attackers from the ramparts.
The Danebury people are thought to have been druids, worshipping the pagan gods of the river, trees and other natural features. As such they did make sacrifices to these gods and burials found at the site are thought to be sacrificial.
Evidence has been found of 73 roundhouses and 500 rectangular buildings, not to mention thousands of deep storage pits. Only ten pits were in use at any given time, it is thought. The pits and rectangular buildings stored the most important commodity, grain; the roundhouses were dwellings. Many ‘finds’ from the archaeological excavation can be seen at the Museum of the Iron Age in Andover. The Danebury archaeological excavations, led by Professor Barry Cunliffe of Oxford University, took place from 1969 to 1988. By this time 57% of the interior had been excavated.
Today Danebury Hill Fort is a nationally important Scheduled Ancient Monument as well as being designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Stockholm Day 4

As it was our last day, we had to pack and check out before we went off to sightsee again. The hotel would keep the luggage until we needed to go to the airport. Our first stop was the bookshop that sells Swedish books in all languages. Not that we wanted any particular book, but it was interesting to see all sorts of books in all sorts of languages! We also found a lovely ‘bench project’ tray, which we had to buy for Mel and some lovely Dala horse-shaped chocolates as thank you presents and gifts for the girls. Across the road is the entrance to the Treasury, but we first needed to deposit our bags in the ticket office. We were still among the first visitors to see the Crown Jewels, and we had a very good view of them before the first tour group arrived. They are very beautiful, and one of my favourites is the anointing horn of (I think) Erik XIV from 1604. It is so beautifully worked, and only 10 – 15cms high. There are some very intricately embellished swords as well as elegant crowns made for princesses. The state crown, sword and orb are also there and date from the 17th century. But the crowds were building, so we left, collected our stuff and walked across to Skeppsholmen. When we walked there the first day, we walked down the historic boat quay, so today we walked passed Admiralty House and af Chapman, the youth hostel on a full-rigged freighter from 1888. Then we wound our way up to the outdoor display ‘Paradise’ by Jean Tinguelys and Niki de Saint Phalles, which was made for the Montreal World Expo in 1972. We popped our heads into the Moderna Museet, which looked very interesting, but we really wanted to walk to Kastelholmen, the little island at the bottom of Skeppsholmen. We crossed the old bridge, noting that the Royal Skating Club was under renovation. Then we strolled up the hill and looked up at the castle. Apparently every morning (since 1640) a sailor hoists the Swedish flag up its flagpole. We reached the shore at the end of the island where there is a boatbuilding school, teaching the skills needed to build, and renovate, old wooden boats. We climbed up to the castle and made a circuit round it, then dropped back down the road again, and made our way off this island, Skeppsholmen and on to Gamla Stan again. We just kept going and crossed to Sodermalm at Slussen and walked up to the pretty street Fjallgatan, down Stigbergsgatan to see the old block maker’s cottage, then back to the hotel where we had a late lunch in Café Rival. It was time to collect the bags and head off towards the airport making final use of our travel cards and our return tickets on the flybussarna.
We have had a great time in Stockholm, and we should come back when it’s a bit warmer to see lots more of this lovely city.

Stockholm Day 3

Today we set out on a walk about on Sodermalm. The guide book took us up to the cliff top walk with a view across the Riddarfjarden to Kungsholmen, Riddarholmen and the City. It was still very snowy along the footpath, Monteliusvagen, but there was some grit down to reduce the slipperiness. We took many pics across the water, then turned inland again to walk down one very old cobbled street, Bastugatan. Above us we saw Mariaberget –with an impressive towered building, which can be seen from almost everywhere in Stockholm, apparently.
We found our way to a footbridge running parallel with the railway across the water, and soon found ourselves in Gamla Stan. We planned to watch the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace before visiting the Palace, itself. When we got up there we saw that people were already gathering behind the barriers. The soldiers on guard had wonderful white woolly hats on, which were definitely necessary as there was a chill wind blowing. I don’t know how long each stint outside on duty is, but we hoped not too long. The soldiers make frequent marches up and down to keep their feet from freezing. The new guard began gathering in the colonnade, and one officer came out and announced that the ceremony would take place at 12.15. In the meantime, he gave us a run down on the guards who guard the palaces and in particular who was on duty today – in Swedish and English. Then as the quarter hour struck, the soldiers began running out from the colonnade on orders from their captain. The Swedish flag was marched round to the front and a small changeover ceremony took place. All these soldiers had their helmets on – no woolly hats. We guessed they got those delivered to them after the ceremony. It was soon over, then everyone went to buy tickets to visit the palace, so we decided to get ourselves a cup of coffee and go in when it was a bit quieter.
Our coffee place was called Chokladkoppen and was at the bottom of one of two lovely tall almost Dutch-style buildings in Stortorget. We had delicious coffee and cake, and perused the art on the walls! We couldn’t linger as the Palace closes again at three, so we bought our tickets and entered. The first part was the State Apartments, then the Guest Apartments and eventually we found our way to the Tre Kronor Museum. This latter part is deep down in the foundation of the palace and is housed in the oldest part – some of the 12th century defensive wall and the 16th and 17th century brick vaults. The palace from that time suffered devastation when a fire burned most of it to the ground in 1697. The Tre Kronor Museum is devoted to the history of the palace and shows many artefacts that have been excavated from the palace foundations. We ran out of time before we got to the Treasury, but the very helpful people at the entrance pointed out that our tickets were valid for a month, so we could come back tomorrow. Good idea!
As the sun was still shining we now walked across to Riddarholmen to see Birger Jarl’s statue in his square. Here is the Riddarholmskyrkan with its cast iron filigree tower. Here all of Sweden’s rulers from the 17th century and onwards are buried in vaults. (Except Queen Kristina, 1689 buried in Rome and GustavVI Adolf, 1973, buried at Haga in the north of the city). Now we made our way to the Tbana station and got back to the hotel for a welcome sit down before dinner. The boys on reception said they would find us another good restaurant for dinner – not too far away.
Dinner is to be at Pontus by the Sea. Funnily enough, we almost saw it today on our walk. It is on the promenade of Gamla Stan facing towards Skeppsholmen. It is owned by one of Stockholm’s top chefs, Pontus Frithiof. He has his main restaurant ‘In the Greenhouse’ in the city somewhere.
We took the Tbana to Gamla Stan, then walked across the island to the restaurant. Then it began snowing! As we sat at our table, it really started to come down – we wondered about getting back again! Not many people in the restaurant tonight – so different from last night. The menu looks very good – the wine list is amazing with some wines costing around a thousand quid! We had:
Beef Carpaccio with cep cream, rocket and parmesan, and Jerusalem artichoke crème with seared duck liver and preserved apple; Swedish beef with tomatoes in a balsamic dressing, chips and sauce Béarnaise, and Steamed fillet of char with with tomato and lemon vinagrette, brandade and dried tomatoes. Alan found a Louis Jadot Bourgogne Pinot Noir to accompany the food. All very delicious and we soon forgot the swirling snow outside.

Pontus has a great website with a gallery of pictures taken when the restaurant is buzzing with summer visitors.

Stockholm - Day 2

We managed to get to breakfast just after nine and we were on our way to the Tbana by ten. We decided to take a walk through the city suggested in the guide book and exited the underground to Sergels torg, a two tier square with a pedestrian area below and a traffic roundabout above. The traffic circulates around an amazing crystal tower fountain which apparently sparkles in the floodlights at night. We left the square via the pedestrian street Sergelgatan and followed the walking tour all the way to the Odenplan before turning back towards the centre. We came through the market at Hotorget, looked for the elusive Greta Garbo exhibition in PUB, then passed the concert hall with its interesting sculpture of Orpheus. Just round the corner we had a view of the Kungstornen, which reminded us of the non simmetrical Moskva Hotel in Moscow. But who said they should match!
There were many interesting Art Nouveau and Art Deco buildings on our route; including August Strindberg's last dwelling place in Stockholm, being in a building known as the Bla Tower, a fine shade of ochre with gold highlighting. We called in at the National Library - a Functionalist building, designed by Gunnar Apslund. There are many treasures inside, but we only saw the interesting water fountain with its intriguing tap in the shape of a person. Lots of these buildings are in varying shades of yellow, orange and rose coloured paint. The church, Johannes Kyrka, is a nineteenth century neo-gothic building sharing its ‘garden’ with a late seventeenth century wooden bell tower. Eventually we were back at the Sergels torg and Alan had the idea of finding the Ostermalmshallen for lunch. This is a wonderful food hall where one can buy all sorts of meat, fish and veg to take home, but also there are eating places serving full meals as well as sandwiches. We stopped by a small cafe for open sandwiches - Alan had laks with dressing and I had prawns with mayo. Yummy. Then we strolled through Gallerian and on to Ahlens City to see the shops. We also stopped by the Orrefors shop and found a candle holder for the kitchen. In Ahlens City we found the Moomin range from Arabia and couldn't resist a turquoise mug with Snufkin and the lilac Hemulen mug!
As we were close by the T-Centralen, we took the underground to Gamla Stan to suss out a couple of restaurants for dinner, but nothing inspired us, so we trudged over the bridge at Slussen and walked back to the hotel for a rest. The lads in reception recommended a local place for dinner - Bistro Sud, and booked us in for dinner at 19.30.
Bistro Sud is a tiny place absolutely crammed with folk. This is because of its delicious food. We crowded round a tiny table and immediately were helped by local diners to understand the menu on the blackboard - with their recommendations. We chose the following:
Tuna sashimi with artichoke puree; crab soup with king crab leg.
Fiskqueneller m vitvinsas, rakar and kokt potatis (quenelles of white fish in a white wine sauce, shrimps and boiled potatoes)
plommafylld grissida, kamben,choucroute, art.och potatispure (pork stuffed with plums, choucroute and artichoke puree)
The Montes Pinot Noir was delicious with this wonderful food!
One of our neighbours was very chatty - a man dining with his son who was off to US the following morning. We had a great time chatting to them. But the rigours of the day took over and we had to leave before falling asleep in the dessert! A cup of tea and bed awaited at Rival.

Short stay in Stockholm - Arrival and Day 1

We flew to Stockholm with British Airways from Heathrow T5. We managed to get ourselves onto the flybussarna into City Terminal, then negotiated a travelcard for our stay with a very helpful woman who directed us to the Tunnelbana. This gives us travel on the bus, the Tbana and most ferries for our stay. Now we took the Tbana to Mariatorget where our hotel is situated. Hotel Rival is owned by Benny Andersson of ABBA fame. The hotel was founded as a cinema in 1932 and had fallen into disrepair. Benny Andersson has renovated the building, preserving the cinema for conferences etc. and has made about 90 rooms over 7 floors. We are in a normal room on the fourth floor with a courtyard view. We were welcomed into our room by a beautiful teddy bear which sits on one of the designer chairs. We decided to grab a quick beer in the bar, discovering the unique carpets on each landing as we walked down the spiral staircase. The bar is everything - restaurant, breakfast venue as well as bar. It has a very modern but retro feel and looks out onto a (at the moment) very snowy square. Most diners were finishing, and the drinkers were few as it was getting on for ten thirty. Soon we made our way upstairs for tea from the tea/coffee machine on our landing. Then we were ready to test the comfy-looking beds. This proved correct and we were soon asleep.

The alarm went at eight and we crowded into the dinky shower room for shave and showers. Last night we had closed the blind against the window into the bedroom for the sake of decency! Once again we set off down the spiral stairs to the breakfast room. It was pretty busy, but we found a table and had cereal, fruit, creamy yogurt and bakery things - plenty to satisfy us without venturing into the cooked menu.Eventually ready to go, we headed out towards the ferry terminal. The snow from Sunday is still lying, as the temperatures are barely above freezing. We picked our way along partially cleared pavements that have been gritted, and soon arrived at the docks. The travelcard also covers the ferry, so we could walk through to join the people already waiting. The ferry arrived shortly - they go about every fifteen minutes, and we were soon chugging along to the island called Djurgården. We stopped first at Skeppsholmen. When we got off at our stop, we walked along to the unusual building that is the Vasamuseet.

This is just stunning. As you walk in the Vasa is there in front of you, towering up into the high roof of the building. We spent a few minutes just looking at it, finding ourselves by the post where the English tour starts; but we had read there was an English film to see about the whole history of the Vasa, so we made our way to the information desk. The English surtitled film would start shortly, so we entered the auditorium to see that first. Then we joined the English tour all of which gave us a good insight into the Vasa, which only managed to stay afloat for less then 30 minutes! Apparently they miscalculated the amount of ballast required for a ship with so much superstructure. It would have been a stunning addition to the King’s fleet – but it was not to be. We then decided it was coffee time, before we spent ages taking photographs and reading more about this beautiful but ill fated ship. It was about three o'clock before we were making our way to the exit.

We walked back to the ferry and took it across to Skeppsholmen. From here we made a walk along the quay where the historic boats are moored eventually arriving at the bridge across to the main land. We took the next bridge across to Gamla Stan and spent a couple of hours wandering the old city streets, looking at some of the delightful atelier boutiques along the way. We did stop for tea at a tiny cafe that also served the traditional Swedish lenten cakes called Semla. They are like large sousjes filled with clotted cream and almond spijs. Apparently Swedish people eat these before Lent to boost them before the days of fasting! We shared one between us, with a cup of hot chocolate each. We walked on, across another bridge to Sodermalm and the hotel where we took a well earned rest before slipping down to the hotel restaurant for a spectacular dinner.
Toast Skagen - shrimps in mayonnaise with bleak roe on toast
Stekt hjortrosbiff med kroppkaka fylld med säsaongens svamp och lingonsky - roast beef of venison with potato dumpling filled with seasonal mushrooms and a lingonberry sauce
Crème brulée med cognacshjortron - cb with cloudberries in cognac
Mörk chokladmousse med björnbärsglass - dark chocolate mousse with blackberry icecream
We drank a tasty bottle of Zinfandel with this, then climbed back upstairs to bed.

Old Vic in the round

We were extremely curious about the Old Vic’s new configuration before we attended this evening’s performance of Complicit. We hadn’t managed to get to the Norman Conquests, the major production for which the CQS space had been built, but we had followed the conversion on line as well as viewing the 360 presentation. The space is amazing, but we had booked seats on row G only to find ourselves in the second row – much closer than usual. Half the audience sits inside the proscenium arch in the newly created area, and, of course, exits and entrances can be made via any and all gangways. The architect’s comments can be read here.
If the space is amazing, the play isn’t. Even in Kevin Spacey’s capable hands, this play was far from satisfactory. David Suchet is a superb actor portraying the main protagonist’s lawyer, but his excellent performance is not supported by the lead – Richard Dreyfuss as the prize-winning journalist who is being pressured to reveal his sources in the interest of ‘national security’. Elizabeth McGovern plays this mans wife and gives a convincing performance. Although I admire other performances by Richard Dreyfuss, it seemed that he had been unable to learn the part as he appeared to be continually being prompted via his earpiece. Perhaps that is the weakness of the play; that part is just not convincing making it difficult to learn. The performance did not run smoothly, and it finished somewhat early – we were heading for Waterloo by 21.15 – so did we miss chunks of dialogue? If so it was a relief. What a shame, as we are usually greatly entertained by the performances at the Old Vic.

A Wintry Thursday

Today has been very entertaining. Once we had braved the slushy, semi-icy road down to the station we caught the train into to London and made our way to Earl’s Court for the Destinations Travel show. First we were ready for a coffee, and queued at a wholly inadequate stall, next to a huge bar with at least three beer pumps – what sort of a message does that send! We eventually got our coffee and sat down to plan where we should start. Just by us a seventy-odd year old woman sat with her magnifying glass and a couple of brochures, sipping a glass of white wine as she planned her next holiday. I hope she has a wonderful time, wherever she decides to go.
We started up towards the Americas as I promised to collect brochures for friends about those destinations. This led us to the Nova Scotia stand and the start of a plan to fly to Halifax, hire a car and discover that area. Then we could drive across to New Brunswick – and if we were there at the end of September we could take in the autumn colours before heading into The States to visit friends in New Hampshire. Such plans are the stuff of dreams! Armed with some brochures, we moved on, and conveniently close by was the Jordanian Tourist Board. Here we talked to Dave, who assured us that the trip that was lurking in the back of our minds was easily doable. We could fly into Amman, hire a car and drive ourselves around, taking time for photographs when we wanted, and yet seeing all the treasures that Jordan has to offer. Small guest houses provide excellent local accommodation, and he would even suggest an eleven day itinerary. It sounded great and once again, we left the stand armed with brochures and our heads buzzing with ideas.
On we wandered and soon came across the excellent Wanderlust photo exhibition. Here travellers had submitted their holiday photographs, with some amazing results. There were also several interesting portfolios including one featuring the camel races in Oman – bringing back fond memories. There are not just travel companies at the show, there are also many clothes, gifts and food stalls to visit. The latter are great fun as many offer free titbits of their wares, from sausages to chocolate and fudge. We tasted a few of the samples on our stroll along the avenues of stalls, also filling in some ‘win a holiday’ cards, providing companies with addresses for future mailouts.
Eventually it was time to leave and head back into the centre. We planned to have dinner and then we had tickets for ‘Complicit’ at the Old Vic. We decided to have dinner at Tas, which was delicious, reminding us of our short break in Istanbul last year. We resisted having Raki, the tasty aniseed flavoured Turkish drink, but enjoyed a glass of Anatolian red wine with our meal. The weather remained OK and we walked down to the theatre with time to spare.
For the last production, this and one more, the Old Vic has been converted into a theatre in the round, which is quite impressive. ‘Complicit’ is a story of a journalist (Richard Dreyfuss) who is up before the Grand Jury for publishing secret documents leaked to him by a secret source. These documents refer to torture and rendition by the US government. His dilemma is that he can go to prison for years unless he divulges the source, or so his council (David Suchet) tells him. His wife (Elizabeth McGovern) begs him not to be a hero, for if he is he will destroy their and their family’s lives. In the end he divulges the name, but finds out that the prosecution already knew who it was. We are not certain that he wasn’t set up by his own lawyer either, as he seems to be having meetings with the prosecutor and judge all the time. In the end, the journalist feels he has betrayed everyone for not living up to the ideals he had as one of the generation that protested against the Vietnam war. He berates governments not to be so foolish as, in victory, to become as bad as the enemy destroying their own morality when pursuing that enemy. It was heavy stuff. What was strange was the fact that the programme announced that the play would last some two and a quarter hours including the interval, and we were able to catch the 21.33 train home when the play had started around 19.30! This play hasn’t been well received by the critics, and there were times when it didn’t seem to flow easily, but the subject is a fascinating one and certainly throws up some interesting discussion topics.

Snow hits SE England!

Everyone will be blogging snow today - we woke up to the worst snow for 18 years; numerous school closures; roads blocked; trains and planes cancelled; and even no buses running in London! Well, we aren't used to this sort of weather.
The kids are having a great time, building snowmen, sledging down any slope they can find and there are even some skiers doing the cross country bit down our road into town. What they do at the steps I don't quite know. It was fun walking into Guildford at 9am down the middle of the road as hardly a car had been along it. We pedestrians walked in the tyre tracks to avoid tramping through the mid-calf high accumulation. It was so quiet, apart from the folk laughing and enjoying themselves. Inevitably there were stuck cars and vans and by the junction with North Street the M&S truck was waiting for the snowplough and gritter to go by before attempting the small slope - very slowly! No newspapers, but some groceries to keep us going as more snow is predicted. Glad we didn't have to get the car out to do that! Its safer on foot.

Burns Supper 2009

This year is the 250th celebration of the birth of Scotland's National Bard, Robert Burns. Along with countless others, we had a Burns Supper, complete with the Selkirk Grace; the address to the Haggis and many performances of Robert Burns's work. The company was good as was the food; and the whisky and wine flowed freely, with no driving being considered.
Along with the 250th birthday of Robert Burns, Scotland is celebrating Homecoming 2009. Events all over Scotland will highlight Scotlands heritage and it all began with the World Famous Burns Supper. Ours was part of this and we few contributed to the over three and a half thousand registered Burns Suppers held all over the world.



Another memorable event held to celebrate the Bard's 250th birthday was the Auld Lang Syne concert in Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall. Highlights of this can be found on the BBC Scotland's Celtic connections. I loved Eddi Reader's performance of Willy Stewart. What a wonderful celebration - oh to have been there.

Walking again!

We are enjoying a cup of hot chocolate from our Chocolatiere after an invigorating walk to Newlands Corner and back. Not very warm and pretty soggy underfoot after the storms of yesterday. Lots of small branches have been blown down, and one thin tree covered in ivy had been blown down across the path as we walk up onto the downs at Newlands. But it was great to be out - the first of many walks in 2009, we hope. We passed the bench on the way up Martha's hill, so I will blog it on the Bench Project as no-one has yet, I think! We will have a slice of Pain d'Epice and some delicious Christmas biscuits to accompany the hot chocolate!

Is that the new kitchen or the new chalkboard?
The chalkboard is in the new kitchen, but we have just made it so the chalkboard is new, too! We couldn't find a decent one - they are all very cutesy, so we made one from an unused picture frame. B & Q have chalkboard paint and we painted up some back board from a second broken frame and here it is. Big draw back is the lack of chalk at the moment. Will have to get down to Smiths for some - should really make a note on the chalkboard to remind us!

The Woman in Black

Last night we went to Yvonne Arnaud Theatre to see a performance of The Woman in Black, Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation of Susan Hill’s best selling novel. This performance starred Sean Baker and Ben Porter, who played many parts between them. The sound effects were ear splitting and the set appeared deceptively simple. With the clever lighting and a minimum of props we were transported from an empty stage to the train; the village inn; the graveyard; and several parts of Eel Marsh House where the unfortunate Alice Drablow lived and died. We rode with Arthur and Hedgewick on the pony and trap; we saw the dog, Spider, who nearly drowned; we heard the ghostly rocking chair; and of course, we saw - the woman in black. Its a brilliant play and more information can be found at the Woman in Black website

RHS Floral Celebration at the Inner Temple

This year, the RHS September flower show was something completely different – a Floral Celebration at The Inner Temple. As part of the Inner Temple 400th Anniversary, RHS returned to the Inner Temple Gardens after over 90 years. The shows held here were the forerunners of the Chelsea Flower Show, so it was quite special to return in such a celebratory fashion. We entered at the top of the gardens and the whole show was laid out below with marquee and ‘Turkish’ style tents for some of the exhibitors. Several Plant Nurseries were present with beautiful displays, hoping to win a coveted RHS Medal. There were the usual collections of Gold, Silver-gilt, Silver and Bronze. We saw a display of Balcony gardens, which explored the world of mixed pots and even some vertical planting especially aimed at the modern flat dweller. Soon we felt the need for coffee, but sadly this is where RHS let us down with just one small refreshment outlet that was totally oversubscribed. Nevertheless, we did manage some alternative refreshments at Hannah’s Country Kitchen stand. We think that it was maybe Hannah’s father, offering a delightful glass of Prosecco with Violet liqueur, which we sipped along with a couple of delicious violet and chocolate fairy cakes. This was a wonderful treat!
More looking around and suddenly we were being entertained by the Bollywood Brass Band. They were great – playing Bollywood hits on saxaphones, trumpets, trombones, sousaphone and several drums including the dhol. Certainly a new departure for the RHS. We listened for a while, then made our way into the marquee where wonderful displays awaited the visitors. These included ‘apple towers’ created by the Wisley fruit team, as well as ‘noisy’ dahlias and tranquil cottage gardens. Perhaps one of the most unusual displays was Cookoo Box Nursery’s Chillies. This was a rainbow display of chilli plants from almost black through red and orange to pale yellow – all edible and of varying degrees of heat. Made my attempts at growing black chillies look very amateurish! We also loved the display of heuchera with impossible names such as Tiramasu, marmalade and Georgia Peach. Maybe next year we can try growing some on our new chalky soil.
There was also an exhibition of RHS history in the Temple Church – yes, the one mentioned in the Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown’s novel. So we left the gardens and followed the path round to the church. This is a beautiful building, the round part being the original Templar’s church, which was added to by Wren. The exhibition was mainly in the round part, put together by the RHS Lindley Library and the Inner Temple and exploring the relationship of the Inner Temple and the RHS . Around the edge were some magnificent floral arrangements by members of the National Association of Flower Arranging Societies, with suitable themes such as Knight, 400 years and so on.
But we were, by now getting quite peckish, and decided to walk round the corner to Somerset House for a sandwich and that long awaited coffee. We sat in the courtyard and watched the fountain dance away in the centre, as some knowing folk wound their way through the spouts. Only a couple were caught unawares as the spouts shot into the air unexpectedly!

Mort, the Musical!

picture from YMT website

Terry Pratchett would be proud of the young actors who put on Jennifer Toksvig and Dominic Haslam’s adaptation of his Discworld novel, Mort. The company was the Youth Music Theatre and we were hugely entertained by their performance. All 35 young actors were stars along with the three members of the orchestra. We were lucky to catch this performance as it was the last night of what has been several weeks of hard work, culminating in a great show.
Jos Slovick made a great Mort and Marcus Dobson, the Writer, guided us through the plot with consummate ease. But Death was impressive – a huge caped skeleton operated by Daniel Hall. He visited Guildford Castle earlier in the week, with some bewildered reactions from the other visitors.

Sauna at the Proms

Last weekend the World Sauna Championships took place in Finland. The winners came from Finland and Belarus, with the Brits nowhere in sight. They had obviously not looked for competitors among the stalwarts of the Proms Season now on at the Royal Albert Hall. Last night we attended Prom 40, a concert made up wholly of Janacek’s music; played by the BBC Symphony orchestra conducted by Pierre Boulez. We also sampled the delights of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet playing the left handed piano concerto known as Defiance; the organist Simon Preston and four world class soloists in the Glagolitic Mass. Why, you may ask do promenaders qualify for the Sauna Championships? Well, a couple of hours in the circle of the RAH is a pretty hot and sweaty experience on a warm summer night. The Champion Sauna Sitter lasted 16 mins and 15 sec at 110oC, whereas we were in the RAH for a couple of hours – at an unknown temperature!
The concert was very exciting despite the nodding head of the woman sitting next to me. It all began with the Sinfonietta; a piece in five movements that requires ten extra trumpets. The fanfares they play are so typical of Janacek’s music. Apparently the flute theme in the last movement is famous for being the signature tune to Radio Free Czechoslavakia in the Second World War. The stage was then set for the Capriccio for piano (left hand) and wind instruments, Defiance. This piece was written for Otakar Hollman who lost his arm in the First World War. It was to have been a solo work, but Janacek decided to have an accompanying ensemble. This is made up of two trumpets, a euphonium, three trombones and a flute/ piccolo. The pianist worked really hard playing with only his left hand – but we did notice that at some points during the performance, he was holding on to the side of the piano with his right hand!
After the interval we settled down to hear the final piece, the Glagolitic Mass. The name refers to the obscure Church Slavonic text that the mass is written in. The BBC Symphony Chorus and the London Symphony Chorus performed wonderfully, along with the soloists: Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet soprano, Anna Stéphany mezzo-soprano, Simon O'Neill tenor, and Peter Fried bass. Simon Preston, the celebrated organist, played his solo with great gusto.
What a very enjoyable evening, but we were glad to be out in the fresh air again, heading for the tube to Waterloo and the train home. Two more proms to go, then the summer is over – where has it gone?

Dinner at The Farriers

Last night we decided to have a break and eat out. Our choice of restaurant was the Farriers at the top of the High Street. Upstairs they have a great restaurant, under the care of head chef Remi Remeau, who trained at the Ivy.

We ordered a bottle of Louis Jadot Fleurie (2006) to savour with our meal and our tap water was well presented in a glass carafe with ice and lemon. Our starters were potted shrimps with toast, and figs and parma hamwith lambs lettuce and a balsamic reduction. I thought the butter with the shrimps was a bit lemony, but that's a personal thing as I remember potted shrimps from a very early age and they didn't have a lemon near them then!

It wasn't long before our main course plates arrived - a braised ham hock served with broad beans, new potatoes and mustard sauce; and pork tenderloin on celeriac rosti with braised fennel and calvados jus. Alan couldn't finish his ham hock, but said it was delicious. My pork tenderloin was also excellent, although the rosti was slightly overtanned and I could have done with some more jus!

After a little break, we decided on dessert - a caramel, walnut and chocolate tart served with creme fraiche; and iced berries in a white chocolate vanilla sauce. These were extremely tasty and a scrumptious end to our meal. Not wishing to stay awake all night we opted for their tea selection - chosen from the special tea box of the Mighty Leaf company. This box contains several glass vials with corks. Inside are the different teas, which you can uncork and sniff, to help you choose. In the end I had Ginger Twist and Alan, African Nectar. These were served in tall tea glasses - silken pouches of herbs in hot water and totally different colours - a bit like comparing single malts!

We enjoyed our meal at the Farriers; the pleasant staff and ambiance - we will be going again!

Zantedeschias

A Sunday visitor

The Zantedeschias are looking fabulous. When I went out to photograph them I found this wonderful shield beetle visiting these deep pink flowers. It was very interested in the camera, which was quite close to it, and sat up waggling its front legs in the air.

Growing peppers

I've always wanted to grow chillies since seeing some amazing plants in the glasshouses at West Dean. Each year they have a chilli festival where some amazing chilli plants are on display, as well as suitable dancing and food. This is a picture of my first attempts at the incredible black chilli. I don't know how hot it is, but maybe we will try it out - - - sparingly!

Kitchen a la cherry sauce

I planned to make a special meal – from Raymond Blanc’s Foolproof French Cookery, Duck breast with cherry sauce. I’ve made it before and it is a delicious dish and as there are lots of local cherries about it seemed an obvious choice. But I hadn’t taken into account that I’m not cooking in my own kitchen. First of all my cherry de-stoner was at home along with some of the spices required, not to mention the port. So we had to nip up home and root them out of the packing. I start with the cherry sauce as I can make this quietly in advance. All went well, apart from the last cherry which squirted its stone straight at me. Thank goodness for the apron!
The cherries are poached in a reduction of red wine and port with some spices, so that’s what I did. When ready, you remove twenty cherries, then blitz the rest before sieving. This I usually do in the Magimix or Kenwood liquidiser, but they haven’t come with us to the borrowed kitchen. Well you can’t take everything! But I had seen one of those handheld soup blitzer thingies in a cupboard, and I’ve often wondered what they were like to use. So this was my chance and I got it out, plugged in and lowered it into the pan. This is the moment when it all went wrong – the cherries did get chopped up, but they also got sprayed over the cooker, me and the wall! It was like forgetting to take your finger off the button as you lift the Aerolatte out of the coffee, only I hadn’t lifted the blitzer out of the pan – how could it do that? The finger was off the button in a trice, but the damage was done; my lovely sauce was dripping down the wall, resembling a chain saw massacre. It’s amazing how a little goes a long way!!
It all cleaned up, of course; and there was plenty of sauce left to push manually through a sieve; and the dinner was really tasty. But I wont be buying a hand held blitzer – not to use in my new kitchen!

Our first Prom of 2008

Last night we attended our first prom of this season - Prom 6, which is pretty clever as the proms only opened on Friday. (They do have more than one concert some days.)
We set off to arrive at Carluccio's, South Ken for our pre concert dinner. We ordered the tuna steak with courgette jam followed by the poached figs and ice cream; and to drink there was a glass of Valpolicella each. We were finished in plenty of time to walk up to the Royal Albert Hall to take our seats.
We entered by door 9 and found entrance O, which brought us into the auditorium just beside the righthand side of the orchestra, 5 rows back. What a view! We commented on the unusual arrangement of the orchestra, and read that the second piece of music was for wind, brass and percussion, hence the small number of seats on the podium. This is how BBC describe the concert

"A double opportunity to celebrate Olivier Messiaen's instrument, the organ. Olivier Latry, who teaches at the Paris Conservatoire (as did Messiaen), presents two faces of the French organ tradition - solo Messiaen and Saint-Saëns's much-loved 'Organ' Symphony, a work written for London.
Between the two organ works comes Messiaen's Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum, a magnificent memorial to the dead of two world wars, and a haunting exploration of instrumental colour. A leading interpreter of Messiaen's music, tonight's conductor took part in the first performance of Messiaen's posthumously completed Concert à quatre (see Prom 45), of which he is the dedicatee.

Messiaen L'Ascension, for solo organ (24 mins)
Messiaen Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum (31 mins)
Interval
Saint-Saëns Symphony No.3 ('Organ') (36 mins)
Olivier Latry organ
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Myung-Whun Chung conductor "

The organ solo showed the full range of the RAH recently renovated organ; from quiet passages to hugely loud parts that reverberated around the hall. No-one was falling asleep during this piece. It ended with a long, long note, which gradually died away leaving the audience momentarily silenced.
Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum is a piece in five parts, each with a bible quotation as its title. It brings quite a different sound to the auditorium; and discussing it afterwards we were both reminded of the deep sounds of the long horns we have seen and heard in Bhutan. The percussion involved a whole range of gongs - like the temple gongs, as well as three sets of 'cow' bells and also tubular bells. The full range of wind and brass instuments were also played - providing those deep notes as well as the more usual ranges. It is a magnificent piece and the tolling gongs at the end were relentless - even to the point that one of them got knocked off its moorings! The conductor was superb, keeping everything together with a minimum of fuss.
(click here to read the BBC programme notes)
Finally after the interval we heard a great favoutite, the Saint Saens. It was wonderfully played and the orchestra and condustor obviously thoroughly enjoyed themselves. At the end, the audience showed just how much they had enjoyed the performance with customary Proms applause - including the stamping and clapping. Mr Chung made a gracious speech and turned with baton raised. The Orchestra responded by launching themselves into Bizet's Carmen, after which Mr Chung led them from the podium to rapturous applause.
It was a wonderful evening.