True Colours Thursday - PEACH!

I selected PEACH, a much softer, more pleasing shade of Orange!
Why???
Because, of all the summer fruits, this succulent one is a favourite, especially when, it hails from the fruit farms of British Columbia, Canada!
I remember fondly the BC Fruit Stall's presence in Prairieland Dodge.

My cousin Headmistress & I'd, buy, buy, buy!

Somehow, the fruit's here, never have the same luscious sweetness!

Moving on - once again, I could find little of this weeks colour around my home.

Infact, I had to rob Woodstock of his hug member, Miss Peaches!

This cute PEACH bear, arrived one Birthday of mine, clutching a bottle of PEACH hand lotion, that's long since gone...

Now, considering I'm not a great actual shopper, 'window shopping' for TCT has become a compelling pastime.

I found this PEACH dress with it's neat complementary beaded necklace...

Plus, the matching hat, fit for that Summer wedding...So, all I needed then, was of course the wedding gift.

What better than Champagne Flutes - one is sort of PEACH-ish...

Next comes the cake - The Celebration Cake Shop's window obliged...

The only thing left is the bridal flowers!

This pretty, mixed PEACH bouquet, I spoilt my-self with a while back...
To join True Colours Thursday, all you need, is to post a photo/photographs & text, or better still both, on the specified colour of the week.

If you simply want to use the idea as a 'prompt' for a post, as I do now, with many memes, that's fine.

But, if, you'd like others including me, to visit you, please leave a comment below, so we know you are 'IN'!

For this meme only, I lift my 'Comment Moderation' to help players connect with each other.

Everyone, who to my knowledge participated last week, is named & linked in my side bar.

And, I will try to up-date the list throughout the day.

Next weeks colour is EMERALD, a gem of a green for BJ! !

Wordless Wednesday, Take 2 - St Swithin's Day Weather!

Wordless Wednesday - Happy 92nd Birthday to Prairieland Cousin Lucy-Lu!

Captain Corelli's Mandolin!

With mid Summer proving a wet squid & Wimbedon Tennis now history, am reading more.
Seeing Angie was struggling with 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' by Louis de Bernieres, I decided to re-read.
I, loved this book from the first moment I encountered it.
Even, the poor 2001 movie adaptation, using typical Hollywood 'poetic license', so giving the tale a different, decades earlier ending - has done little to dent my enthusiasm.
I have the DVD...But then, I do like actor Nicholas Cage & the scenery was wonderful.

But, back to the novel - it is set on the Greek island of Cephalonia from the Second World War to the present day.
And, tells the story of the love shared by local Dr. Iannis, his beautiful daughter Pelagia & Italian Captain Antonio Corelli, sent to the island as part of the occupying forces - he brings his much loved mandolin with him .
When I first read it, shortly after publication in 1995, it captured my romantic imagination.
But, it is also a serious war story with all the guts & the gore.

More recently - well, a year or so ago, I went to see a theatre adaptation, of 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin', put on by Mike Maran Productions @ Dreamingspires Playhouse.
It had already been much acclaimed @ fringe festivals, including Edinburgh.
And, was said to be all about the art of storytelling.
The pre-publicity blurb read - "With live music from Alison Stephens on mandolin & Anne Enans on piano, Mike Maran brings this epic tale of love & war to the stage with two chickens, two aubergines, three puppets & a goat!!"
Louis de Bernieres, was also quoted as saying "I'd rather see this show anyday than the film"
I was NOT diappointed.
Infact, I was enthralled from start to to curtain fall.
The set, if you could call it that, was a beautiful mosaic back-clothe of azure blue depicting the Aegean Sea, dolphins & mandolins, which was only briefly displaced, by a bloodstained wall, for the terrifying event in the story, when the Germans gun down the Italians soldiers including Captain Corelli.
The props, quite literally were a small wooden fence, cut-outs of a cross, a goat, a motorbike, & three soldiers heads and a plastic chicken or two - I missed the aubergine!!!
Centre stage was mesmerising held by Mike Meran, who alone related the tale, bringing the characters of the book alive, by his storytelling - one listened intently, spellbound to his soft lilting Scottish accent.
Through him, you could almost see Dr Yanis, & Pelagia & the Capt Corelli – it was an incredible piece of one-man theatre.
The two musicians, Anne Evans on flute & keyboard and Alison Stephens on guitar & mandolin, sit to one side and their music added atmosphere & depth - the mandolin especially so, as sooo evocative.
For me, it really was an unique memorable evening - funny, sad, uplifting & thoroughly entertaining.
My companion, Greengage, found it less so.
So much so, I have never seen her again!
But, that was more due to the break-up of her relationship than me or the play!

Anyway, am enjoying my re-reading of the first chapters, curled up on my sofa.

Two fer Tuesday - Garden Sunshine & Showers!

In my region, this week so far, has been very much like the last one!
A little sunshine & lots of showers, on the heavy side.
What happened to 'Global Warning', promising hot dry Summers???
I hear it is now, called 'Global Change' instead!!!
Two photo's taken within hours of each other yesterday, sum it up for me...

Two-fer, which is your subject choice in two or pairs of photo's is friend Jonna's idea!

A Monochrome & Odd Shot for Monday - Pimm's Time!

Personally, I'm not a great Pimm's fan.
However, with a large Academic population, even out of University term time, and a busy Summer river, Dreamingspires claims to be the Pimm's world drinking capital - well, according to The High's wine store Oddbins...The building reflected in the window is that of Brasenose College!

Monochrome Maniacs is Aleni's project.
Odd Shots is Katneys!

Todays Flowers - Roses, Red!

This year, my - no, my late Mother's rambling red Rose, has bloomed particularly well.

Its profusion of flowers decorates the front of my house as it grows with wild abandon there...

And, I quite literally mean that, so much so, several new briers were waving with thorny menace over the pavement.

Hence, today, in a sunny interval, had to do what I hate doing, a little pruning!
I can't bare to harshly cut back the now extensive rose bush.

It's memories!

And, it acts as an amazingly attractive, but effective deterrent to unwelcome casual callers.

A serious plus in my eyes!
Yes, you have to FIGHT your way, to my front door.
But, much more important, the blooms are sooo wonderfully fragrant.

I stop & inhale their sweetness, everytime I go in & out.

To me, the 'essence' of a rose is in it's perfume.

However fine, the the blooms are on an unscented Hybrids, they lack what makes a rose so special.

THE ROSE

"The lily has a smooth stalk,

Will never hurt your hand;

But the rose upon her brier

Is lady of the land.

There's sweetness in an apple tree,

And profit in the corn;

But lady of all beauty

Is a rose upon a thorn.

When with moss and honey

She tips her bending brier,

And half unfolds her glowing heart,

She sets the world on fire."

It's another Christina Rossetti poem, because I like the simplicity of her verse.

Today's Flowers was created by Luiz Santilli Jr.

Camera Critters Sunday - Wanted a Dodo!

I forgot to include this, my final 'Alice' snippet, on a earlier post.
To illustrate it, I really needed a photo of a Dodo, that extinct, 'mythical' bird instead of Geese by the River Isis, but...On a 'Alice' walking tour around Dreamingspires, I learnt that author Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll, had a problematic stammer.
With children, it amazingly disappeared.
But, in adult conversation, he struggled when renouncing his surname.
So, it's thought he is 'taking the micky' out of him-self in the 'Alice in Wonderland' with his character the Dodo!

Camera Critters is Misty Dawn's creation, the blog is HERE!

Color Carnival - Summer Rain!

Most of this week has been decidedly wet here in Soutern & Central England - heavy rain, storms, thunder!
Today's faired no better!
Rain, rain & more rain showers!
The only colour to be seen when venturing out, out of necessity, were umbrella's, as photographed here, rushing to the dry hallowed halls of Christ Church College...
With St Swithin's Day looming on Wednesday, it's not looking that great for the rest of the Summer!
St Swithin, an English Saxon bishop, died in 862.
He was originally buried humbly in the grounds of Winchester Cathedral.
But, on the 15th July 971, his remains were dug up & moved to a shrine and a huge feast was enjoyed.
Legend has it that this led to ferocious storms for 40 days & 40 nights!
The phenomenon well recorded, is probably the origin of the folklore & verse that goes...

"St Swithin's Day, if it does rain
Full forty days, it will remain.
St Swithin's Day, if it be fair
For forty days, t'will rain no more."

I'm, definitely hoping for the latter!

Color Carnival just requires a colourful photo.
Martha is the creator & host.

Saturday Photo Hunt - Garbage!

This weeks prompt from host tnchick, is not a word much used this side of the Pond!
Here in Britian, we say rubbish or the more refined, refuse!
There's also the saying...
"One Man's Rubbish Is Another Man's Gold [or Treasure]"
And, as a great charity shop buyer my-self, that is me to a T!
In my county Spireshire, re-cycling is encouraged.
So, we have regular doorsteps collections for almost everything!
These are NOT my bottles, mine are more wine than beer orientated - LOL!
But, loved the condensation effect, hence taking the photo one bright but chilly morning ...

'Alice Through the Looking Glass' as Theatre!

Alice week on my blog is drawing to a close!
Today, I'm remembering a theatre review of mine from my first blog 'If only, if only... I'd'.
Before money became tighter, I was a very, very, very regular 'Dreamingspires Playhouse' goer.
Eighteen months ago, I went to see the student company 'Plantlife Productions' version of ...Lewis Carroll's second Alice story is a tough one to retell, let alone transfer to the stage.
The book opens indoors on a snowy, wintry night.
Alice wonders what the world is like in the reflection of her home, she can see in the mirror.
To her surprise, she finds she's able to pass through it to the other side & finds an alternate world, full of opposites and where, time runs backwards.
The main characters, Alice meets are chess pieces on the landscape's giant chessboard that's divided into squares by natures fields & streams.
Alice becomes a 'Pawn' in the game for the White Queen & while trying to cross the crazy chess board, encounters nursery rhyme characters Teedledum & Tweedledee, who recite the long poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter."
'The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things:
of shoes - and ships - and cabbages - and kings -
and why the sea is boiling hot and whether pigs have wings'
Then, she meets Humpty Dumpty, followed by the Lion & the Unicorn, before being rescued from the Red Knight by the White Knight, and progressing to capture the Red Queen.
With the Red King check-mated & the chess game over, Alice wakes up & blames her black cat for strangeness of her dream!!!
The bizarre imagination of Mathematics academic, Dodgson [aka Lewis Carroll], never ceases to amaze me!

Now, from this cryptic 'resume', even those familiar with the book, will realise his Alice - Through the Looking Glass' story is weird - big time!
Personally, I'm more an ''Alice in Wonderland' fan.
And, the new theatrical adaptation by young play-write, Emily Lim, I went to watch, was so imaginative, it bordered on bizarre @ times - only in hindsight, I see it was spot on!
The set was minimalist - a building site with scaffolding, which acted a hill, a tree & Humpty- Dumpty's wall.
Props were an armchair, blue plastic sheeting tied together to represent the streams that divide the chess board, wheel-barrows for boats, and buckets of water poured from one bucket to another for Alice's tears & the streams sound effects.
No fancy costumes at all.
The entire cast apart from Alice were dressed in white work-mens boiler suits, that were swapped for red ones when portraying the red chess pieces, & green ones when the forest.
Sometimes it cleverly worked, other times it didn't.
The garden scene did exceptionally well, with just the addition of coloured hard-hats representing each talking flower - yellow for the Daisy chorus, pink for the Rose & orange for the Tiger Lily.
Of the characters portrayed - Humpty Dumpty was the best - he wrung every bit of humour out of his lines before falling of his wall to strobe lighting effects; Alice was childlike & full of amazement, and the all dancing, all singing chorus were 100% enthusiastic.
But, it was off beat entertainment & often very hard going, even with a good imagination!
The audience was small.
The company, to my knowledge has not staged another production!
And, I'm pretty much Alice'd out now!

Happy Barkday Maggie, Happy Birthday Sue!

Dear Airegirl, Maggie has been a long standing, & much valued DWB friend.

In a world of ever changing blog contacts, she & brother Mitch have remained ever faithful.
And, today is Maggie's 11th Barkday!

And, it's always a doubly special event for her, as she shares it with her wonderful Mom's Birthday - just love this connection as my Springer Hero & I were just two May days apart.

As I know Airedale paintings & Poppies are all time favourites in their household, this is for them...

Have a wonderfully happy day together Maggie & Sue!
Here's hoping there's ice cream, and lots of it.

I will be sharing a cone 'virtually' with you both!

My Moasic credits credits go as follows:-

Maggies images - Yes, they are actual paintings of her by their very favourite artist Barbara Keigher, who they affectionately call ABB because that's her ebay user name - it stands for Art by Butterfly.

The Red Poppies, come from watercolorist, Karen Shunk found via Google Images for the occassion!

True Colours Thursday - NAVY!

Surprisingly as a Blue lover, I found NAVY difficult to cover!
Fortunately, whilst 'Window Shopping' I did spot this lovely dress - just wish I was still of the age with the figure to wear it...However, these days, my attires more practical, like this...Back home, all I could come up with were my Willow pattern plates...So, as NAVY can also mean the Navy, thought I might try to find something afloat!
Caught this vessel leisurely cruising along on the river...Then, admired in closer detail this colourful narrowboat artwork on its NAVY background...Now, blue flowers are rare, NAVY ones even more so, the closest I can offer are dark blue Flag Iris...And, finding cakes to fill the colours is NOT getting any easier either!

This 21st Birthday cake from The Shop, does however have NAVY icing, ribbon & shoes, much more glamorous than any of mine...

To join True Colours Thursday, all you need, is to post a photo/photographs & text, or better still both, on the specified colour of the week.

If you simply want to use the idea as a 'prompt' for a post, as I do now, with many memes, that's fine.

But, if, you'd like others including me, to visit you, please leave a comment below, so we know you are 'IN'!

For this meme only, I lift my 'Comment Moderation' to help players connect with each other.

Everyone, who to my knowledge participated last week, is named & linked in my side bar.

And, I will try to up-date the list throughout the day.

Next weeks colour PEACH, like that delectable soft Summer fruit!

Wordless Wednesday - Alice, as 'photographed' by Dodgson!

The Facebook Dilemma!

As a self confessed solitary, who prefers her own company more than most others; hates groups; who is really uncomfortable socialising other than one to one and grows more inclined this way as every year passes - I ask ...'WHAT, the hell was I doing on a social networking site like Facebook'???
I have tried!
Joined years ago, de & re-activated my account according to my mood but mainly to keep contact with my younger Prairieland cousin Peterpan, however, no matter how much I try, am NOT comfortable/happy there.
Yesterday, two new contacts finally DID it for me.
My Cousin, Headmistress, on Facebook was a surprise!
But, her finally joining the Internet world was NOT the problem, good for her!
But, Squeall requesting to become my friend was.
Now you have to be a long standing blog reader of mine, with an even longer memory to recall who she is!
Squeall is Little Buddies sister!
Once they were very close, she, then happily knew of our 'relationship'.
But things have changed, they are now mortal enemies over farmland issues.
Little Buddy reading this, is now curling up in the fetal position in panic!
Rather than risk, a innocent remark leading to a link back to me here, I have again quit Facebook, never to return.
I just hope, my Blog friends that I briefly connected with there, will not take offence & my Cousin will not be further upset with me - Please to both!

Two fer Tuesday - Alice about Town!

Okay, admit, I am going a bit - well, a lot, overboard re Alice, as of 'Alice in Wonderland' fame @ the mo!
But, she is part of Dreamingspires, and every time, I walk into Town, I pass this bold sign...It is opposite to Christ Church College's gardens, the real Alice Liddell's home territory due to her father, being Dean there...

The shop its-self sells a variety of Alice souvenirs from the 'cheap & chearful' to the exclusive, but is actually where she, Alice used to buy her barley sugar sweets.

And, it features as the 'Old Sheep Shop' in Lewis Carroll's 1871 book 'Through the Looking Glass'.

Sadly, someone recently stole the Alice figure from its front, leaving the White Rabbit standing there alone...

My city could do much more to promote the Lewis Carroll literary connection.

The 'Dreamingspires Story' which closed the other year, did tell Alice's & his history - photo's are from my visit there days before its final 'ride'...

Now, it's left to the The Museum in St Aldates - it's home to a minuscule collection of Alice memorabilia - her silver scissors, a buckle of hers & Lewis Carroll's pocket watch - hardly riviting stuff!!!

Christ Church College does do better.

The Library which houses around 40,000 rare books & manuscripts on Theology, Arts, Law & Medicine, where Dodgson [Carroll] was sub-librarian, does contain his works along side Milton as it's only literature.

And, this tableau of 'Wonderland' characters...

There is also, a window dedicated to Alice in Christ Church's Cathedral /college chapel, which shows her & charactors from the childrens books - but as I've never taken a remotely half decent shot of it, this image is 'borrowed' from Flickr ...But, to me, the 'fun' Alice feature is in the Colleges Dinning Hall, where the elongated headed brass fire-dogs in the huge fireplace, must have inspired the author into stretching necks...

Two-fer, which is your subject choice in two or pairs of photo's is friend Jonna's idea!