Just had a busy few days.
Our friend Bill from Birmingham came to stay. Among other things we did the long walk from here, across the West Hill, down through Alexandra Park, up to Bohemia and down to town through Summerfields Woods, as described in an earlier post. (That post also made it into Hastings Online Times). However, this time, we combined the walk with our annual pilgrimage to see the wild garlic at the top of Alexandra Park, just above Shornden Reservoir. Philosopher has said he wants to photograph this every year until he dies – might be tricky in years to come, getting him up there in his wheelchair. We went much later in the month last year, and nearly missed it, but this time it was in full flower. The little wooded area is getting far more frequented and some of the garlic is trampled, which is a shame.
We took Bill to the North Star for a pint en route, and then down to the General Havelock for lunch – he likes his beer.
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| Garlic in Alexandra Park |
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| Garlic and greenery |
On Thursday evening we went across to Bexhill. Had an early supper in the Trattoria Italiano followed by the De La Warr, and the National Theatre live transmission of King Lear, with Simon Russell Beale in the title role. We all three enjoyed it, but I found it a bit loud – maybe the sound level in the auditorium was set too high,but I think all the cast, including Lear, did far too much shouting. The Sam Mendes production was effective, and for the first time, I saw Goneril and Regan’s individual personalities emerge, which was good. There were too many bodies writhing around on stage at the end, which looked messy. When he wasn’t shouting, I thought Russell Beale’s portrayal of Lear’s descent into dementia rather than usual raving theatrical madness was well done. When I was a young girl, my parents took me to see Paul Scofield’s King Lear at Stratford. I was probably too young to appreciate it, and was bored some of the time, but Scofield was wonderful – it is hard for anyone to live up to that.
Earlier in the week, Philosopher and I went to Great Dixter for the morning – we had never been at this time of year. The tulips were still out, and the garden was not as well-grown as it is later in the year. It felt much more open. You could also appreciate the different greens, and the shapes and structures of the plants and the garden. Here are some pictures to finish up with.
I now have more busyness coming up – helping with a WI do for the Hastings Jack-in-the-Green day on Monday. As blog readers will know, drumming and Morris dancing are emphatically not Battleaxe’s thing……..
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| Tulips and Welsh poppies, Great Dixter |
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| Bones of a trained fig tree |
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| One perfect camellia |
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| Pot arrangement |
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| Garden looking more open than we have seen it before |
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| I shall plant tulips with forget-me-nots next year |
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| Greens and shapes |
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