Author: JWF

Tidy Tidbits: Spring Things

JWF 4 Comments

EASTER THOUGHTS

Girls in spring dresses

As a child, I grew up going to Sunday School and celebrating Easter in church.  Spring usually meant a new dress, but always a new spring coat.  Spring coats then were pastel colors, pale blue, yellow, or pink.  Made of lightweight wool, you wore it over a pretty dress along with a fancy hat to church on Palm Sunday and Easter.  Of course, our parents also gave us Easter baskets.  Fake straw ones with jellybeans, Peeps chicks, and little foil wrapped chocolate eggs nestled in the grass.  If you were fortunate, a good-sized cream-filled Cadbury’s egg was a bonus.

Trumpet flowers
Gorgeous tulips

Today, I welcome the coming of Easter as a sign of spring—rebirth and renewal—with a lifting of the spirits if the winter has been long and cold.  In Florida, we have some version of spring all year, but there is still something wondrous about warmer temperatures, more late light, and the bursting forth of blossoms.  

RECENT VIEWING

FROTHY CONFECTION

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (Amazon Prime)

Ada has a fitting (NPR)

Based on the novel, Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris, by Paul Gallico and published in 1958, the latest movie version is a delight.  It’s fun and full of fashion without being too silly or overdone.  There are moments of poignancy midst Ada Harris’s dreams of a different life.  

Lesley Manville plays cleaning woman Ada Harris, a hardworking woman who dreams of owning a beautiful gown (preferably one by Dior) and whose husband never returned from the Second World War.  Nor was he declared dead, and so she is ever hopeful.  Ada saves her coins and when she receives an unexpected windfall, she trots herself to Paris and brazenly bursts into Christian Dior’s atelier.  She’s a memorable character, full of spunk, and perhaps her dream will come true. In the 1992 film, Angela Lansbury was Ada Harris.

SPYCRAFT

A Spy among Friends (MGM+)

Philby & Elliott (The Guardian)

The Chief Penguin and I read several very positive reviews of A Spy among Friends about notorious double agent Kim Philby.  Hence, we sprang for the 7-day free trial of MGM+ through Amazon Prime to watch the series.  It’s six parts and we are halfway in.  Based on a nonfiction work by Ben Macintyre, it unwinds slowly going back and forth in time.  Philby is seen primarily through the eyes of friend and fellow spy, Nick Elliott, who is being interrogated about his knowledge of Philby’s activities over their 23-year friendship.  Guy Pearce is Philby and Damian Lewis is superb in the role of Elliott.  Recommended!

Note: Flower photos and header photo from JWFarrington.

Tidy Tidbits: Granddaughters, etc.

JWF Leave a comment

A MARVELOUS WEEK

This was a week about as close to perfection as one could request.  Everyone seemed to have a grand time.  Tim and Jen had multiple opportunities for tennis and honing their game.  The girls, 7 and almost 11, spent hours in the pool, swimming, jumping, racing one another, and playing with several visiting girls.  In quieter moments, they could be found re-discovering the joys of a dollhouse and building blocks or curled up in a chair with a book.

Together we played a new card game, Taco vs. Burrito, laughing and scheming to see who would escape the Health Inspector card and have the most points.  Even for adults, this was a fun game! We also celebrated F’s 7th birthday.  Creative Grandpa came through with frosted yellow cupcakes (some with pink icing and some with whipped cream) on a lighted 3-tiered stand.  Quite some pizazz!  

Birthday cupcakes on stand
Close up of cupcake with strawberry

To round out the week, they checked out Coquina Beach, and we all headed to our perennial favorite, Tide Tables, for two dinners. We survived the challenge of parking and the wait (20 minutes, not the projected 30) for a table, with F holding tightly to the buzzer.  Scoops and cones at Tyler’s Ice Cream made for another treat.

Smiling sisters

No trip to Florida is complete without a stop in the bookstore, that’s Bookstore 1 in Sarasota.  Combine that with replenishing the cheese supply at Artisan Cheese Company, and you have a satisfying outing.  Food for brain and body.  

Our house is quiet, the foyer is bereft of shoes, sneakers, and sandals, and the crew is back home in New York.  But what good memories we made!

VIEWING UPDATE—CONTINUING SERIES

Call the Midwife (PBS)

Midwives Trixie, Phyllis, & Nancy (PBS)

It’s hard to believe that Call the Midwife is in its 12th season, but it is.  The year is 1968, and the folks in Poplar are still poor and in need of better living conditions and healthcare.  Visiting Sister Veronica brings a blunt manner and new ideas for helping the children.  Nurse Crane faces repercussions due to her age, and Trixie juggles preparing for her wedding to Matthew with caring for their patients.  Familiar faces are back from Dr. Turner and Sheila to Sister Julienne and Sister Monica Joan.  Babies are born, problems are solved, and there is always hope.  I find this series moving and emotional in a good way.  I’ve now watched four of the 8 episodes.

Sanditon (PBS)

Charlotte & Alexander Colbourne (PBS)

Season 3 of Sandition, based on an unfinished novel by Jane Austen, is in its third and final season.  Georgiana is about to celebrate coming of age and into her inheritance.  Charlotte Heywood returns for the party with her farmer fiancé.  Tom Parker continues to tout the greatness of Sandition and petitions a wealthy man for his support for a hotel.  As expected, flirtations and expectations abound as single women angle to catch the eye of just the right gentleman.  

It’s fun, mostly light-hearted, and a welcome change from the dark crime series the Chief Penguin and I have been favoring.  There are six episodes in this finale.

Note: Unattributed photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.) Header photo of kids in pool from Dreamstime.com.

Tidy Tidbits: Mostly Watching

JWF Leave a comment

RECENT VIEWING

INTERWOVEN LIVES IN A CAR CRASH

Collision (Amazon Prime)

Detectives John & Ann (The Movie Database)

Collision is a British police series from 2009. The Chief Penguin and I decided to watch it because it stars Douglas Henshall of Shetland fame.  A traffic accident involving 12 cars occurs on a superhighway and three people die.  Detective Inspector John Tolin (a young Henshall) and Inspector Ann Stallwood (Kate Ashfield) analyze the crash scene and talk to the survivors to determine how and why it happened on a perfectly pleasant day.  Tolin lives with his disabled daughter, and you quickly sense he is haunted by a tragedy, but have no details.  Rather than doing the standard follow-up, John becomes caught up in personal aspects of the survivors’ lives.  

We see the accident over and over and the activities of the principals in the several days leading up to it.  One or more crimes may have been committed, and John and Ann follow all sorts of leads to tie it all together.   While not fast paced, we found this a fascinating crime/mystery series.  It was written by Anthony Horowitz (think Foyle’s War), and there are 5 episodes.  

DEADLY CRIME AND QUESTIONABLE COPS

Bloodlands (Acorn) 2 seasons

Detectives Brannick & McGovern (Radio Times)

Set in Northern Ireland in present day, this police procedural handles complex cases with links to Northern Ireland’s past and the IRA.  The principals are Detective Chief Inspector Tom Brannick and his assistant, DS Naimh McGovern, and their boss, Detective Chief Superintendent Jackie Twomey.  Brannick’s wife went missing more than 20 years ago, and he is obsessed with solving these new cases.  Single, Brannick has a college age daughter and a somewhat checkered past.  As he and his colleagues hunt for the infamous assassin called Goliath, one begins to question Brannick’s motives and intents. 

I found the first season suspenseful with some compelling twists and turns.  In Season 2, which I’m now watching, I have a clearer view of Brannick’s values or lack thereof and am wondering how he will fare in the end. This is a hard-edged, gripping series with plenty of killings—not for the faint of heart.  

BOOK NOTES

  • My local book group had a lively discussion about Lessons in Chemistry by first time novelist Bonnie Garmus.  The facilitator liked it, everyone else loved it.  We agreed that its humorous moments made what could have been a heavy work enjoyable.  The book’s underlying theme, society’s treatment of women in the 1950’s and 60’s, prompted the sharing of several personal accounts of workplace discrimination or harassment. 
  • I’m currently reading Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson.  Set in London in 1926, it focuses on the indomitable Nellie Coker and her family members who own a series of nightclubs.  So far, I love the writing (meticulous in its telling details) and am finding these characters intriguing.

Tidy Tidbits: Anticipating Spring

JWF Leave a comment

Here in Florida, we have flowers and trees in bloom all year long. That is not the case everywhere, and some of my friends are eagerly awaiting leafy trees and burgeoning blossoms. Thus, this week you get a sampling of spring flowers and trees from a variety of locales seen in March or April.

Our first experience seeing jacaranda trees in bloom was in the center of Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, in 2009.

We also loved the jacaranda trees we saw here in Mexico City some ten years later!

In our travels, we have often visited local botanical gardens, whether in Vietnam, Singapore or Japan.

Delicate water lily, Vietnam
Cherry blossoms, Tokyo. We joined throngs of locals traipsing among these gorgeous trees.
Tulips in bright sun, Jefferson Market Garden, Manhattan. We like to sit in this tranquil space.
Early Magnolia, Florida. I love the shape and delicacy of these blossoms.
Intense orchids, Singapore. There are two marvelous botanical gardens in Singapore, both worth a detour!
A spring day perfect for contemplation, coastal Florida
Glowing Tabebuia Trumpet tree, Florida. This tree of ours usually displays its first burst of color in mid to late February.

Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved). Header photo of flowering tree taken in Manhattan.