VIEWING: VICARS AND CRIME
Grantchester Season 9 (PBS)
Life in the village of Grantchester rolls on, and Vicar Will Davenport, with some hesitation, accepts a new job offer. He and Bonnie and their kids will move to Newcastle.
The Chief Penguin and I watched the entire season of eight episodes, and we think it’s an excellent one. Episodes 1 and 2 do provide murders to solve, but they more significantly focus on Will’s decision to leave and how that is unveiled to Geordie and others in the community. These episodes present a wonderful depiction of male friendship, both the complex yet deep relationship between Will and Geordie and Will’s strong bond with former curate Leonard.
From this poignant and moving departure, the series continues with the arrival of new vicar, Alphy Kotteram, whose initial welcome is cool to tepid. Women’s roles, or more specifically, women’s place in society, come to the fore as evidenced by cantankerous yet devoted Mrs. C. demonstrating her loyalty, Cathy struggling with midlife issues, and Miss Scott in the police department assisting in the murder investigations.
Grantchester has been renewed for yet another season. Recommended!
TRAIN RIDE THROUGH THE WOODS
New Hope Valley Railway
This past week, we went on an outing to nearby Bonsal about 20 miles south of Cary. From Bonsal, you can ride a train on historic track for 4 miles to nearby New Hill. A locomotive pulls airy passenger cars through leafy woods of pines and deciduous trees. There is not a lot to see, but the trip is a pleasant meander.
The most action is at New Hill when the locomotive engine uncouples from the front of the train, runs on a parallel track, and then couples up with what was the back of the train for the return to Bonsal. The whole trip takes just under an hour.
An all-volunteer enterprise, the railway goes all out for holidays with flying witches at Halloween and Frosty the Snowman and Santa around or on board in December. Gina, the brake woman in our car, overflowed with details about the these preparations.
Also on site is a gift shop, of course, a range of antique train cars, and an elaborate G Scale model train layout that is mesmerizing for all ages. We enjoyed sampling this North Carolina attraction and know that it would appeal to many folks’ grandchildren!
READING—NOT ON MY SUMMER LIST
A Poet’s Memoir
You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith
I like memoirs and read a good review of this book, so put it on my birthday wish list. Prior to reading it, I had not heard of poet Maggie Smith nor was I aware of her 2016 poem, Good Bones, that went viral after the horrible shooting at the gay nightclub in Orlando.
Other memoirs have dealt with marriage break-ups and the challenges of parenting as one and not two. What Smith does in You Could Make This Place Beautiful is unique; her memoir is made up of snippets of life, questions one could pose, and a play within the memoir.
The reader gets raw, painful episodes of hurt and anger along with accounts of the joys she shares with her young daughter and son. She discovered her husband’s infidelity on a postcard; she dubs herself the Finder in her drama scenes and he The Addressee. Throughout her musings are some sections that recur like “A Note on Plot”, or “A Friend Says Every Book Begins with an Unanswerable Question” where one time the text reads: “Then what is mine? how to forgive or “how to remain myself.”
Smith reiterates that this is not a tell-all book, but rather a “tell-mine.” She omits certain scenes and specifics yet delves into her early life, their courtship, and their marriage. Ultimately, she believes her view of her professional life and his view of it, her work vs. his work, colored their relationship, and ignited its fracturing.
None of this is written in a linear way as she reflects, revisits issues, revises her thinking, consults and quotes other writers, and shares her experiences with her therapists. At one point, she states that she had hoped to have more levity on the page to offset the sadness and hurt. She studies and revises her view of herself again and again as she works to become, I would phrase it, a more fully integrated person.
There is an immediacy here; some issues, such as finalizing the divorce drag on in litigation as she writes. Her children also take turns on take center stage as she ponders their futures, mourning the fact that their father moved out of state, limiting their access to him. The depth of her love for these two resilient kids is clear.
There is pain on the page and yet, there is a magnetic quality about the writing (her poet’s eye for precision, e.g.) that kept me glued to the text. Highly recommended! (~JWFarrington)
Note: Unattributed photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)
