Monday 29 August 2011

Up the 'combe

Bank Holiday Monday. A day for gardening, walking, enjoying the warm sunshine after so much rain. I started the day by driving someone to the station, and stopping off at a nearby garden centre - just to price shears, you understand. One carload of perennials later...

Dog walking first. It was a good afternoon for a longer walk. We went upwards; starting with our morning route, we diverted onto a narrow track.




Off to the left. A well-used path.





Flossie had to take a ball along, to stop her from doing what had led us recently to another disastrous, malodorous night, an early morning trip to our new vet, and an afternoon visit from the carpet cleaner man: chomping windfall apples and delicately pulling blackberries from their prickly stems. And then finding that her stomach/fermentation tank was in trouble at 2 a.m. 'Nuff said.

She still managed to sneak some in when I wasn't looking. Labradors don't learn the cause-and-effect theory easily.



Up we went; Tosca often has to be carried for many of the steeper slopes, but not today; she was full of beans.

Summer is gently giving way to autumn.








At intervals, we stop and gaze....




There's a little bench halfway up.



A rather special bench.


And now we're on the downward slope.









It can be rather stony for little paws. But Tosca always speeds up on the way home.



The poisonous red berries of the cuckoo-pint are beginning to go over, but, hips, haws and brambles abound.








And we're nearly home. The owner of this cottage grows stunning agapanthus, and tells me that he simply throws the ripe seed heads on the soil, and they grow for him, fuss-free.

 
A neglected garden has hollyhocks that fall under the wheels of passing cars on this narrow road. I pinch off a ripe seed pod now and then, and will try propagating them myself.



And we're home.



To the sleepy cats, a cup of tea in the sun, and some planting in the company of the gardener's friend.



A nice way to spend a Bank Holiday.

Sunday 28 August 2011

Bite! Bite!


This one's for those of you who are fond of a zombie, or indeed of Brad Pitt. 

It's not New York (oops, Philadelphia); it's Glasgow, where some of WWZ is being filmed. 

These pictures were taken from the block where my sister lives.


The block with the open balconies (see them in the centre of the facade) on which Brad Pitt has been filmed

Brad Pitt on my sister's balcony... 





There's the star, the one with the light on his face:



The residents are kept updated with the filming schedule that has taken up their waking hours, receiving wonderful little bulletins that read:

More zombie fun tomorrow:
- Filming on the junction with North Frederick Street and all the way along George Street to just beyond the junction with John Street.
- Motorhome escaping along George Street
- Some smoke
- Some stunts
- Much gunfire
- 500 background artistes
- Much screaming
- Much running from the zombies

followed by:




Helicopter day so they'll be flying low and hovering over the filming area for much of the day. Those people who've been running away for the last ten days are going to have to run a little faster as the zombies approach from across the square.


- Helicopter day
- Filming on the junction with North Frederick Street and George Street.
- Aftermath of ambulance crash
- Some smoke
- Some stunts
- Much gunfire
- 600 background artistes
- More screaming
- Even more running
- Zombies biting...
Look out for a rare glimpse of the stars and stripes flying from the top of the City Chambers.  


and where is my sister as this thrilly-spilly gruesome drama unfolds? On a Greek island, missing it all, that's where. Taking 'much running from the zombies' a little too far, perhaps?


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