More of . . . The Same!

The more of the same old same old. What more can I say at the moment? So what has changed? Ab-so-lutely nothing! More sitting around reading or watching television. Though I'm glad that I have Sky Arts on my Freeview box as they're currently  running Sky Arts Landscape Artist of 2021. I wasn't sure whether it's a repeat of a past series, but it's new. It makes me wonder how they could film it with social distancing in force. The first episode came from West Wycombe Park, a National Trust property which Carol and I visited a few years ago. It seems to be a favourite location for quite a few television dramas such as Downton Abbey, The Crown, Austenland, Cranford, the more recent film version of The Importance of Being Ernest which starred Dame Judi Dench as Lady Bracknell and many more. I have recognised it in many period dramas over the year. In fact, I would say it's becoming somewhat over-used.

(Friday) 7.55a.m.  I've just got back from taking Alfie out and as we walked down Strudwick Drive I could see someone standing on the grass with what I assumed was a blanket wrapped around themselves. Then, as I gradually walked along I could see an ambulance parked on the road. There was no indication what was going on. I've had to call an ambulance enough times to know what was likely to be going on inside. Then, further along the pavement with Alfie, the door of the ambulance slid open and a youth came out, also swathed in a blanket. The paramedics were obviously coming to end of examining the youth and then slid the door shut and both the youth and the woman walked off in the direction of Milton Keynes centre, going through Oldbrook Green. I still had no idea what was going on and probably best not to know. 

Some delightful soul has seen fit to abandon a supermarket trolley at the intersection of Oldbrook Boulevard and Strudwick Drive. It was marked with 'Morrison's' on it's handle, which made me think, someone had pushed it a long way from Morrisons, which is a couple of miles away. If they'd bought it thus far, why not return it? Also, another electric scooter, abandoned nearby. As we walk past, Alfie cocks his leg against it! Good for you, young man, that's a good way to mark the thing, cluttering up the place as it does.

Washing done. Everything back on hangers and in drawers. Thank goodness that's finished for a week. Washing-up also done and kitchen tidy. Domestic duties done.

Later. I've been out again with Alfie. There were Council workmen, dressed in day-glo clothing, litter-picking. Why do people insist on dropping so much litter? More particularly discarded face masks. No intention of even doing the thing and putting them in the many and various bins located around Oldbrook Green. Just not nice and something of a health hazard.

It's a bright and almost spring-like day. Not a lot else to report.

2.05p.m. How quickly the weather changes! As I write this, it's pouring with rain and I'm wondering whether Alfie is going to appreciate getting soaked. I doubt he will enjoy it, so I will have to wait until the rain goes off.

Later. The rain doesn't go off. I take the plunge and gear up to take his nibs out. It's raining hard. No sooner does he get out than Alfie turns tail and takes me home. Probably just as well as it's teaming down. No sign off it easing off. Better to be inside in the dry. Alfie had on his Regatta coat and I had on my bright yellow Regatta rain coat. I'm so glad I purchased it when I did!

Road Trip

A really sunny and bright day today. We've been on a road-trip, visiting some really interesting and quirky places. We have so many strange and interesting places around this country, those little gems that are often hidden away and get missed, but often get highlighted on television programmes such as 'Bargain Hunt' and 'Antiques Road Trip' or a number of history or other types of programmes. The other day on 'Antiques Road Show' they had an item which purported to have been written by someone who had experienced performances of some of Shakespeare's plays and had made copious notes in a tiny note book. At first I had seen this on Facebook and, because it was April 1st, thought it was an April Fool's hoax, but when it came up on this television show the expert who discussed it with the man who bought it along to the show, it seemed as if it was a genuine item.

Anyway, we packed up some rolls and drinks and drove away on the A5 towards High Wycombe, visiting West Wycombe  and visiting the hill on which can be found the mausoleum of the Dashwood family as well as the interesting church with the golden ball on the top of the tower. The view from the top of this hill is quite impressive. You can see down into West Wycombe and Wycombe Park which is a National Trust property (which we have visited in the past but wasn't open today, unfortunately.)  In the other direction you get a good view along the road towards High Wycombe and the hills in the distance towards London.To get to the car park near the church you have to drive up a road which is quite steep but it saves having to walk there, which we have done in the past when we had our dogs with us. The drive towards Wycombe goes through the Chiltern Hills and is really beautiful and made even more so at this time of the year with the trees beginning to put on their leaves and daffodils and other flowers in full bloom.

View of West Wycombe Park from the hill.

From West Wycombe we went to a village called Nettlebed. The very name sounds intriguing. What does the name conjure up to you? To me, a vast area of stinging nettles, the very bane of my life as a child, because wherever we used to go when we were playing, in and around the farm where I grew up, there were always great areas of these plants, and if you so much as went near them, you got stung, on your hands mostly, or your arms, or legs. Not necessarily painful, but you got nasty raised rashes which irritated considerably. Anyway, the reason for visiting this place was to see a bottle kiln, a strange-shaped structure, looking very out of place in a cup-de-sac which had modern houses in it. How on earth this strange structure survived, I have no idea.

Bottle Kiln at Nettlebed

We had bought our SatNav with us, which was just as well, because without it we would never have found this place. From there we went to Turville, a charming village which has been used as a location for three very well known films and television shows. We parked some way out of the village as we couldn't find anywhere else to park. It was near a wood which I think would be covered in bluebells in a few weeks time. We must come back to have a look and take some photographs. There is a windmill on a hill over looking the village, used years ago as the home of Caractacus Potts in the film "Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang" and then the home of Jonathan Creek in the BBC 1 television show which starred Alan Davies. One of my favourite all-time television shows, incidentally. The village was used as a location for the situation comedy which starred Dawn French, "The Vicar of Dibley." I'm not sure they used any of the houses as the vicarage in the show, but what we saw looked very familiar and no doubt the interiors were modelled on one of the cottages we saw, which would have been filmed in a television studio, I think at Pinewood or Elstree, not too far distant from Turville.  It was really funny as we walked into the village, as we saw a lady who said 'hello' to us as we walked along. She was a lady vicar. Somewhat of a coincidence, as "The Vicar of Dibley" is about a lady vicar, as played by Dawn French, that is, if you didn't already know that. We went into the church, a really charming little building. Again, not too sure it was used in the television show. From Turville we travelled a few miles to a village called Stoke Row, to visit a really unique construction, called The Maharajah's Well, apparently funded by an Indian Maharaja, of Benares, Ishee Pershad Naryan Singh. I had never heard of this, but Carol had discovered it whilst doing a Google search, and it seemed a rather strange and intriguing thing to visit and photograph. We had a coffee in the local shop/café and then sat and had our rolls, sitting on a bench near the well.

The Marahraja's Well at Stoke Row

We drove home, the day being quite exquisite, the weather behaving itself and giving  us a fine and sunny day to enjoy or road trip. We drove back towards Milton Keynes and stopped at a branch of Tesco near Bicester and bought drinks, used the toilets and bought a rather nice Easter egg and continued on our way home.

Watching "Downton Abbey"

We are currently watching "Downton Abbey." We are watching the 'box set' of this highly popular and successful I.T.V. series through Sky +. We had watched an early episode when it was first broadcast but gave up because it had so many commericials in it. I realise that I.T.V. is funded by the sale of advertising, but they really have too many breaks within an hour's programme. It actually runs for around 45 minutes so there's a least 15 minutes-worth of commercials. You can record programmes and then fast-forward through the commercials, but there are so many adverts for sofas and car insurance you can take, believe me.

It's an enjoyable show, if a little slow. Nothing much really happens. It is actually little more than a soap. The sinking of the Titanic as well as the First World War comes into the story, along with some other historical points in early Twentieth-Century history, along with such things as the Spanish Flu epidemic which kills off some of the central characters along the way. The 'downstairs' characters are far more interesting than the 'upstairs' characters. They seem to have far more interesting storylines. The Hugh Bonneville character, the Earl of Grantham, is somewhat one-dimensional. He is rather passive and as such a bit boring. He never seems to have much to do. He's dominated by the women around him. He has all daughters (hence the longwinded storyline regarding the succession to the title.) His mother-in-law, his wife as well as his mother, as well as his daughters, all know exactly how to wrap him around their little fingers in order to get what they want. He doesn't seem to have a great deal of control of his family, his household or the estate. He can't be much good at financial matters, hence the storyline about how his investments have gone pear-shaped and the threat to the future of Downton Abbey. How on earth would anyone be advised to invest all their fortune in just one company, and an American one at that? Just doesn't ring true somehow. And a member of the aristocracy? Please. I know it's only fiction, but it's a bit far-fetched. Also, why is it none of his household staff are unable to iron his nightshirts? Whenever we see him in bed, or preparing to go to bed, and he's dressed in a nightshirt, it looks so creased and obviously un-ironed, or even poorly ironed. I realise that in the early 20th Century there weren't the kitchen gadgets we take for granted today in our homes, for example, electric steam irons. But are we to honestly believe that the male head of the household will put up with so poorly ironed clothing? How many staff are there in the kitchen? Why is it that the Head Butler, Carson, makes such a fuss of the slightest thing, even insisting that His Lordship's newspapers are ironed, but not his nightshirt? This is a real slip-up. Having worked as a supporting artiste on various television shows over the years I know that the wardrobe department is generally very particular about the standard of their costume-care, so to have the central character's nightshirt looking so shabby is really poor. Also, the storyline concerning the mis-laying of His Lordship's shirts. Not realistic in the slightest.

We love the Dame Maggie Smith character, the Dowager Countess of Grantham. She seems to get all the best lines. She manages to out-act virtually everyone else on-screen when she has a scene, along with up-staging everyone. A sheer joy. Love her to bits. I remember seeing her on stage with her late husband, Robert Stevens, when they were acting together on stage in Noel Coward's delightful play "Private Lives." It must have been in the 1970's. She was also in the film version of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie." Also, another film I enjoyed called "Hot Millions" with another favourite actor of mine, Peter Ustinov.

What also makes watching "Downton Abbey" so enjoyable is the fact that we know so many of the locations they used to film it. Some scenes were shot at places we've been as members of the National Trust, such as Waddesdon Manor, West Wycombe Park and Basildon Park, which we visited only a a couple of months ago