Monthly Memoir – September

October 1, 2016

September is mainly about birthdays in my family – particularly this year as it’s a special one. Jude was eighteen on the twelfth, and Rain is twenty-one tomorrow. So we took a trip over to Kent to celebrate with each of their grandparents; aunts, uncles, and cousins etc and of course eat birthday cake! Although it seems like we travel there quite often, I still miss them all since we moved, so I like a good reason to see them again. A week later, Jude celebrated with friends by having an afternoon tea party in the garden. They all really enjoyed themselves and the food, games and weather were all a success. I’ll be writing a blog post next week about the whole thing, if you’d like to come back and have a look. There are also some pretty pictures on my Instagram!….

Have you seen Sia’s latest music video, The Greatest? My favourite so far and the tribute to the Orlando shooting was very moving. Maddie Ziegler’s performance is tremendous – she has the ability to keep you watching like no other dancer; whether this sort of choreography is your cup of tea or not. I also liked the little homages to previous videos; making me wonder if this is Maddie’s last one for Sia.

And are you watching Poldark? We recently watched Series one again so it was fresh in our minds before series two began. It was actually much better on a second watching, so if you didn’t get into it the first time round, maybe give it another go. Jud and Prudie, for example I didn’t think were that great when I reviewed Poldark last year, but this time around I thought they were really funny.

Series two, episode one was brilliant – it got straight into the plot and left us wanting more. Episode two of the trial was disappointing. When you’ve watched the 1970’s Poldark series a million times, it’s difficult not to compare the two versions, and I’m afraid the old one did the trial so much better. It grasped the entertainment value that these things were in Georgian times; built up the tension of the outcome better and Jud’s testimony was given more importance. This version was over too quickly; missed the wit and performance of the two barristers and the outcry from Demelza’s father was just a bit stupid. Episodes three and four were better again and it’s nice that BBC have given it a bit more of a budget this time around. As long as we don’t see any more sunrises over the sea, I’ll be happy. (The whole of Cornwall faces west. Tell me where you can stand to watch the sun rise from the sea? Stupid things like that spoiled series one.)

This is the Spanish dvd of the old ’70’s series, which means you need to work out how to change the language to English, but I’ve heard it’s worth it because it’s much less horrendously cut like the British dvds.

So the fashion weeks have been going on and I love having a look at pictures from the catwalk and reading predictions of the trends that will come out of them. It’s also interesting that some designers haven’t shown their collections for next spring and instead are making them available very soon or straight away. In this day in age when the internet makes everything instant, that does seem like a sensible thing to do. Who wants to wait six months to buy what they’ve just seen? And from a business point of view, it means the dupes won’t get in the cheaper shops first. If you’d like to read about my strange relationship with fashion, please take a look at this recent blog post.

Photo: Krisztian Pinter

Highlights of the month
* Jude having a lovely time at her parties with both family and friends.
* Going to Kent and catching up with everyone.
* I’ve filmed my first monthly favourites You Tube video like a proper blogger!
* The kids helping me to clear out the store room together.

Things I’m grateful for this month:

Rhubarb muffins

* Chocolate. Birthday cake wouldn’t be the same without it!
* Mum’s cooking and all the effort she put into having all the Sharland family at her house.
* My indestructible rhubarb; our apple trees, and the brambles surrounding (and encroaching) our garden and giving us plenty of fruit so we have the perfect

excuse to cook pies, crumbles, streusels and muffins.
* Worthy Farm for sending their diggers and trucks up to the field next to us today, so we no longer look at a great big pile of sh*t when we open the back door!
* The pair of deer that have made the field part of their evening routine to jump through near sunset time. I’m yet to achieve a good photo of them though.

You Tube videos I’ve uploaded this month:

A vlog of our trip to the New Forest with the Oshun travelling stall….