Back garden – day 2 post winter clear up

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Jo

Busy day which has had to end a little early as I need to jump in the shower and then head out to meet friends for a coffee before going to a gig.

The Pyrantha is mostly pruned (though I still need to tackle the back bit and overhang into next door neighbours garden – I can reach most of that from the middle of the fire-escape using the long loppers).  So now there’s more visibility into the garden from the top of the fire-escape. The plus side is I can now get into the garden without having to duck low or risk scalping myself! I’ve got a cute little olive tree in a pot by the back door and also some left over cyclamen and primroses which  I hope to plant tomorrow. Halfway down is also a giant Osteospermum which overwintered.

Day 2 - FE

Two trips to the recycling plant meant I removed 4 bags of ivy prunings, 2 full of Pyracantha trimmings, 1 of misc dead vegetation and one large Ikea bag full of old soil from pots I emptied. The end results is this:

I know if doesn’t look a lot different but there’s a lot more light on the deck and at the base of the fire-escape thanks to the hard pruning.  Also the shady beds are now less shady thanks to cutting back the top of the ivy quite a lot.

The tiny deck has been scrubbed down – I’ll see how it dries overnight and decide whether I need to break out the Ronseal products to remove all traces of algae!

Deck 01

So tasks for the next three days:

  • paint the fence and the boards of the raised beds
  • scrub, revive if necessary and oil the deck
  • treat the garden furniture with wood reviver and then oil with teak oil
  • top dress all the pots which still have plants in (2 pots of agapanthus, 4-5 of lillies, 1 each of bay and plum trees, 2 buddleias, 1 blackcurrant sage and one large pot of daffodils and mint)
  • sort out the two terracotta strawberry pots and move the strawberries in the green hanging planters into the terracotta ones
  • paint then cut to size the gravel boards to fix the fox holes
  • prune the last bit of the Pyracantha
  • sort out the four 6x3ft beds – 3 will be for veggies, 1 for flowers – weed, dig and add manure
  • scrub the path
  • sort out the small square bed with the jasmines
  • sort out the tiny long thin dry bed underneath the Pyracantha

Day 2 -all th pots

If the weather is as good as predicted tomorrow morning I’ll try and get a couple of hours in the garden before heading to town for the RHS Spring Plant Extravaganza.I have a PT session early afternoon and then it’s home to carry on until I lose the light.

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Back garden – day 1 of the post winter clear up!

Posted on March 30, 2016 by Jo

Now the BFI Flare festival is over I can get back to concentrating on the important things – my garden and allotment!

My poor back garden has suffered much over winter – mostly because I’ve not had the time to pay due care and attention to it. Luckily I’m off work until Monday 4 April so I have a few days to play catch up and remedy the effects of neglect, Storm Katie and the local fox population.

It’s a small urban garden – proper plan to come soon – with 4 rather overgrown plants. I live in a first floor flat so the only access to the plot is through my bathroom and down the fire escape!

This is the view from the top of the fire escape – as you can see (or rather not!) much is hidden by the giant Pyracantha which I planted about 20 years ago. The terracotta pots tied to the outside of the fire escape are fully of herbs (or will be) and the pots on the steps usually have seasonal plants.

01 Fire escape down

The poor old Pyracantha is not looking to good at the moment – I suspect it may have a case of pyracantha scab so I’ll be buying some Westland Plant Rescue Fungus Control which is one of the few things recommended for treatment.

Once you get into the garden you can appreciate how small it is.  Two views here – one from the bottom off the fire-escape and one from the bottom of the garden looking back to the fire-escape/flat.

From the bottom of the fire-escape
From the tiny deck looking back

There are two 6ft x 3ft beds on each side of the path. I grow veg in the beds on the left hand side of the garden (left hand side of the pic above left) as this side of the garden gets a lot of sun.  The two beds on the right hand side are more shady  – the one closest to the deck usually has chard, sorrel, oriental greens etc and the other one has flowers.

A couple of landscape views give a better idea of size.

The photo below was taken sitting on the fire escape (which is why it looks a bit shady – thanks to the Pyracantha).  On the left hand side at the bottom of the garden are a winter and summer jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum and Jasminum officinale) planted next to each other – both again about 15-20 years old.  On the right hand side is the massive ivy (a mere stripling of roughly 10 years) which is covering the fence and providing a happy home to lots of wildlife.  My tiny deck has just about enough room for two chairs, a small table plus some pots. The plants on the deck are a small Victoria plum, a bay tree, agapanthus, lillies and a couple of smaller pots of forget-me-nots and other seasonal plants).

03 - Into the gatden

And this is taken from the tiny deck looking back up the garden  – lots of pots on the path too.  I think I may need to rationalise these down…or not! There’s more agapanthus, a couple of patio buddleia’s, a large pot of mint, more lillies, spring bulbs, strawberries and to be quite frank I need to have a dig around to find out what else is there.

05 - Looking back

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon doing some much needed remedial pruning of the two jasmines, giving the ivy a jolly good haircut and doing a pretty brutal cut back of the Pyracantha which was starting to cast too much shadow and I must finish that tomorrow.

The rest of the tasks for the next few days are:

  • approx 8 bags of prunings to go to the recycling plant
  • buy lots of bags of compost (for pot refresh) and manure (for beds)
  • empty/refresh pots – once I’ve investigated my seed stash!
  • add new manure to beds and plan what to plant
  • find the two green houses packed away in the attic – check for damage and then put over veg beds to warm up soil and protect any tomato seedlings I may plant
  • buy paint to put a new coat on the fence (maybe Friday afternoon?)
  • scrub the deck and then oil it
  • scrub down and treat the garden furniture
  • sowing seeds for garden and allotment
  • cut the new gravel boards and fix to the damaged fence panels under the ivy and under the jasmine (pesky urban foxes have been using my garden as a run – see below)
  • venture into the attic to find the garden decorations I bought over the last few years from Chelsea and Hampton Court and finally put them up!
     

    On that note I’m away to bed as I need to be up with the larks tomorrow!

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BFI Flare festival – final film

Posted on March 26, 2016 by Jo

Final film of Flare for me was at 11:40am on Saturday morning – The Girl King.

This is a kind of AU period piece.  Ostensibly it looks like a traditional costume drama but it’s much more of an actor-centric psychologial film focusing on Queen Kristina of Sweden.

Queen from the age of six – with an apparently weirdly eccentric, grieving and possibly insane mother who kept Kristina’s father’s embalmed body in a coffin for nearly 2 years – the film follows Kristina from around age 10 to 28.

King Gustav – before his death – had ordered Kristina be given the education normally only afforded to boys in the 1600s.

So Kristina gew up with love for paintings, books, manuscripts, and sculptures. With her interest in religion, philosophy, mathematics and alchemy, she attracted many scientists to Stockholm, wanting the city to become the “Athens of the North” and to modernize Sweden.

She rejected the sexual role of a woman, often dressed in male attire, caused a scandal when she decided not to marry and – the film posits – may well have been in love with one of her ladies in waiting.

Watching the Kristina of the film run rings round her advisers, generals, assorted politicians and suitors was an absolute joy. And unlike most period pieces this ends remarkably well.

At the age of 28 she abdicated, passing the throne to her cousin and effectively ran away to Rome to convert to catholicism and become a leader of the theatrical and musical life and sheltering many artists, composers, and musicians. She died aged 62 and is one of only 5 women buried in the Vatican grotto.

Pretty rad for a chick in the 1600s!

Brilliantly shot, lush costumes, a towering performance from Malin Buska as Kristina I can recommend it as an entertaining way to pass two hours.

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BFI Flare festival – film 11

Posted on March 25, 2016 by Jo

The final set of shorts for me tag line for the collection was “these films prove we all have a little something to learn, no matter where we might be.”

Mother Knows Best delightful little Swedish short.  After introducing his mother to his new boyfriend an angsty teenager faces an awkward car journey home with mum giving lots of unwanted advice!

The Future Perfect is an American time travel movie that take place in the space between then and now. Hardesty hired to do a job that makes him question everything including his long time partner Greenwood. We discover that a major crisis in the future has it’s origins in a minor moment in the past – a train platform in 1968. The target – a 9 year old boy, is patient zero of a horrible virus.  Hardesty defends the boy’s life until Greenwood reveals who Hardesty will eventually become. A sparse, minimalist sci-fi story about the endless nature of grief.

Sauna the Dead as per the programme – crusing turns to carnage when a band of towel clad zombie take over the sauna! On the surface a silly fairy tale but also filled with metaphors for those who want more.

The Guy from Work French Canadian – middle-aged Raynald is a family man who has been working in the same tire plant for over 30 years. However, this week, Raynald will make the biggest move of his life.

The Orchid utterly delightful 3 minute Spanish short from a first time director.

No Strings an emotionally reclusive Welsh man must spend a night with an out-going Irish man after an awkward sexual encounter leaves one being stranded.  Despite the fact that this opens with a hook-up its much more about stripping away pretenses and masks, being emotional vulnerable and offering empathy to others.

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BFI Flare festival – films 9 & 10

Posted on March 23, 2016 by Jo

Yet another day of two films, but after this there are only two more films to go.

First up this evening was an Australian film Holding The Man which was based Timothy Conigrave’s cult-classic and hilarious memoir. Apparently this was also the inspiration for an award winning stage play too which predated the film.

Tim (Ryan Coor) and John (Craig Stott) fell in love while teenagers at their all-boys high school. John was captain of the football team, Tim an aspiring actor playing a minor part in Romeo and Juliet. Their romance endured for 15 years to laugh in the face of everything life threw at it – the separations, the discrimination, the temptations, the jealousies and the losses – until the only problem that love can’t solve, tried to destroy them.

Covering the years 1979 to 1994 it’s no surprise that yes at the end this is another movie about AIDS and its devastating effect on the gay community. I’ve not read the memoire so can’t say whether it’s a good adaptation but it is a good film.  The only very minor misstep perhaps was casting the two leads and expecting them to be able to play a character from age 17 to 34, because it’s very obvious in the early school shots of 17 year olds that these two guy’s aren’t anywhere near 17.

While I do believe these stories do still need to be told – because people forget surprising quickly and as I’ve recently seen on Tumblr some folks in their teens and 20s  in the LGBT community seem a little unaware of the devastation AIDS caused – I think from a personal pov I’m pretty much done with the everybody dies storylines.

As someone who is only an ally I want to see more LGBT stories where people overcome challenges, live happily, raise kids and have families spanning generations.

Glitter Slush Neon Cake was another series of shorts running under the tag line of “Unicorns to the fore in these magical, hyperreal depictions of queer youth.” There were 3 films, 2 were pretty good and one terrible.

The Ballad of Ella Plummhoff was a sweet, gentle and charming story about the slow awakening of 14 year old Ella.  Ella has done badly at school so must spend the rest of the summer having remedial classes with a tiny, smart-ass lesbian (Ulrika) several years her junior and who dresses like a Victorian maid.  Ella also has a crush on her male, middle aged, fake French ballet teacher. Inga Dreger (Ella) and Lotta Julie Teufel (Ulrika) give amazing performances and may well be names to watch for in the future.

Floozy Suzy aka Vagabunda de meia tigela is an adventure in magic realism from Brazil.  Suzy is the school Queen Bee and reigns with her boyfriend Romulo.  But out and proud Jonas John constantly flirts with Romulo. What Suzy doesn’t know and Jonas John discovers is a legendary book of magic hidden in the school library.  Cue body swaps and shenanigans!

The final film of the night was Lucid Noon, Sunset Blush and according the the label on the tin this was about “17-year-old Micha moving moved into The Palace – a basement full of queer femme sex workers, lovers and misfits. They are beautiful, carefree and as young as the night.”  And in a word it was a complete miss.  No discernable narrative and with up to 8 characters having simultanous extremely loud conversations meant any dialogue was pretty much incomprehensible.  In the film notes the director says “Nobody knew what they were doing. Actors got their scripts the night before, diff people who knew nothing about sound held the boom and every line was fed.”  And unfortunately it shows.  Hopefully future films will see them have more time, more funds and more space to make a bigger impact.

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