Being Mrs C

Tales from the Green Valley

 

If you enjoyed Victorian Farm like I did then make sure you catch Tales From The Green Valley as well. I have to admit that I'd not heard of this series before and it was pure fluke that I turned on the TV tonight and caught the last ten minutes of what was unfortunately the penultimate in the series. 

Very much in the same vein as Victorian Farm, Tales from The Green Valley the team worked on a farm for a year as they would have had to have done in the times of James I (i.e. the 17th Century for those of you whose history isn't up to scratch!) This isn't a time that I know much about, but the small segment I saw in which the women were tackling the washing. Watching them beat the washing in a stream with sticks like cricket bats to get the dirt out and then using an upright pole to wring out the garments before laying them out to dry on the grass was fascinating.

The DVD may well have to go on my Christmas wish list!

Housewife, 49

A day off work sick gave me the opportunity to pamper myself and catch up with a few things off our magic TV box. Quite a few people I know are currently enjoying Nella Last's War and it reminded me that I had the TV adaptation, Housewife 49, which I still hadn't got round to watching. I had thoroughly enjoyed both Nella Last's War and Nella Last's Peace, so I was a tad worried that the film version would not live up to how I had pictured everything in my head.

I shouldn't have worried though as Victoria Wood had done a fantastic job with the script and playing the role of Nella. Admittedly there were some things that weren't quite how I imagined, but nothing that was too far out. Victoria's portrayal of Nella was a tad more outgoing that I had expected, but she also played the more tender moments fantastically well. As much as I love Victoria in her comedy roles, she really can play the straight ones very well too.

If you have enjoyed these books based on Nella's diaries then you might be interested in hearing about what I found on Amazon earlier: Nella Last's Fifties. The projected release date isn't until October 2010, and there are no further details, but I am guessing that this will be based on the diaries she wrote in the 1950s (as the title suggests). Certainly something to look forward to!  

Victorian Farm

I was delighted to notice in the TV listings that BBC2 are repeating the Victorian Farm series starting tonight. I missed some of this when it was originally on, so it was great to start filling in some of the gaps. The first episode is still available on BBC iplayer and I believe that the rest is being shown over various evenings this week, although the listings on the BBC website are a bit confusing as they seem to split things into regions and repeat themselves a lot.

If you have an interest in seeing how people lived and worked the land in Victorian times then this is the programme for you. The first episode covered how they prepared the land and also made the cottage habitable again after being empty for 50 years. It was particularly interesting to see how they opened up the old chimney and installed a traditional stove. It made me realise just how much work went into preparing a simple evening meal back then compared to know. We really do have it easy now!

Dig In Seeds

I was delighted to see this message when I opened the front door this evening.

It seems like an age ago that I ordered by seeds via the BBC Dig In website after hearing about it on Gardeners' World. A shame that it took them so long to arrive, but I'm just glad that they are here. 

There's a useful little booklet accompanying the seeds that tells you exactly what to do with them. Sadly I think that when we get our garden in July it will be a little late to plant anything this year (mainly as we'll have to actually dig the beds first) but fingers crossed that I can be there right at the beginning of the next season. 

Spring has sprung

If you're in the UK and like nature then you should definitely make sure that you watch the new series of Springwatch on BBC 2.

I'm completely addicted at the moment, and am also loving the encyclopaedic knowledge of new presenter Chris Packham. The random nature related facts that he keeps throwing into every conversation reminds me so much of Stephen Fry on QI!

As someone quite new to bird watching I loved the small segment that Simon King did on tonight's programme on identifying different woodland birds by their song. Fantastic!

Bank holiday exercise

I'm sure Bank Holiday Mondays are supposed to be for lazing about. Ours turned out to be quite an active day. We met up with our friends S and A and headed out for a good long walk in the sunshine. Mr C and I often go walking with these particular friends and know that they're up for a bit of a challenge. Hence we decided to repeat a walk from our Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire walks book which took us from central St Albans to Harpenden and back.

Now the book reckons this walk is 10.5 miles and should take about 5 hours. It's not a particularly challenging walk, but a nice one all the same that takes in some lovely stretches by the Ver and along the common in Harpenden itself. We left St Albans at 10am and, despite stopping for a 40 minute leisurely picnic lunch, somehow managed to be enjoying a nice cold beverage in a St Albans pub before 2pm. I'm not too sure how, but my legs certainly now ache, and my camera has a lack of photos suggesting that I was possibly too busy to take any! I'm sure it took us much longer last time.

It was definitely time to relax though once we got home, and I was able to curl up with two books that I'm enjoying right now. After reading quite a few books set in stately homes, and following my numerous National Trust visits, I was delighted to find a book in the local charity shop about the history of the Trust and some of it's holdings. The National Trust: The First Hundred Years apparently accompanied a BBC television series that was shown around 1995, to mark the Trust's one hundredth anniversary. It's fascinating to dip into.

The second book I'm enjoying continues the theme of stately homes and what it must have been like to live and work in them. The Edwardian Country House was again a book to accompany a television series, but this time a reality style show that placed a family inside a country house and gave them the identities of turn of the century aristocrats. Below stairs staff were also "employed" and the series looked at the challenges facing both sets of occupants. Being a reality show there was some coverage of the relationships that were between the people living there, but the majority of the show focussed on what life would have been like in Edwardian times. The series showed back in 2002 and I thoroughly enjoyed it at the time. I bought the accompanying book at a discount at the time, but over the last few years had quite simply forgotten about it. To pick it up again and remind myself is great and I'm really enjoying doing so. The book seems to be available very cheaply via amazon at the moment, so if you have an interest in this sort of thing I'd certainly advise getting hold of a copy.

Kirstie's bathroom

After last week's episode of Kirstie's Handmade Home I tuned in again this week to see if the programme was going to live up to my expectations this time. I'm pleased to say that I loved some parts, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want Kirstie to be in charge of designing my bathroom!

The focus of this episode was bathrooms and it seems that Kirstie wanted to make her three (yes, three!) bathrooms as opulent as possible. She went along to visit Anouska Hempel and was given the rare opportunity to take cameras into her bathrooms. The main one was a chaos of blue and white. There were some beautiful items, but it looked so over the top. One or two things, at most a handful would have been fine, but there seemed to be so much clutter!

Kirstie's activities this week included making strained glass, hand printing wallpaper and making candles. I've not seen stained glass being made before, so it was really interesting to see how easy it seemed. I'd always imagined it to be so much more difficult. You could apparently buy the kit for "only £200", but to me that seems quite a bit of a first hit financially.

I've always wanted to have a go at candle making and after watching Kirstie tonight I have asked Mr C to think about a basic candle making kit as a possible birthday present if he's stuck for what to buy me later in the year. Kirstie does seem to be a bit obsessed with candles though. Don't get me wrong, I do like candles, but the simplicity of a plain (cheap) candle is as nice to me as one of the expensive scented one that Kirstie seems to lust after.

Now, wallpaper... I like having some big wallpaper patterns in a room, possibly as a feature wall. I'm not so keen though on a room that's completely plastered in this sort of paper though - especially when it's a downstairs loo, the smallest room in the house! It was interesting seeing the screen-printing process and I might be inclined to try it myself for something smaller - possibly some writing paper, or a wall hanging - but certainly not something as large as wallpaper.

Overall, I felt it was an improvement on last week's programme - especially as Channel 4 didn't introduce the programme as a solution to the credit crunch! Definitely worth sticking with the series though.

Kirstie's Handmade Home

I'd been sort of looking forward to the start of Kirstie's Handmade Home on Channel 4, but after reading a few pre-reviews which had a bit of a go at Kirstie Allsopp I have to admit that I wasn't really sure what to expect.

Some of the trailers described it as Kirstie showing us how to survive the credit crunch by showing how it was possible to do up a house by using old fashioned crafts and buying second-hand. Now, bearing in mind that Kirstie and her partner have bought a second home in Devon which required complete renovation, no doubt at great expense, I couldn't help buy question just how big a budget they really had.

The crafts that were covered in the first programme included handmade pottery, glass blowing and sewing cushion covers. Now, unless someone happens to have pottery wheel and kiln, or a glass furnace in the spare bedroom, the only one of the three that most people at home would be able to tackle themselves would be the cushion sewing. Yes, it was interesting to see the others demonstrated and see what local people can produce, but certainly not a credit crunch way of producing household items. Kirstie's trip to a street market to buy pictures and kitchen chairs was interesting enough, but at no point did she really give proper hints as to how to spot a bargain. 

One place that Kirstie did go for inspiration for her kitchen was Lanhrdrock - a National Trust property that Mr C and I visited on our recent trip to Cornwall. I keep meaning to blog about our visit, but one of the things that really blew us away was the Victorian kitchen complex in the main house. Sadly Kirstie only showed us the main kitchen tonight, but one thing that impressed me when we visited was all the additional kitchen rooms that they had - each with its own very specific purpose. I did have to laugh though when she went along to visit Cath Kidston for inspiration as to how to be individual in design. As much as I like Cath Kidston things the idea of a kitchen filled with only them fills me with a kitch overload fear and the way that the brand has taken off certainly makes me think that it's no longer individual in design.

I'm intrigued to see where the rest of the series goes. I'm hopeful that there will be some good stuff in there (and I'm looking forward to the knitting in particular) - just as long as they stop pretending that it's a series that's going to help homeowners through the credit crunch!

It's not easy being green...

... but they seem to be suggesting that it is expensive and rather middle class!

This evening I've caught up on episodes of the BBC programme It's not easy being green featuring Dick Strawbridge. Now, I have to admit that the first series of this programme really made me aware of all things green and made me start thinking properly about my impact on the planet on which we live.

When I heard that there was a third series I was quite excited. Unfortunately though I'm now left feeling rather disappointed. The show has taken on a bit of a "magazine format" - which in plain English means that it now seems to have multiple presenters and dart between things rather than having a programme focussing on one thing, or there being any kind of real story line. This format is a bit distracting as I would much prefer to see a project from start to finish on one go.

This isn't my biggest frustration though. That is saved for the fact that this series seems to present the opinion that you can only be green if you've got money to spend. Lauren Laverne has presented segments on green swimming pools, eco-friendly hotels and high end eco-fashion - not exactly the sorts of projects that most people at home can try. Even the couple who are doing up a terraced house into an eco-house seem to have vast amounts of money to spend on green enhancements. Most things that they do are purchased solutions that will pay back over at least 12 years. In these credit-crunch times I can't imagine that there are many people watching this thinking that they have enough money spare to make a green investment that will only pay back in 12 years.

If this programme is really going to encourage people at home to make changes that will make a difference then it needs to be much more readily accessible in the things that it is showing. The idea of someone spending £250 on a skirt make from off-cuts from fashion designers is highly unlikely at the moment, yet had they instead given hints on how to turn something you buy in a charity shop into a one-off original then it may have sparked the audience's imagination in a different way.

Sorry, but I just feel that this series is missing the point a little bit, especially when you look at what else is impacting people financially at the moment.

Jane Austen's sock

 

After a morning and early afternoon viewing houses and shopping for a few bits and pieces in town it was lovely to be able to curl up later this afternoon and have some me time.

Back in early December I recorded the tv adaptation of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park on our magic box and this afternoon I curled up with my knitting to watch Billie Piper's interpretation of Fannie Price. Now I have to admit to having not yet read this particular book so my views are very much of it as a stand alone piece of TV drama, rather than a version of the original story.

I quite liked it, and found it the ideal accompaniment to my latest sock knitting efforts. Reading a few reviews online it seems that not everyone agrees with me - but then again if we all though the same about everything then life would be quite dull. One thing that I picked up in a few comments was the distraction of Billie Piper's hair. I'm pretty sure that in those days women would have and their hair tied up and neat, yet Billie's was much more like a loose mane most of the time. Quite strange. 

On the knitting front I've made a start on one of my new year's resolutions - to knit and sew with the many many things and kits that I have at home before buying or starting anything new. I have written before about my first sock knitting efforts and now I'm trying to complete the second one in the pair. Things are going much better this time and I certainly think I've got the hand of knitting in the round. I'm not so keen on the yarn that I'm using here as the colours are just a bit too bright, but if I can perfect my technique then maybe I'll treat myself later in the year to some yarn that I do like so that I can make a proper pair and possibly relegate these to bed socks!