Coffee Cake

I would not say that it is the most exciting thing about today, but it is probably the easiest to take a photo of. Very tasty too.

Il y a longtemps que je t'aime

David took me to see a film on Wednesday. That does not mean he paid, but rather I would never have chosen to see it otherwise. He did arrange the transport home, suggesting we walk, rather than catch the bus.

I usually like films that have a car chase in them somewhere, so this was disappointing on that score. The title rather gives away that it is in French, with subtitles. It also has an English title “I’ve loved you so long”

The lead role was played by Kristin Scott Thomas, and it was a shock to realise that the sad tired weary woman being met at the airport in the opening sequence was her character. I still think of her from Four Weddings and English patient days. We soon learn that she has been in prison for fifteen years, and that the woman meeting her is her younger sister, played by Elsa Zyberstein – that is quite a name!

How Juliette settles into life, family, work, and the social scene is very poignantly portrayed, but always the central theme is the relationship between the two sisters. There are some very funny moments, some heart warming, and some excruciatingly awful, but all wonderfully portrayed. The film builds to a closing scene where the younger sister, who used to worship and still loves her big sister finds out what it really was that kept them apart these fifteen years.

Not a feel good film, still less a car chase one, but very moving and inspiring, despite the weakness of the plot at the end.

Sunday Afternoon at Quakers Stang

Quakers Stang is a causeway between relatively normal fields inland, heading towards Leighton Moss, and the grass that gets submerged by the highest of the high tides.

From the car park where bird watchers park to reach the RSPB hides, I walked across and over Healds Brow to reach Silverdale, taking in the rather splendid Woodwell Cliff on the way. Stopping at Wolf House for a cup of coffee on the way, I went round rather than over on the way back, enjoying the coast at Jacks Scout facing to the West, rounding Jenny Brown's point. It gets quite spectacular as the limestone pavement slopes down into the sea. Eventually the path and the road come to an end, and the path home goes round the headland - tides permitting.

After some reassurance from a fellow walker who seemed to know, I stepped out onto the shingle and rocks, and very soon found myself walking on grass, not too close to the edge and avoiding the inlets that cut through quite starkly from time to time. It was a more shallow one of these that lapped around a large stone forming the feature in the photo.

It was turning quite cold and windy at this point. I thought it was just more exposed, but as I got further round and retraced my way across Quakers Stang, I realised that the weather had changed. The wind was strong, and cold, and the rain was hard. I was thankful for the dry, sheltered and peaceful moment I had enjoyed in that little cove where I had sat and eaten my lunch not long before.