Central Station

Fernanda Montenegro

Central Station is a film I have always adored

I’ve loved it for twenty years 

Brazilian Dora is a retired  teacher who writes letters for the illiterate at the central Station in Rio 

By chance she meets up with a young orphan Josué and the meeting allows her to find some redemption from a life of cynicism as she finds herself responsible for his future happiness 

Me and Ruth watched it last night and cried buckets at it 

It’s message about redemption and reinvention is universal and recently so pertinent 

It’s a pivotal film in my cinematic history 

I adore it

from Going Gently https://ift.tt/2ZaxvEY

Hope

View to Mam Tor (The Shivering Mountain)

We live on a hillside and our road faces north. When there is snow and icy weather - as we have had this week - the road surface can be treacherous. This is the reason why Clint has been in refusal mode.

"If you think I am going out in that you have another thing coming!" the stubborn vehicle retorted.

However, this morning he relented. We could see dry tarmacadam and a couple of vehicles passed by as I was pleading with him to take me to The Hope Valley. I was desperate for a long country walk and I reminded Clint that I  recently bought him a new "Pirelli" front tyre.

"Oh go on then!" he said.

                                See how the powdery snow is blowing on the slopes of Lose Hill

We were in the village of Hope twenty minutes later,  Clint parked himself in a sunny spot on Edale Road - then with boots on I set off across snowy fields towards Lose Hill. 

View to Hope Cement Works

It was a lovely day to be rambling in the Hope Valley though in places the snow had drifted  and I found myself knee deep in the white stuff. From Lose Hill Farm, I headed down to Castleton  before following the nascent River Derwent back to Hope.

Once there was a little antique shop near the village church -  called "Living in Hope". Sadly, that business folded some time ago. I think Hope is a great name for a village and indeed  for the  valley it sits in . Near Lose Hill Farm I took this picture of a signpost. During a deadly pandemic, we all need to find  the path to Hope...

from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/3tQsW0n

A Lie-in

I’m doing something I have not done since I was a teenager 

Something indulgent, something certainly selfish, something just a bit wicked.

As a grown man it has taken me 38 years to revisit it again

It’s a lockdown phenomenon

It’s naughty 

And as one antipodean artist used to say

Can you tell what it is yet? 

I’m talking about the lie in.

Well if I was being totally honest it is a return to bed after a brief early morning dog walk

But you will understand the gist.  

My lie-ins are somewhat loud affairs

They are filled with bulldog snores and the unexpected purring from a cat well know for his silence. 

Occasionally Mary from the window seat will raise a sleepy eye to a passing dog walker and will let out a muffled Woof ! which will in turn illicit a brief hiatus in the purring and the snoring but it is not long before airways are compromised and feline confidence returns and the background noises of the cottage return to normal .

It’s 9.45 am 

Hummmmm.........another half hour is in order.

from Going Gently https://ift.tt/2Z3gNr3