A Day in the Life... A Spring Outing

So how's life treating everyone?  Good, I hope. As for me it's pretty much the usual walking, gardening and the occasional outing...

8.00 am

 

And it's an early start to the day as we're off out for the day.  No time for a morning cuppa so we're taking a thermos filled with hot tea and our mugs with us. 

9.00 am

 

A super quick photo op on the side of the road.  It may be spring but some of the trees are still showing there autumn colours. 

10.00 am or a little after

 

And we're in South Dunedin.  Enjoying the view before we take the car in for it's free service, tyre rotation and balance.

11.30 ish

 

Out of the 'city' and visiting Tunnel Beach.  The views are lovely but it's a pretty steep hike down to the bottom.

About half an hour later...

Finally at the bottom and the beach is actually pretty small.  Oh well a quick look and then it's the hike back up.  I'm definitely feeling like I'm going to need a cuppa after this.

This is the tunnel at the bottom that you have to go through and yes it is very steep and very slippery and narrow.

1.00 pm

 

And a cup of tea with a view as we have a stop in the middle of nowhere on our way back home.

2.00 pm

 

Photo op time as we do another stop just outside of Milton.  A pretty field filled with daffodils.

Up close and personal

And an even more up close shot.  This time of bunny. The field was filled with them but sadly they all hopped away the moment I tried to take a photo of them.  Still I managed to get this one as it paused in it's bunny getaway.

4.30 pm.

Home and look at all the loot I got from the Op Shops in Dunedin and Milton.  Super happy with my purchases and I only spent $21.  Now that's my idea of a bargain.

A few minutes later...

A quick check on all the things I'm currently growing in our conservatory and as you can see the strawberry plants seem to be doing well.  Hopefully this year we'll get lots of strawberries.

And corn too.

5.30 pm

A cup of fruity tea in my pretty new-to-me cup and saucer which I got for $5 from a local op shop.  While I'm relaxing Other Half is making us a quick tea of scrambled eggs on rye toast.  Super yum

6.30 pm... ish

And another gorgeous sunset to end the day on.  Weirdly this was more super bright pink in the sky.  Why my camera turned it to orange I have no idea.  Still really pretty though.

The Viewing Files: All The Corsets...

Finally a movie post.  And one featuring a ton of corsets and lots of swoon worthy men.

 

Amazing Grace

Starring: A Welshman and an Englishman

Original release: 2006

Synopsis:  Free the slaves

Good men trying to do good things.  Though I was mildly distracted by Rufus Sewell looking just a little bit less swoony than usual.

 

Yes I am that shallow.

 

Movie is still quite good though.

Dangerous Liasons

Starring: Glenn Close and a bunch of other people we all know

Original release: 1988

Synopsis:  A man and a woman plot and scheme.

I should love this movie but I don't.   

 

Gorgeous costumes and sets and some great acting aside Valmont comes across as such a truly vile and unfeeling man that it makes it hard to believe that any woman would fall for him or that he could fall for any woman which kind of takes away something from the whole thing.

 

A so-so movie that should have been great.

Doctor Zhivago

Starring: Julie Christie and Omar Sharif

Original release: 1965

Synopsis:  Love in a time of trouble

I'm pretty sure actual The Russian Revolution was shorter than this movie which seems to just go on and on and on...

Not helped at all by having characters that you really couldn't care less about.

The Scarlet Letter

Starring: Demi Moore and Gary Oldman

Original release: 1995

Synopsis:  Sin is never good

Long lingering shots and bathing scenes do not equal romance. Gary O tries his best but Demi is seriously miscast.

Madame Bovary

Starring: The actress whose typecast for all these Victorian melodramas

Original release: 2014

Synopsis:  You always want what you can't have

Sigh... all those beautiful clothes and she was still unhappy.  As am I from watching this.

My Cousin Rachel

Starring: Rachel Weisz

Original release: 2017

Synopsis:  Families... can't live with them, can't poison them and take all their money

I'm off to watch Austen  and eat my feelings away with all the chocolate I can find.  Bloody Victorian writers and their depressing novels.

The Invisible Woman

Starring: Ralph Fiennes and Felicity Jones

Original release: 2013

Synopsis:  Charles Dicken's secret life

A little slow but surprisingly still quite good.  Then again after watching a series of bad costume dramas, anything remotely good was going to be a step up.

Good cast all round with brilliant costumes and staging which gives it the perfect Victorian feel of dimly lit rooms, hidden glances and whispered conversations.

A bit like a Dickens novel in itself.

The Age of Innocence

Starring: Daniel Day Lewis and Michelle Pfeffier

Original release: 1993

Synopsis: Love sucks

 

So so boring.  I'm pretty sure a nap would have been more entertaining and that's coming from someone who generally likes costume dramas.

Anna Karenina

Starring: Keira Knightly

Original release: 2012

Synopsis: Love sucks even more

Anna Karenina really is as boring and depressing as I remember.  Give me a rom-com any day.  

Keira at least is lovely as always.

Effie Gray

Starring: One of the Fanning sisters

Original release: 2014

Synopsis: Never marry a man old enough to be your father

How to make a fascinating and intriguing true story bland and boring.

Far From The Madding Crowd

Starring: Carey Mulligan

Original release: 2015

Synopsis: Being free is never easy

All the scenes of her doing farm business or with Gabriel are totally worth it.  Though why she went with Captain Troy I have no idea as Gabriel was far more swoon worthy.

Young Victoria

Starring: Emily Blunt

Original release: 2009

Synopsis: Oh to be queen

Even knowing the outcome I kept hoping for Victoria to tell everyone to go to hell including Albert and do her own thing.

Still Emily Blunt did look lovely.  And if Melbourne really had looked like either Paul Bettany or Rufus Sewell  she probably would have run away with him.  At least she would have if she had any sense.

September's Plans

Spring is here.  Or at least that's what the daffy's are telling me by looking all pretty in my vase of flowers.  Of course what that means for me is gardening.  Lots and lots of gardening.

Oh well at least the sun is out, the weather is warming up and the flowers are slowly blooming.

Gardening

After the what seems like the longest winter it's suddenly time for me to put away my cardy's and socks and get stuck into the garden.  As usual at this time of year it's pretty much just covered in weeds with the odd daffodil trying to pop it's way through so this month it's weeding, weeding and weeding.

Reading

With all that weeding the reading is probably going to be going on a go slow.  Thank God my To Be Read pile is still nice and small and manageable.  Cross fingers it will stay that way... cue hysterical laughing because we all know that's so not going to happen.

Watching

Like the reading this will probably slow down too.  Still I'm going to do my best to keep watching and reviewing at least a handful of movies each week.

Do I really need sleep...

Exercise

This has been going super well what with my almost daily walking so I'm really hoping to keep this up through the coming busy months.

Writing

Can we just head desk now and cry over the fact that this may never happen.  Still it's on the list so that at least will haunt me to at least try to make some kind of effort or not.