Last Sunday Ma and I hopped on a bus and went to Chiswick House.
We spent quite a portion of the day kicking ourselves for not going sooner.. 
The walled kitchen garden which is run by volunteers was having an open day and produce sale and we bought some rhubarb (there wasn’t much else left)..
We are English Heritage members and did the tour of the villa…
Then wondered around the park.
Perfect way to spend a summer Sunday…
Given how interested I am in history and especially the Wars of the Roses, it was inevitable that I would eventually get around to watching The White Queen.
It’s based on a series of books by Phillipa Gregory and I’d heard her on Women’s Hour way back when the first book (The White Queen) came out, historical fiction is tricky, (I love Alison Weir’s fact books but really don’t like her fiction stuff and I love Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell but I don’t expect them to be accurate in every detail. For better or worse the series was part funded by Starz, so I wasn’t expecting it to be a bit rock’n’roll. So, I’ve watched it but I haven’t been too much attention, generally I put it on the iplayer while I’m doing something else.
However, last night I hit my limit. I could forgive how clean everything looked, how stupid Edward VI was in this adaption, how innocent Elizabeth Woodville was supposed to be, the ridiculous hairstyles (Richard’s hair has more product in it than any human head should hold!), the depiction of Elizabeth in sanctuary as if she was camping and the way time is racing by and no-one appears to be ageing at all. All of these things I could deal with. What did for me was Anne Neville having just married Richard, telling her sister, Isabel, they (she and Richard) were going to live at Warwick Castle.
Warwick Castle. Warwick Castle for God’s sake…
Warwick Castle is a fine castle, I’ve visited it. However, Warwick Castle is in, well Warwick. Warwickshire in in the Midlands, the middle of the country. Richard held the North of England for his brother.
The middle of the country is NOT the North. To add further insult to injury, it was Richard’s brother George, the Duke of Clarence (and Isabel’s husband) who took Warwick Castle and the title Earl of Warwick when Anne and Isabel’s father was died, even though technically it should have gone to their mother as they were part of the Beauchamp lands that she brought to her marriage. So basically, we have Anne telling Isabel that she is going to live in the wrong castle, in the wrong area of the country, in a castle that her husband didn’t even own.
It’s wrong, it didn’t happen. There are things you can alter to make things clearer to the audience but why get this one wrong, there’s no reason for it. Things are complicated, history was complicated but this isn’t even that difficult and it’s insulting to the audience to think that it is.
I now have a visions of people, mostly American wondering around Warwick Castls thinking that Richard III lived there, when the actual castle he lived in was Middleham.
This castle in fact (and you can see a statue of Richard III in the bottom of this photo, cause it’s the castle he’s most associated with)
Anyone who’s been around a while knows how much I love that castle (and why) and I am very unhappy and I may have to stop watching it because having seen the error, I can’t unsee it and I’m going to be looking for the others now…
Monday rolls around again…this morning with added thunderstorms. The weather is set to get cooler and wetter after today..we’ll see.
This weekend saw England win the second Ashes test, Chris Froome win the Tour de France and David Cameron talk more nonsense about the Internet so that it’ll look like he’s doing something….it’s the heat. (There’s also a lot being said and written about the Duchess of Cambridge and her labour or lack thereof and whether she’s being induced and I just want it to stop, it’s intrusive and silly. Yes, even a republican like me realises that the birth of a prospective Head of State is news but this hounding of a couple about to have their first child and it is hounding is pretty disgusting, so please stop it. By all means write about the million pound upgrade to Kensingston Palace, because that’s public money but how someone gives birth and whether or not she chooses to breast feed, that’s information that strangers don’t need to know.)
My weekend by contrast was very quiet, on Friday I saw Sarah.
On Saturday, I saw no one and did nothing but it was a lot cooler and I caught up on my sleep.
On Sunday, Ma and I went to Chiswick House, had a wonder around and talked about the next couple of weeks.
There’s a lot going on, Ma retires the week after next, my birthday happens the week after that and we have a lot planed and there’s a lot to do. However, we have a plan now (Lyme here I come and it’s time to re-read Persuasion) and Ma made a list…
I’ve been thinking about Swift’s birthday poem to Stella, this one is my favourite,
Stella this day is thirty-four.
(We shan’t dispute a year or more:
However, Stella, be not troubled,
Although thy size and years are doubled
Since first I saw thee at sixteen,
The brightest virgin on the green;
So little is thy form declined;
Made up so largely in thy mind.
O, would it please the gods to split
Thy beauty, size, and years, and wit!
No age could furnish out a pair
Of nymphs so graceful, wise, and fair;
With half the lustre of your eyes,
With half your wit, your years, and size.
And then, before it grew too late,
How should I beg of gentle fate,
(That either nymph might have her swain,)
To split my worship too in twain.
These poems are so much nicer that some of his others, for instance ‘The Lady’s Dressing Room’
Happy Friday, it’s still very hot and I’m not coping. Links this week..
1) This. A thousand times this…
It’s detailing that the human rights of living people shouldn’t be eroded by perceived rights of those yet to be born.
2) I don’t want to make one of these, but if someone could and deliver it to me for my birthday, that would be great.
3) What to eat in a heatwave..
4) There’s been quite a bit of stuff about housing this week, these letters sum it up quite nicely.
Leila at Bookshelves of Doom has an etsy shop. This could be very dangerous..
This is fantastic though. Who doesn’t want to want a ‘very hungry caterpillar’ stamp around their neck?
This weekend I took exactly two photos.
The lazy Friday night pizza – stuff on sourdough, it was delicious
These lights as we were packing up Grace on Saturday night. Labyrinth and BBQ as it tradition. Steve took more photos of us doing the actual thing not just the pretty lights..
The theatre on Sunday afternoon. It was Othello and the acting was great but I have trouble with the play and as soon as Othello starts being a dick, I just get really annoyed. We may have to add Othello to Chekhov as plays I need to take a chill pill before seeing. However, Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear are two actors that are well worth seeing on stage, whatever they are doing..
Other than that, I sat in the garden with the godchildren, baked bread, washed all the things, worried about my poor sick parent and tried to sleep through the heat.
This week is pretty low key for me, we’ll all set for a week of high temperatures here and I’m having a couple of breathing issues (love the city, don’t love the pollution!), so work, home and early nights are the order of the day.
