The Sunday cinema ladies - both of us - reconvened for the first time this year and just to keep us on our toes, we chose a Friday evening outing instead. I'm never sure if it's worth posting about foreign films when they're on for one night only in London but there was a good turn-out for this Latvian film and maybe it'll show up again at a festival somewhere.  We've seen several films recently with outstanding performances by child actors (Soleil Battant, The Florida Project) and this was another, about a wayward 12-year-old whose mischief is tipping into delinquency; there's a trailer here (in Latvian, sorry).

I know almost nothing about the life of Jenny Joseph who died a few days ago. I'd have thought that she'd have merited an obituary in the Times or the Guardian, but I can't find one as yet. All that I've discovered is that she wrote her famous poem when she was 29 and that she hated purple - but I do hope that she learned how to spit. What I'd love to learn as an outrageous old lady is how to wolfwhistle very loudly with my fingers in my mouth ... you could have some fun doing that.

I'm in two minds about this. I love the cover; it's irresistible. (Despite the aberrant apostrophe on the back. Praise for Howard's End is on the Landing! Sloppy.)
But 250-odd pages in the company of Susan Hill? She feels like a grumpy neighbour who makes you feel, 'Oh, god! How long am I going to be stuck?' as she's approaching. (I admit it. I can do grumpy old woman with the best. See that apostrophe grouch above? Typical.)
Anyway, Susan Hill ... She's great chatting away about books and I've made a note to myself that I really must get around to reading CP Snow's The Masters, which has lingered in a pile on Mary's Landing for far too many years, gathering dust.
But then she drones on and repeats herself. On and on, word for word, about the silly questions students put to her about The Woman in Black. And the weather. She doesn't like it when it's hot; she doesn't like the cold. Her opinions seem set in stone. She doesn't like Jane Austen and she's never read Jane Eyre. (We all have gaps in our reading but that's an odd one, and she sounds rather proud of it!) She would love to visit the Northern Lights, 'but I don't suppose I ever shall?' Well, why not? I wanted to shout ... all those royalties rolling in from The Woman in Black. Get out there. Live a life. Stop burying yourself in all those books. Her interest in Antarctica is extinguished once she realises that people go there on holiday and she takes 27 books about the white continent to the charity shop.
Normally I feel that reading is a Good Thing. But Susan Hill depresses me.
But then she's very good on Aelred of Rievaulx and she puts her finger on why I don't much like Barbara Pym and and she makes me want to re-read Olivia Manning's The Balkan Trilogy. Like I said, I'm in two minds. Perhaps Susan Hill is better dipped into and taken in small doses rather than read straight through. But Susan Hill is Due Back at the Library.

Feeding the Fowls

We braved a truly horrible day for a bus jaunt to the Watts Gallery to see the Helen Allingham exhibition. When we've visited in spring, the woods have been full of celandines. anemones and primroses; yesterday it was torrential rain and muddy puddles. Straight into the cafe to warm up with tea and Welsh rarebit, then a whizz around the exhibition with two boys who, predictably, turned out to be vocal critics of the Hollyhocks and Cottages School of English Art. 'If I had money, I wouldn't buy that,' said one. Well, neither would I, though I'd be happy if one came to me in a will from a longlost relative. And on a grim, grey day, I enjoyed the riotous herbaceous borders, whilst thinking that those picturesque cottages were an insanitary health hazard for the rural poor. Expect they were delighted to be moved into council semis a generation later.

The Little Path, Kitchen Garden, Sharston Manor, Cheshire

I think I was more engrossed by Helen Allingham's illustrations in Victorian weekly magazines, especially those for the Cornhill Magazine serial of Far From the Madding Crowd. (Thomas Hardy said she was his all-time favourite illustrator.)





I also enjoyed her little portrait of Tennyson, especially after revisiting the whopping great plaster maquette by Watts in the sculpture gallery. Not a must-see exhibition but a pleasant start to the New Year. And it got me out of the house because two weeks of Christmas is too much!

Great cinematic start to the New Year with a brilliant performance by Frances McDormand in Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; there's a trailer here. Nearly, but maybe not quite as good as his rib-clutchingly funny In Bruges. Does anyone remember The Leenane Trilogy? I saw the three plays back to back one Saturday and it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen in a theatre.

I'm guessing you need to be American born and raised (or perhaps a Pillsbury shareholder) to gaze upon this Hot Fudge-Marshmallow Monkey Bread without heaving but it made the finals in the 2010 Pillsbury Bake Off, the $1 million contest that makes GBBO look like a cranky health food promotion.
By chance this afternoon I came across this funny talk by Laura Shapiro at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, an event I would dearly love to attend. I particularly liked the sound of turkey eleganté (note the sophisticated accent!) made from frozen turkey spread with Spam and anchovy paste and baked in a pie. Pizza Wellington made with meatloaf - perhaps not officially recognised in Naples - was a homage to beef Wellington. Magic marshmallow crescent puffs from 1969 were a forerunner of molecular gastronomy and got a religious twist when they were adopted at Easter as Resurrection Rolls. Sadly, I am not immune to this kind of thing as Waitrose chocolate and ginger mince pies, a 10p bargain that a stronger woman would resist, are warming through in the oven as I write. But when they're finished, that's it - the season of indulgence is officially over!

My last exhibition of 2017 was actually some weeks ago; good intentions since then got overtaken by Christmas and horrid weather and a nasty cold. But although EH Shepard's Winnie-the-Pooh illustrations are delightful, the exhibition at the V&A is a damp squib. I was expecting something amazing as it's their first-ever family exhibition and it was designed by the chap who did the poppies at the Tower of London ... but honestly, Christopher Robin's nursery - I've seen better room sets in IKEA. The big, gaping hole in the exhibition, of course, is that the original toys are in New York and haven't been loaned.

One of the highlights of 2017 was the Vermeer exhibition in Dublin but for sheer enjoyment, I'd love to revisit the British Realists in Edinburgh. I was pleased I made the trip to Eastbourne to see Ravilious & Co , even though I didn't get around to writing about it. In London, I think I enjoyed some of the smaller exhibitions best, like Opus Anglicanum at the V&A and these lovely fabrics at the Fashion Museum. Of course, one reason why I look back over the year is to remind myself about lovely things I've forgotten ... no, not forgotten, but things do sink into the sludge of one's middle-aged brain! And as I did something quite thrilling on January 7th, it was good to revisit my literary experience of the year.

Out of all the 30-odd films I've seen this year, far and away the best was a golden oldie. Although I did enjoy The Florida Project, too.

Happy New Year to everybody who visits here. It's always a pleasure to hear from you and I'm touched that you stop by to read.