Sleeping Beauty

I am sitting here wanting to write and my mind is blank- like the thick grey, cottonwool-like clouds outside my window.

I read Fiona Malkin's blog regularly and I feel my blog is lacking by comparison. I use my blog as a kind of garden diary though not a daily record; I know I use my blog as a kind of travel guide for visitors to our northern kingdom: or to encourage folk to visit these realms; however Fiona's way with words makes me realise my creative writing skills are disappearing down the plug hole. But I am kind of embarrassed by waxing lyrical and using fancy vocabulary or rhetoric; also I do not like giving too much information away on the internet- after what has happened to me in my life I trust no one. Sad though that be, I really don't trust anyone, no matter how close they appear to be in times of your life, and how much you do for them- to stick with you through all times/thick and thin. You just have to take folk on face value at a specific time knowing they may turn on you for no reason you understand. Relationships turn sour. That's life, I have discovered and such departures do not seem to bother the people who turn away and who are hard and never look back so I suggest you get over it and do not fash. Only people with a conscience and emotional development are bothered by the fractures. No matter what efforts you may make, people do not recognise them and you risk losing the relationships with others who think you are even daft for trying! My advice is  to just go with the flow and you will find you have lots of friends you didn't realise valued you so much.

I have also just realised fash (or is it fesh?) is a word I use frequently and do not know how to spell!

I guess the long time it takes to learn life's lessons remind me that I went to see Matthew Bourne's 'Sleeping Beauty' at the Theatre Royal the other night. I still think inspite of its many and expensive revamps, the Theatre Royal is an awful theatre for viewing. In the most recent overhaul, the powers that be STILL did not stagger the seats so clients are left sitting exactly behind the person in front; if, like me, you are a typical northerner (small and squat) then you just can not see the stage. D3 and I asked for booster cushions- D3 talked to the woman behind and reluctantly said she would not have her cushion- thus was forced to move around all night to see past the person in front- and through brass bars put on the front bottom of the stairs. Even on my booster I could not see a quarter of the stage.

HOWEVER the ballet, which is not a ballet in my book, but a modern dance/theatre experience- was fantastic. Gothic and a fairy story embroidered beyond the original childhood story we all know.... Aurora was so tiny, a beautiful dancer of the ballerina ilk, and tossed around like flotsam in a storm; Caradoc was handsome, sinister and a great dancer as were the fairies, especially Count Lilac, but it was the baby who stole the show! The settings eg travellators, moon, silhouettes etc employed, show Matthew Bourne definitely thinks outside the box.

The spring flowers are daring to show their faces but at a cost. This morning I picked up a tulip from the path, whipped into snapping by the tumultuous winds which, for the last 24 hours, have lashed at the windows to be in.

Yesterday we walked almost 7 miles around Devil's Water and circling Hollybush nursery, sawmill and tearoom; we were all delighted by the bobbing daffodils, early blossom and flush of green on the hedges. Dare we think we might see Spring?