Whimsical Kitten

I am a big fan of BBC Four programming, and have been delighting in their current three part series called Picture Book which documents the history of illustrated children’s literature over the last 150 years. The first programme ‘When We Were Very Young’ which can be seen again for a short time  online here  focuses on when we very first start to read and develop our imagination.

The second programme ‘Now We are Six’ aired this week focuses on reading when we are going to school and how it helps us both understand the world around us but also to escape from it, and can be seen again online here.

The final programme I believe will be aired Wednesday 19th 9pm BBC Four. It has been a wonderful nostalgic literary blanket that has wrapped around me and reminded me of all the fantastic books I read as a child, and has featured some of my favourite writers/illustrators such as Beatrix Potter, Lewis Carroll, Raymond Briggs, Quentin Blake, Roald Dahl, Michael Rosen, Phillip Pullman and many many more talents.

I will leave you with my most favourite picture book from my childhood…………

Poetic, poignant and filled with pathos, this film won the Camera d’Or in The Cannes Film Festival 2005. I can’t believe it has taken me this long to find it. Beautiful.

When I was a little girl my father told me that my great grandmother was a gypsy and used to travel around the country with the fairground telling peoples fortunes for a living from personal items such as a watch or a handkerchief. I have absolutely no evidence that any of this is true but the bohemian in me likes the idea of having gyptian heritage, so I have been reading a few books about these people and their way of life and found it fascinating. The books describe the lives of some of the original Romany families travelling around Britain from the turn of the century up to the 1960s, the two books by Betsy Whyte are autobiographical and the other is written by Rowena Farre who had travelled for a time with the Roma in the 1950’s.

Two (old) films that I have seen for the first time and really enjoyed are:

Me Without You

Breakfast on Pluto

Both are spirited, tinged with sadness but ever hopeful – a bit like me………..

I can’t wait to see this film…………………….

I have been inspired following a recent post by blutakgirl to share this You Tube clip with you.

The Muppets – Genius!

I love a romantic comedy and I absolutely LOVED this film Eagle Vs Shark. I watched it twice in 12 hours!

Intro to plot – Set in New Zealand, the heroine Lily is a shy, wistful girl, a songwriter when no one is listening, and an unpopular cashier at a fast food restaurant who has a crush from afar on Jarrod, a self-assured eccentric geek who works in a video game store. The soundtrack is wonderful too.

Here is the trailer, and by the way, I am so making those animal costumes for Ben and myself for the next fancy dress party we go to!

Okay so where have I been for the last 3 weeks? Doing a spot of time travelling.

I am currently utterly consumed with all things 1940’s, you know learning a bit more about life in Britain leading up to and during WW2, the fashions (wow!), life on the Home Front, austerity Britain and striving to be more frugal – the whole ’make do and mend’ ethos.

I am not sure if it is because I am approaching 40 and I am currently fixated on that particular number or if I have been influenced subliminally, anyway here is some of what I have been up to.

Reading this book – £4 pounds from a charity shop.

Recording this CBBC programme Evacuation  (I know it is for kids but it is great!) and then watching it when I get home from work, I just love the knitted tank tops, hhmm I think I secretly want to be the Land Girl, Miss Victoria.

Watching a host of TV and films set in the forties such as Goodnight Sweetheart , The Dresser and Varians War.

So there you have it, now I’m off to build an Anderson Shelter in the garden…………………………………………………………..only kidding!

If Ben & I lived in Springfield we would look like this!

 Fancy Simpsonizing yourself? Then go to http://simpsonizeme.com/

The final post in my nostalgia series.

Le Menage Enchante was originally a French creation adapted for British television by Eric Thompson. My favourite character was grumpy old Dougal, for whom the glass was always half empty and everything was always just too much effort. In this episode Ermentrude thinks she is a bus.

I also have the movie Dougal & The Blue Cat, which I really must watch again sometime.