Saturday: Blue Moon Day
Saturday came early, I awoke at 7:00 (another exciting day ahead, you see), but decided I definitely couldn't cope with being up yet, and went back to bed for an hour. Then came the Great Gravel Hunt: out in the rain, watching magpies and discovering that gravel isn't as ubiquitous as I imagined. I managed to find enough to cover my galvanised bucket with one layer of it, enough for drainage, and planted my rose at last. It's a Blue Moon, by the way. I also pruned one of my other roses that had grown so long, its main stem was horizontal from the weight of the branches and flowers; and I hacked at the brambly climbing beast in anger. It's going to take a LONG time to get my garden back into shape, but it must be done... apparently, you can't grow roses in containers, so I must find a spot for it.
I'd just about left enough time for a quick clean-up, before racing over to Waterloo for noon, where I was meeting Benjy. There was time for tea, and then we went to see Antony Gormley's Blind Light exhibition. I thought it was an excellent show. I didn't really know very much about Gormley, except the Angel of the North, the sculptures up in Merseyside, and the Event Horizon statues that have been around the South Bank Centre for a while now. OK, that's actually fairly good, isn't it? Anyway, I didn't know what to expect, but I was totally bowled over. The guide we got was very helpful in explaining some of the concepts, and pointing us at some of the ways you could look at the sculptures. I love the themes he works on, and the materials, and the thought that seems to be behind it all. Short of the Constantin Brancusi show at the Tate Modern a couple of years ago (which was an epiphany I will write about another time), this was the best exhibition of sculptures I've ever seen. Short version: go see it, it's very good!
More tea, also cake, and then we made our way up to Tufnell Park to go to the Blue Moon Cafe, a Thai place with excellent food. The starters chose themselves: Blue Moon Cakes, and Wanton [sic]! The mains were lovely as well, and although they didn't have lychees for dessert, the fruit I got (no idea what they were, similar to lychees though) were ok. Then followed booze shopping... oops.... and of course, it would have been a bad idea to carry that much booze out to Penge and go dancing... so back to Benjy's we went... and stayed... thus not getting to dance to Blue Moon. There will be other times, as there have been in the past.
What was all that about, you may ask? Well, Saturday held the second full moon of the month, i.e. a Blue Moon, and Benjy had decided, approximately nine months ago(!) that this merited celebrating, so we did. [Edit: He reminds me that it was also the first song we ever danced to - it's one he knows well, which is why he remembers this.] I don't think I can adequately say how beautiful it all was, and how much thought must have gone into it all, while keeping it a complete secret from me - I literally had no idea whatsoever why I was keeping the 30 June free, and the penny only dropped on Friday morning, following some unsubtle hinting. Oh, and apparently, we're not through yet... some things hadn't arrived, due to postal strikes etc., so he tells me there are one or two surprises waiting for me yet. I am a very lucky girl!
I'd just about left enough time for a quick clean-up, before racing over to Waterloo for noon, where I was meeting Benjy. There was time for tea, and then we went to see Antony Gormley's Blind Light exhibition. I thought it was an excellent show. I didn't really know very much about Gormley, except the Angel of the North, the sculptures up in Merseyside, and the Event Horizon statues that have been around the South Bank Centre for a while now. OK, that's actually fairly good, isn't it? Anyway, I didn't know what to expect, but I was totally bowled over. The guide we got was very helpful in explaining some of the concepts, and pointing us at some of the ways you could look at the sculptures. I love the themes he works on, and the materials, and the thought that seems to be behind it all. Short of the Constantin Brancusi show at the Tate Modern a couple of years ago (which was an epiphany I will write about another time), this was the best exhibition of sculptures I've ever seen. Short version: go see it, it's very good!
More tea, also cake, and then we made our way up to Tufnell Park to go to the Blue Moon Cafe, a Thai place with excellent food. The starters chose themselves: Blue Moon Cakes, and Wanton [sic]! The mains were lovely as well, and although they didn't have lychees for dessert, the fruit I got (no idea what they were, similar to lychees though) were ok. Then followed booze shopping... oops.... and of course, it would have been a bad idea to carry that much booze out to Penge and go dancing... so back to Benjy's we went... and stayed... thus not getting to dance to Blue Moon. There will be other times, as there have been in the past.
What was all that about, you may ask? Well, Saturday held the second full moon of the month, i.e. a Blue Moon, and Benjy had decided, approximately nine months ago(!) that this merited celebrating, so we did. [Edit: He reminds me that it was also the first song we ever danced to - it's one he knows well, which is why he remembers this.] I don't think I can adequately say how beautiful it all was, and how much thought must have gone into it all, while keeping it a complete secret from me - I literally had no idea whatsoever why I was keeping the 30 June free, and the penny only dropped on Friday morning, following some unsubtle hinting. Oh, and apparently, we're not through yet... some things hadn't arrived, due to postal strikes etc., so he tells me there are one or two surprises waiting for me yet. I am a very lucky girl!