Disney's A Christmas Carol

Last night we watched the 1951 Alistair Sim Scrooge. Tonight we did our traditional trip to the pictures and watched the Disney version, featuring cartoons.

It really is a very good film. Americanisms hardly enter at all. Some of the camera angles are fantastic. I love the way the characters actually have the facial features of the actors voicing them.

Dickens is one of Britain's few genius writers. He was the Jim Morrison of his age, being both critically and popularly acclaimed, a master of his art. And A Christmas Carol is one of his best works. It's been done many times and will probably be done many times again.

Go on then, have a great Christmas/Yule!

newes 10.11.90 - 20.12.09

We had to have Newes put to sleep today. She'd made it to 19 so had done very well but over the last couple of weeks she'd become very frail and by yesterday could hardly walk, and was looking very sorry for herself.

She'd adopted me from the start, and I'd always wanted a black cat. My first sight of her was with her four sisters in a bread tray in a very cold Leadhills back in 1990. She used to chase me around the kitchen.

When I moved back to England I had to take the five cats in various carriers, with Newes in a cardboard box. She escaped within ten miles and spent the next four hundred miles sitting on my lap! She's had a great and varied life, living in the hills of Scotland, down on the south coast, up in the hills again at Horningsham and finally in Bristol.

Bottom shot is her (background) going out in the snow in about March 1991. Her sister Pyewackett is in the foreground and is still going strong!

A serious man

The latest Coen Brothers film is one of those where you're dropped into someone's life then drop out again at the end, not being 100% sure what you've seen but sure that you have seen something pretty brilliant. I picked up a bit of Yiddish and Hebrew, always a bonus. The film's set in 1967 and captures the atmosphere brilliantly. There are some excellent comic moments throughout the film and all the professionals are totally hopeless, so you do wonder whether the hanging ending, where Larry's doctor calls him in right away to discuss his x-rays is as ominous as it sounds. One of the ten best films of 2009.

real action

Guerrilla Gardening

On Sunday 13th December the Transition Bath Food Group will be working on a piece of land in Lansdowne at the top of Park Street. Bring gloves, spades, forks, secateurs. We will start at 10.00 and work for a couple of hours to clear the land. Once this is done we will plant fruit bushes for anyone to harvest. This is one of the many steps we plan to take to plant edible food on spare land in and around Bath. Just turn up and join in. If you want to know more about where it is contact Lynn on 01225 426 039