Beloved Eleanor

Just ‘cos I’m in a postcard kind of mood.

The tomb of Queens Elizabeth and Mary at Westminster Abbey.  I love tombs, and I love wandering around them at the Abbey!

Following on from tombs, here is the Guard’s memorial.  A beautiful thing, not dissimilar to the Cenotaph – at least to me!  Got to love real photo postcards too.

Those of you in the USA were fortunate enough to be watching this show in the Autumn of last year.

We’ve had it in the UK since February, and though I slightly missed the beginning, it’s really beginning to grow on me.  I think it’s getting better as episodes go on.

It is of course, about vampires.  This time though, they are vampire brothers, one good, one evil who return to the small town of their birth.  Havoc ensues…

I must also give a mention to Francesco da Mosto’s Mediterranean Voyage, a programme I didn’t see the first time around, but I am loving on BBC HD.  Francesco is a Venetian, and I loved his series about Venice itself.

Go on, give them both a try…

Wow, it’s that time of the year again – and the castle re-opened on the 1 April for the 2010 season.  I can’t believe that it has come around again already!  The Winter has been very long, and the castle unfortunately suffered its fair share of snow and associated leaks.

We had a pleasantly busy Easter with lots of egg hunters inside and outside the castle.  Here are the updates/changes for this year:

• We have a new Great Hall carpet, the money for which was kindly donated.  It looks fabulous and has a lovely bouncy underlay!
• We received new blinds to replace broken ones, and for rooms that had never previously had them.  Existing ones that could be fixed, were also.
• The old film on the windows has now been replaced after many years with fresh UV film to stop nasty light coming in to spoil the collection.
• Furniture has been put back to original positions in some of the rooms to improve visitor experience.
• More items are again on display after repair etc.
• We have also been updating information for visitors.
• The Dining Room ceiling has finally been fixed, yay!
• We have more heating, also donated – extra yay here from experience
• We have some new stuff in the shop along with old favourites
• The castle restaurant is doing really well, phone to book.

That’s all I can remember for now!

In my research world, I was fortunate after three years of searching to finally find a living Fraser of the line.  We had previously thought that the line had died out, but it turns out the younger brother’s line is alive and well!  I have been happily updating records for this.

My next project is for the estate, and I am currently documenting all that I can find about the castle estate workers and house servants.  This will be really useful for enquiries, and give us a much better bigger picture of how the house the castle and estate were run.

Don’t forget to visit us!  I will post any event news as soon as I have it.

Famous last words I say!  I said I wanted to go to the theatre more often..

In January I was excited to go to the theatre to see Pride and Prejudice.  This month, for the Mum’s birthday (a belated present) we went to see The Sound of Music with Connie Fisher as Maria and Michael Praed as Captain Von Trapp.

We were on the balcony, and boy was it high!  We had a great time, it was a really enjoyable show, and all the actors were good.  Our favourite was the Mother Superior though, as her voice was just beautiful.

We even managed to leave with a singing goat…don’t ask.  If you manage to catch the tour, do, it’s really worth seeing.

Those of you that are long-time readers will remember our love-affair with Austria, and the fact that The Sound of Music is the Mum’s favourite film, hence the special treat.

More from this blog about The Sound of Music.

I promised myself this after Nicola mentioned The Wicked Lady (1945) the other day.  The real Wicked Lady was actually from the same part of the world as I am, which makes it all the more interesting to me!

Do love the scary Margaret Lockwood, plus Patricia Roc and James Mason.  Does anyone else think that Michael Kitchen is a little like him?

While, we’re talking about wicked – what about The Man in Grey (1943)?  James Mason is absolutely terrifying in that film!  The end is really awful!  Again with Margaret Lockwood, Phyllis Calvert also love Stewart Granger – gorgeous voice.

No!!!  Argh!

Last but not least (for now anyway) in glorious technicolour, I could never resist a bit of swash and buckle…Scaramouche (1952) Stewart Granger and Eleanor Parker.

Ooooh, flame-haired wildcat indeed!  Truly the voiceover is dreadful.

Oh, go on then.  A favourite completely: The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon.

Repeat after me with your best RP, Vintage films are the best!

Sadly not for me, but for Claire’s postcard collection.

Yes, Claire decided to set them free around the world to different blog friends.  I was lucky enough to receive one, this lovely illustration by Beatrix Potter.

It’s well known that I love my rodents, but I think Claire’s trying to tell me something with this lizard…answers on a postcard what that is (arf).

P.S Claire – it was actually franked ‘Free’ advertising for something.  Thought that was very appropriate, and loved the doodle.  Say hi to the Willy family from me! 

A quick post to thank John for two awards for this blog.  They are always much appreciated.  If you are on my blogroll, then of course you deserve to take the awards too.

I also like the way that John traces the origins of the awards.

Thanks again for the Sunshine and Beautiful Blogger Awards

Some more of my collection:

First is a vintage Valentine’s card franked February 14th, 1901 and is my only American postcard.  The lucky lady is Miss Rubie Bray of Bethlehem, PA.

The second pretty Sarah card has not been franked, but was sent to Miss Sarah Hawkin by her friend Bertha.  I think the images of Sarah may be that of Sarah Bernhardt, the actress.

The final card I believe is a WWI card, and has not been used.  It does however advertise the purchase of Government Securities.

Longtime readers may remember I bought an original watercolour of Eleanor some years ago.  I’ve just come across a comission the same artist has completed of her husband Edward I!

I do like it – just wish it wasn’t modelled on the Braveheart image of him.  Obviously it was a comission though.   I hope that Mark manages to do his own version!

Whilst I’m on the subject of art, and was on Mark Satchwill’s site it reminded me he also recently completed a gorgeous picture of Elizabeth and Darcy from the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice.

This leads me to the final piece of news today…a great Austen site, which recently wrote about the recycling of Regency costumes.  Check it out for yourselves…

Hands up who’s seen this new programme presented by David Dimbleby?  I watched it on BBC1 last Sunday, second episode tonight.  You can also catch it on the iPlayer…

I really enjoyed it – not so much the speeding through history, and starting with the Romans – which always annoys me intensely.  No, it was Dimbleby’s obvious enthusiasm, and the fact we get to see treasures of Britain which we normally don’t for various reasons.

Tonight, I’m hopeful that there will be a section about Eleanor, as in the preview they have shown my favourite cross at Geddington.  Exciting!

If you’ve seen it, let me know what you think of the programme so far.