Sunday, March 26, 2023

Words and weaving, Milton Avery, Miss Marple and cardboard carving

Late out of the blocks today, mainly because I thought I'd done my post. I hadn't. I'd only thought about it. Oh. 

I found a great word for Joanne and other weavers, from favorite etymologist Haggard Hawks

You don't have to be a weaver to recognize this situation, but it's more  vivid if you are.

Today was about laundry, changing the bed, even washing the blanket, a sign of spring right there.  

About spring -- the juncoes haven't left yet, meaning they're not convinced it's spring yet. They're even overlapping with the arriving redwing blackbirds and summer robins. 

I noticed quite a crowd of them in the trees with blackbirds and mourning doves, when I was out walking this afternoon. Sunshine and 60s, rain back again tomorrow.

I got back to the cardboard carving this afternoon, and here's where we are up to now


I have to see what should happen in the upper part, the mountains and clouds, to balance the foliage in the trees and buds on the foreground plants. 

I also need to do more foliage after I've thought about it a bit more.This is really fun to work on, figuring out which ideas to pursue and which not.

And, on to a true master, Milton Avery, the painter's painter. This is a fairly early work, i think, but the vertiginous raking viewpoint is there

And his color choices, much more subtle than at first glance.

I was also thinking  more about actors in roles already well known from books and found that a whole lot of actors have played Miss Marple



Some of the names surprised me, but of the ones I've seen, in movies or TV, I  think Joan Hickson is the definitive one. She was also favored by Christie to play her. 

Next comes June Whitfield on radio and audiobooks, very astute portrayal. 

Next Geraldine McEwan, after I got used to her and dialled back the expectation of keen intelligence Hickson had brought, 

Then, far behind, Julia Mackenzie, who didn't seem to grasp the role at all, playing it like a little know-it-all wiseguy.  But to be fair, she played Ariadne Oliver in radio productions and was very good.

And sadly last,  Margaret Rutherford, really miscast, the movie set up like a slapstick horsey comedy idea. She tried gallantly to save it, but I think it was doomed.

Those are my completely unhumble opinions on this vital, gripping,  topic.

In other contexts, too, some actors simply own the part. Like Harriet Walter playing Sayers' Harriet Vane, and Edward Petherbridge playing Peter Wimsey. 

Or the Sherlock Holmeses Sandra mentioned. And Hugh Fraser playing Captain Hastings, back in Christie. And performing her audiobooks. Or Jonathan Cecil performing P.G. Wodehouse audiobooks, pitch perfect.

Which brings us to suppertime, and this morning I'd microwaved a couple of sweet potatoes I'd had for a few days and didn't want them to shrivel before I got to them. 


They were all mashed and spiced in the fridge, for whenever I decided what to do about them.  So supper was an easy salad of hardboiled egg, cilantro, parsley and sweet potato in a pita bread.  I do like a meal I can pick up and eat while I read my current Barbara Pym.

Happy day, well for a few of us, evening, everyone.  Enjoy unexpected combos where you find them.



25 comments:

  1. Our autumn seems to have finally arrived. It’s cold and rainy here today.
    I’ll be glad when the weather pattern settles down The temperature fluctuations are very bad on a sore body

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    1. Yes, even steady cold is easier on you, I should think.

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  2. I enlarged the photo of your cardboard carving and wow, the foliage is fabulous. I do like quite a few of the stars who played Miss Marple. Some actors do own roles, like the actor who plays Poirot, he is brilliant.

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    1. I wonder if it's good for their later careers if they get very identified with a single role, though.

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    2. Also thank you for the encouraging comment on the carving.

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  3. I had no idea June Whitfield played Miss Marple. I know her from the "Absolutely Fabulous" comedies.

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    1. I've never seen her, only heard her audio work. I watched part of one episode of AbFab, then moved on!

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  4. I will certainly agree with you about Hickson.

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  5. Your cardboard project is interesting.

    Last bag of bird seed for the season has a few spreads left. No woodpeckers or interest in suet here.
    Miss Marple, Geraldine McEwan is my favorite with Joan Hickson and Julia McKenzie. Lansbury is a favorite actress, but not a good Marple, difficult to separate her from her TV charscter.

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    1. I love how we're nerding out on miss marple!

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  6. I doubt I have ever seen one Miss Marple movie or episode. I feel seriously remiss.

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    1. Your relationship to her sounds like mine to the Rolling Stones!

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  7. I don't think I've ever seen a single show about/with Ms Marple.

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    1. If you're not a mystery fan, she must not have crossed your path.

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  8. Interesting to read the bit about thrums - I know them more as a type of knitted mittens and looked to find a better description than what I can come up with myself and I found this..."Years ago in England, the woolen mills would discard slubs of wool, called "thrums," which knitters would gather and use in their mittens to add extra texture and warmth. This tradition was brought to Newfoundland by the settlers and after being almost forgotten for years, has been recently revived". They create very warm mittens.
    The only actress I've seen as Miss Marple is Angela Lansbury.

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    1. Thanks for the added research! It fits together.

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  9. Peter Wimsey! I was a great fan of that one! The actor was perfect. Margaret Rutherford had nothing to work with, the whole movie was a disaster. I really like that painting, it's quiet. I am amazed cardboard could be so interesting. I didn't have enough milk for my fish pie yesterday, so it's on todays menu.

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    1. That's why I use powdered milk, always a supply in the fridge. Enjoy it today, anyway.

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  10. My ‘go to’ for a quick meal is anything egg but especially a sandwich. Yours sounds good.

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    1. It was certainly filling. I used quite a bit of berbere to season the sweet potato, and it worked okay.

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  11. Definitely Joan Hixson. I'm taking Barbara's Pym's diaries on holiday with me.

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    1. Good choice. I'm currently rereading Less than Angels, because Catherine Oliphant is a favorite character. I wish she'd appeared in other novels, the way Pym's characters make cameo appearances in other novels.

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  12. I've only watched a few of the episodes with Joan Hickson and I don't have any lasting impressions of her, but I truly loved Margaret Rutherford's Miss Marple. Her dry humor and physical comedy (perhaps especially for a woman of her physique), just makes me smile thinking about her. And I didn't realize Angela Lansbury played Miss Marple. I can't quite picture her as such, though I loved her as Jessica Fletcher in the TV series, Murder She Wrote. It's fun to remember these old shows...

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    1. I can only see lansbury as in Murder she wrote. Likewise Rutherford in various old British school based comedies and The Importance of Being Earnest(?). So there's that.

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