osprey update

she's back! The osprey arrived 20 March--ten days earlier than she's ever arrived before. Her mate's not here yet. The man at the visitors' centre said that they don't travel together. They just meet up at their summer place in Scotland. Apparently there is sometimes a bit of scrapping for the prime property.

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So, I had to go and get the DVD of Battlefield, the 1989 Dr. Who with a less-than-memorable Mordred in it. We've watched 3 of 4 episodes and I have to say I'm finding it highly entertaining. Jean Marsh (ie ROSE from Upstairs, Downstairs) is Morgaine, rather too obsessed with Good Form to be properly evil (like Capt. Jas. Hook). Everyone recognizes The Doctor as Merlin, and he never argues, which is a rather endearing touch. His female sidekick, Ace, is obsessed with explosives to the point of being boring, and he drives a car that looks just like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (number plate WHO 7). There is no plot that I can make out. But I am all over the hilarious love-interest between Brigadier Winifred Bambera (who I recognized immediately as the female version of Dave Lister) and the good guy Ancelyn ap Gwalchmei.

Mordred worries us when he laughs. Sara and I were both afraid he was going to literally laugh himself to death at one point.

for alan garner fans

This shows how utterly sievelike my brain is, because I really meant to post this on Tuesday BEFORE it was on. Anyway, John Waite has done an interview with Alan Garner for BBC Radio 4. It's half an hour long and features steepholm as their first introduced Alan Garner expert! The woman from Waterstone's could be me, except I lost the Cheshire accent when I was about 7.

You should be able to pick this up in the US, too, but I don't think they keep the links up for more than a week after the show.

Return to Brisingamen

I am such a Garner freak that I actually have a cassette tape of the radio drama they pull a bit from in the middle of the interview.

you all know The Winter Prince is set in Alderley Edge, right? I put the villa at Camlan on top of my old house. Or more accurately underneath it, I suppose.