A trip to Newcastle - to see Dippy

We made a day trip to the Hancock Museum in Newcastle-upon-Tyne to see Dippy. This is the Natural History Museum's dinosaur that is currently doing a UK tour.

The fossilised remains are of a diplodocus

Dippy is huge, the head is about 20feet/6 metres off the ground

Over half of its length is tail

Toddlers had great fun running around the base pushing small carts

The Hancock also has a TRex fossil

Me, about to be TRex lunch

B, as a TRex, also looking for lunch

The Civic Buildings nearby, with seahorses

The River God

My view of Nidderdale

Four years ago, we moved into this house in Easingwold, North Yorkshire. Our street is at 90degrees off the main road, the Thirsk Road. The next street also is at 90degrees off Thirsk Road, so our rear garden shares a boundary with a house on the second street. That house has a much larger rear garden.

When we moved in, that house had a screen of mature trees on their side of the boundary. Last year, the owners took down nearly all of those mature trees, sold the land and another house has been built.

In this photo, the house on the right is the new house, the trees behind are similar to the mature trees that were taken down. The roof visible on the left belongs to my neighbour's house.

With the felling of the trees, the variety of birds has fallen, for example, we used to have siskins in our garden, we don't anymore. The felling has an upside. From our bedroom window, on very clear and sunny days such as yesterday, the distance view is of the Yorkshire Dales.

We can now see across the Vale of York all the way to Nidderdale, a distance of around 25 miles. As the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining, but I would like to see a couple of siskins now and then.

A siskin

"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"

Saturday afternoon and evening - B and I went to the cinema then dinner - we haven't done this for a while.

The film was Quentin Tarrantino's latest epic, "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", and what a good choice. The film is very long at 165 minutes but worth it. It was well written, fantastic acting, a good pace which all combined to make the film very engaging and engrossing.

Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCapprio and Al Pacino

There were a number of famous actors doing little cameos, like Al Pacino, Timothy Olyphant and Kurt Russell. Our favourite was Damien Lewis playing "Steve McQueen" which led into an unusual three minute slot of "The Great Escape".

So, lots of swearing, some violence, all very plausible, a great film.

The Design Museum "Stanley Kubrick" Exhibition

B and I spent the weekend in Windsor, at B's family home. In addition to visiting the family, we wanted to visit the Exhibition of Stanley Kubrick's film work.

Stanley Kubrick was an American and started his film career in Hollywood. His films included "Paths of Glory", a World War One film with Kirk Douglas as a French Army colonel of infantry, given an impossible mission to capture a German position. He then worked with Douglas again to make "Spartacus". Shortly after, during 1962 he took up residence in Hertfordshire, just north of London.  Here he could exercise much greater control of his films and went to make several films including "Barry Lyndon", "Dr Srangelove", "A Clockwork Orange" and "2001 A Space Odyssey".

Stanley Kubrick, Kirk Douglas and Suzanne Christiane (later Christiane Kubrick)

Oscar for "2001" Film Special Effects

A small part of his library on Napoleon, Kubrick spent 2 years on research for a planned film

Costume designs for Napoleon

Story boards for "Spartacus"

Costumes from "Barry Lyndon"

An actor training for the first part of "2001"

This car was designed and built for "A Clockwork Orange"

B and I agreed, this is one of the best exhibitions that we have visited. Truly befitting one of the greatest film makers.

"The Captain"

I am writing this blog to recommend the film "The Captain". I had not heard or seen anything about this film until I saw it listed in Sky Films, checked on some reviews anddecided to watch it yesterday. It is a German film, with English subtitles, based on actual events. The central character is a young conscript in the Wehrmacht during the last two weeks of WW2. He has deserted and, following a chase sequence, he finds a Luftwaffe car with a very smart Luftwaffe officer's uniform in a suitcase. He borrows the car and the uniform, adopts the persona of the officer and gathers around him a motley crew of other deserters. I am reminded of Acton's saying - "Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely".

Holiday in Northumberland : Visit to Wallington Hall

We like a good stately home but it has to have a good tearoom as well. Just by chance, we drove passed these dragon heads, we thought they looked interesting, worthy of further investigation.

It is a National trust property, Wallington Hall. So we thought we would stop for a look and some tea and cake.

Leaving the car park and heading towards the stable block

Through the arch into the courtyard

where there is a shop, a garden centre and a tearoom

It's a nice house, mid 18th century, in a nice location, with a nice interior

No explanation for the bust of Napoleon

Then I found this cabinet, full of demiflats/demirondes, approx 25mm

There are about 3000 figures, mainly British and French with a few Germans and Russians

A mix of Napoleonic and late 19th century figures

At first, I thought they are CBG Mignot but the card says they were made in Germany

I'm not so sure but the charging figures are not in the Mignot book.

These Highlanders have extremely short kilts, more like miniskirts.

Still, lovely to see.