Sleeping Beauty

We went to see the Mathew Bourne's version in Salford Quays - huge space:

- and a great fresh look at 'Sleeping Beauty'.  The Guardian did an interview with the Lez Brotherston, the set and costume designer and that's how I got to know that the ballet was on.

 

I can't find any pics of the costumes, so here's this instead.

I love beech trees. 

We went a long walk the other way round Middleton woods on Friday.

Going the other way gave us new routes and fresh looks.
Like being on eye-level with this beech tree.


I love the way they grow













I love the crunch and colour of the carpet of leaves under them

 

I don't know if there is a proper collective noun for them but I think of a group of beeches as a stand and a stand of beeches make a room, they keep the ground under them so clear.
Down foxen woods in Eckington there was a stand of beeches the other side of the dam that always seemed magical to me, they were so still and church like.  I think that standing there must have been the first time I ever thought about architecture.

Collective nouns - I can remember having to learn them at school.  Wherever the presenter on Radio 4 on Thursday afternoon went to school, she was happily - hopefully unscripted, calling a number of sheep 'a herd'.  I was shouting at the radio - 'it's a flock, missus, it's a flock!'.
And now back to trees.  My non-fiction reading at the moment is The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane.  He has just been in a wood and incidentally mentions that Elms have not been wiped out.  I didn't realise that.  Apparently, if they stay below 12 feet tall, the virus doesn't get them.
I'm going to have to do a second blip this week because I left it too late to photograph my new picture in daylight.  I gave up on buying a carpet for now because I needed new frames for my pictures.
Angel is out in the garden barking at Shadow - no not shadows, its too dark for them - one of next door's cats.  She's set all the other dogs off so I'm going to have to go and get her.