The world from my window

The skies are darkening but there has to be hope on the horizon. There just has to be. In Dorset as elsewhere, November brings the beautiful sunsets of October along for the ride. At Portland Bill, the clouds gather around the lighthouse, a beacon in a darkening world. Brexit is breaking apart, which it was always going to do. The only sure thing is that the sun will come up in the morning. Probably. Away from it all, from the television, radio and social media, there is such gorgeous beauty. I love it. Down at the Bay, the lights are on to announce the arrival of a new cafe bar, Rise . It looks very tempting, as does the Bull Hotel courtyard this time of year. Cut quinces sit like an art installation on my kitchen worktop. The resulting membrillo from a recipe by my old colleague and friend Liz Crow, the Baking Bird , is just divine. There's lots going on locally, for those who want it. I shall be booking tickets for this. I e...

As far as Star Wars goes, I nailed my colours firmly to the mast by declaring my faith as Jedi in the national census of 2011. There were 176,632 of us nationwide and 344 of us in West Dorset that year, including seven in my own village . I don’t know who they are, which is odd as I ought to be able to feel their presence. The Charity Commission subsequently rule that Jediism ‘lacked the necessary spiritual or non-secular element’ it was looking for in a religion. It said there was insufficient evidence that ‘moral improvement’ was central to the beliefs and practices of Jediism and did not have the ‘cogency, cohesion, or seriousness’ to truly be a belief system. The lack of fun and imagination of public bodies never ceases to amaze me. You see, much to the disgust yet amusement of my intellectual friends, the first Star Wars film – A New Hope – is my favourite movie of all time. There is something about its simplicity, its escapism and the fact that it’s a right rollicking adventure...

One of my all-time musical heroes is eighty five today. Take a bow, Mr John Williams . You are epic. By Chris Devers (Flickr: DSC_0937.JPG) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons This man, this incredible man, has provided the soundtrack to so many wonderful films which have become the soundtracks to our lives. Of course, there's Star Wars and Jaws and ET and Indiana Jones . He also wrote the music to  Schindler's List, Lincoln (now there's a film for current times), Saving Private Ryan,   Memoirs of a Geisha, Home Alone and many, many more .  The man is a legend, bringing classical musical to the masses through these fantastically atmospheric film scores. How can anyone not like the theme to Jurassic Park ? So when Mr Grigg and I were travelling travelling up to Heathrow last year (on our way to Colombia, don't you know) and heard a plug on the radio for a special Radio 2  Friday Night Is Mus...

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened. Let's build bridges, not walls. That's about it. Love Maddie x