Migraine Days

Yes, the evil migraine cluster has returned. It's made me very tired, but the good thing is that I have been able to do some reading in spite of it.

Read: The Secret Hangman and Skeleton Hill by Peter Lovesy--Contemporary murder mysteries set in Bath and its environs. I thought Skeleton Hill had an original plot with some good twists and turns. The Secret Hangman was too predictable. Also read The Vows of Silence by Susan Hill. I like Hill's prose style and her characters, although sometimes her novels get a bit soapy for my taste. Her oeuvre would work well as a television series.

Watched: The Secret Life of Bees. I've read the novel a couple of times and although I think the human story came through, the real magic of the Black Madonna was missing. I think they could have focused more time in the movie on the Boatwright sisters. I also think that a couple of actors should have been cast differently--Jennifer Hudson lacked gravitas and that British actress who played May, although I admire much of her work, was OTT in this.

Once Upon a Time in the Midlands, directed by Shane Meadows. This was disappointing because of the stereotypical characters. A hard-assed Glaswegian f-up played by Robert Carlyle? Ho hum. A Welsh ninny played by Rhys Ifans? Quel surprise. Kathy Burke is great, she always is, but is that a Brummy accent Shirley Henderson is attempting to purr out? That's a stretch. There is one great comic moment (almost thrown away) involving Ricky Tomlinson's cowboy hat. That is all.

In the dye pot: iris roots and cotton mordanted with tannin as well as silk eco-prints steamed and then put in ice dye bath jars of violas.