1   There is just one flower on the clematis, a final fling before the winter comes along.

Just one Elizabeth Clematis

2   The dahlias are coming into their best right now.

Another white dahlia

3   The National Theatre occasionally sends live feeds of stage plays to cinemas all over the country and tonight we have been privileged to be in the audience for one of my favourite Shakespeare plays, Othello, just down the road at our local cinema. It was brilliant – the whole audience left the theatre still with bated breath.  It was a truly thrilling production – so like being right there in the theatre that the cinema audience applauded along with those actually at The National! Set in modern dress and with the war in the desert, the timelessness of the themes (and the words) of Shakespeare’s plays strikes the audience anew.

Othello with Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear

The following is taken from the publicity material.

“The National Theatre presents a major new production of William Shakespeare’s celebrated play about the destructive power of jealousy.Olivier Award-winning actor Adrian Lester (Henry V at the National Theatre, BBC’sHustle) takes the title role.Playing opposite him as the duplicitous Iago is fellow Olivier Award-winner Rory Kinnear (The Last of the Haussmans, James Bond: Skyfall), who is reunited with director Nicholas Hytner (Timon of Athens, One Man, Two Guvnors) following their acclaimed collaboration on the National Theatre’s recent production of Hamlet. Othello, newly married to Desdemona – who is half his age – is appointed leader of a major military operation. Iago, passed over for promotion by Othello in favour of the young Cassio, persuades Othello that Cassio and Desdemona are having an affair.”