WET, WET, WET…

Listed on February 12, 2014 in Blogs!

As we all know, the weather has recently been appalling and last weekend there were dramas with the trains. First the line from Paddington to Taunton was closed and then the Waterloo to Crewkerne line was closed; one because of floodwater on the track and the second because of a landslip. The news was that all train services to Somerset were suspended until further notice. Our problem was that Ben Crystal was due to speak to us on Shakespeare and he was travelling from the big smoke. Ben eventually made it to Bristol Parkway on a train heading for Swansea. I travelled up to collect him passing the road sign saying Wetlands and Willow Centre (you can say that again) and another directing drivers to the Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm near Bristol. How apt, I thought. I got Ben back to Dillington in time for a bit of lunch and he gave a stupendous talk on the performing of Shakespeare and pronunciation of the Elizabethan age in London. It was totally fascinating. We plan to get him back to Dillington for a second helping of his Shakespeare on Toast. In the meantime the waters keep rising and the wetlands are truly…well, wet. As for Noah’s Ark? Not yet perhaps but those yellow amphibious vehicles on the streets of Datchet certainly look the part.