In the isle of apple blossom

[dolorosa_12]

The big news this weekend is that Matthias got his second dose of vaccine (AstraZeneca). He had really bad side effects the first time around, but this time it's just made him a little bit tired. It's a huge relief to know that he's well on the way to being as protected as he's ever going to be from Covid. I've still got a little time to wait, although I watch eligibility inch down to my age group week by week. If things with the over-forties go as quickly as they have been with older age groups, I may be eligible to book my first dose by the end of this week, but I suspect it may be in two weeks' time.

We've been doing a lot of stuff outdoors, one way or another. Yesterday we assembled our garden furniture, so we now have a table and chairs on the deck — just in time for warmer weather. I'm looking forward to eating meals out there, as well as doing some of my work from home outdoors, as I did last year in the courtyard at our old place.

This morning, I attacked the weeds which have been sprouting up everywhere, then planted a bunch of seeds in the outdoor container garden, and in pots indoors on the windowsills. If things go well, I should have a bunch of radish, bean, and rocket seedlings appearing in a week or so.

I've been watching a bunch of TV as well. We finished off Shadow and Bone last night, and my original opinion of the series remains: a competently done adaptation of silly source material. I remain irritated that the Six of Crows characters got shoehorned into Alina's story in a way that decreases everyone's screentime, and hope we get more seasons that spread the characters' stories out a bit better. While show!Mal is an improvement on book!Mal, I still dislike the character and Mal/Alina as a pairing. The cast were all delightful, from Ben Barnes scenery-chewing to surprise appearances from half of the four leads from The Musketeers, and I very much enjoy all of them on social media, in a way that I rarely get involved with actors or behind-the-scenes stuff in general.

The BBC is re-airing the first season of The Killing (the Scandi-noir that launched a thousand copycats), which I've never actually seen (when it originally aired in the UK, I was living in Germany as an exchange student in Heidelberg). So far it's been a fun game of 'spot the Borgen actor', and there are three characters who feel plausible to me as the killer, but as we've only watched two episodes I'm probably wrong on all counts.

I'm not sure what the rest of Sunday will entail — Matthias is resting, and I'm out of books to read. The weekend will be closed out with the final episode of Line of Duty — about which I've developed a theory as to the identity of the elusive 'fourth man' which I've not seen anyone else mention in the wild. My theory seems horrifyingly plausible (and cynical enough to match the general tone of the show and its showrunner), but we'll see what unfolds tonight. I'm rarely right about these things, though!

Comments

[charlottenewtons]

Oooh I'm intrigued by what your Line of Duty theory might be. I have a few but they're all fairly popular.

[dolorosa_12]

With the disclaimer that I've not been seeking out theories (so when I say I haven't seen this theory in the wild, I mean in the three or four places I've seen the show discussed or reviewed), I'm leaning towards the fourth man being not a man at all, but rather it being Kate. There are a couple of reasons behind this (a combination of her former job putting her one step ahead of any anti-corruption investigation, her current job planting her right in the middle of the unit at the heart of the current anti-corruption operation, and what went down with her and Jo in the last episode, as well as in the moments the audience didn't witness between the previous two episodes), but the main one is that the show is clearly winding down, and setting things up so that none of the main trio will be left at AC-12 — and Kate being the head of a network of corrupt police officers would fit with that.

As I say, I have no idea if this is a popular theory, and I have a track record of getting these kinds of things wrong. But if I'm right, it fits with the bleak cynicism of the showrunner (who is clearly using this current series as a way to work through his anger at Brexit and the Johnson government).

[charlottenewtons]

Interesting. My feeling is that it won't be anyone in AC-12 but who knows with this show? I haven't seen many people suspect Kate, mostly theories that she's going to die. My theory is that the forth man is either Osborne (I think he's the chief constable?) because it would tie things back to series 1 nicely or that James Nesbitt's character isn't actually dead and it's going to be him.

[dolorosa_12]

I think either of those characters are also plausible, although I feel that it would be a bit odd if it ends up being James Nesbitt's character, since we've only met him this season. I feel that it has to be someone who's been around before.

[charlottenewtons]

I agree it would be underwhelming for the forth man to be someone we haven't met before. I'd be surprised if they just had a fairly well known actor appear in only a photograph so I'm expecting him to appear again in some capacity. We'll find out in few hours I suppose!

[senmut]

Glad to hear the vax schedule is moving faster!

[dolorosa_12]

It always was pretty fast here (the benefit of living in one of the two countries that have hoarded supplies of the vaccine, sadly), but in the past two weeks it's suddenly sped up rapidly. After healthcare workers and people working in care homes were vaccinated, eligibility has been solely determined by age (with exceptions for younger people with certain chronic health conditions), so for me (in my thirties, no chronic illness) it's just been a waiting game.

[sewn]

I am five episodes into Shadow and Bone and enjoying it for the costuming, set design, and the cast. I haven't read the books so I can't compare them to their literary counterparts, but I especially like the Crows. And I hadn't seen Ben Barnes for a while in anything, but he's grown up nicely.

[dolorosa_12]

It's such a fun show, and you're right that the costuming and set design are great, as well as the cast.

The Crows are the best part of the books, too.

[schneefink]

I remain irritated that the Six of Crows characters got shoehorned into Alina's story
Oooh. I only read the Six of Crows and Nicolai duologies and I was very surprised to hear of so many Six of Crows characters that I had thought were new appearing in the TV show!

[dolorosa_12]

Ha! I'm glad I've been able to help you make sense of the confusion — the show definitely has a feeling of having smooshed two different stories (and genres) together.

[corvidology]

Congrats on Matthias getting his second jab!

[dolorosa_12]

It's fantastic — a huge relief!

[merit]

No books to read? Tragic.

Radishes always popped up so quickly for me! They're such a good beginner crop.

[dolorosa_12]

Well, I have books I could reread, and I have books I could buy (although I'm very strict when it comes to the cost of books in various complicated ways — basically I have an acceptable price range for 'books that I don't think will be hugely important to me or likely to be reread', and another acceptable price range for 'books by authors I like/seem highly relevant to my interests/seem likely to be reread,' and nothing in either category is falling within the requisite price range). So I'm stuck in a kind of book-less inertia.

I'm hoping to have better luck with radishes than in our old place, where I could get them to germinate, but never to grow to an edible size.

[lirazel]

Yay vaccine!!!

[dolorosa_12]

Yay vaccine indeed! I'm so relieved!

[dhampyresa]

I was really scared at first when reading your entry title; i associate "the isle of apples" to be the Arthurian Avalon and thought someone had died.

I'm out of books to read.
I suppose that is a sort of death in its way. /deep

[dolorosa_12]

i associate "the isle of apples" to be the Arthurian Avalon

That's my association too; the post title was a deliberate allusion to Arthuriana (although I meant Avalon more in the sense of 'idyllic supernatural otherworld,' rather than 'place where people go after they die,' so I'm sorry to have scared you!).

(To explain things further, I've always had an elaborately over-the-top tagging system on every post — not just on Dreamwidth, but on Instagram, and on Tumblr when I used it as well. #under the 'bridge is my tag for Cambridge, and #under the ivy is my tag for posts about/photos taken in my old rental place in Cambridge. Since my husband and I moved into our new house in January, I've had to come up with new tags for the new house, and for Ely, which is where we live now. #in elysium is the one for talking about Ely-ish things, but I still haven't found one that works for our new house. I was considering #isle of apples for the obvious Arthurian allusion, but also because we have five apple trees in the garden, and Ely used to be an island. As I say, #isle of apples still doesn't really sound right to me as a descriptive tag for our house, although I did like that it linked with #in elysium for the shared otherworldly/afterlife allusions.

I ... think a lot about tags, which is hilarious given the system I use probably a) only makes sense to me and b) is probably only noticed by me!)

[dhampyresa]

I love your tags! They're all very poetic, even if sometimes I'm not sure what they refer to.