Life has been hard here on the farm. I have lived through bushfires and floods all in a period of four months. I have watched my sheep die of starvation as there is no food to be found, despite all I do for them. Grain just isn't enough to keep them alive. I have had to part ways with the majority of Dad's chickens and all of his roosters for much the same reason - as there isn't any food to be found, especially since the bushfires wiped out most of the country.
I am over the endless heat that never seems to end. I am over the extreme changes in temperature and weather. I am over it all.
I miss my Dad more than I could ever imagine. My life feels very empty and ever so much more difficult without him in it.
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As it's February and we've just had Valentine's Day (spent on my own again), I've been watching films with a French flavour.
Film 1 - Paris Blues (1961) - a really lovely film to watch. Has an incredibly gorgeous and rather young Paul Newman in it along side Sidney Poitier (also quite young, and before his rather more famous 'To Sir With Love' film a few years later), and an older, but still very amazing, one and only 'Satchmo'. To see Louis Armstrong in any film makes it instant watching for me. He's been a favourite of mine since I was a child and first discovered jazz and dixieland swing, and Rhythm 'n Blues. Most of the music was written by another favourite of mine - Duke Ellington.
Film 2 - The Rage of Paris (1938) - French in so much as one of the main characters is french, but still a very fun little film to watch. It has a young Douglas Fairbanks Jnr in it, along with an equally young Louis Hayward, as well as Helen Broderick being her usual talented self.
While Paris Blues was darker in nature, touching on various subjects (including that of racism), it was the music that drew me in. With The Rage of Paris, it was the fun nature of the film that kept me watching it. It literally is a romp of a film, very much of its era, the storyline lacking a whole lot, but fun nevertheless.
Today's film is going to be The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954). This one I have seen more than once before, and is an old favourite of mine. It will also be the first of my French films to be in colour. It has an all-star cast with many famous actors and actresses in it, so I am looking forward once again to a visit to this lovely film.
