Pondering Poldark season 3-The Four Swans

I got overly long with my post on The Black Moon so decided to do a separate one for The Four Swans, which is book six in the Poldark Saga.

I shall, as usual, give a shout of SPOILER ALERT ~ SPOILER ALERT ~ SPOILER ALERT ! Stop now if you don't want to know what happens !

 

A lot happens in this book, especially for Demelza and Morwenna, who are two of the four swans in the title - the other two being, Elizabeth and Caroline.  There is not a great deal of story time for Caroline and Dwight, however she does get pregnant and is not over-joyed at the prospect of becoming a mother.

As the story opens, Ross and Demelza are still getting along quite well in the aftermath of the events told in Warleggan - it is not until later in the story that Demelza makes choices that will once again rock the foundation of their love!  Wheal Grace is still producing.  Jeremy and Clowence are a delight to their parents.  Ross reluctantly gets drawn into politics and beats George out of his Parliament seat (nanny nanny boo boo).

Elizabeth and George are not getting along, mostly because he suspects Valentine is not his son.  George wins a seat in Parliament (or was that in The Black Moon; I can't remember!) anyway, the puffed-up bastard is proud of that but gets the wind knocked out of his sails when he loses his seat to Ross in the next election.  Geoffrey Charles is sent off to school to help get him away from Drake. Elizabeth later swears on the bible that Valentine is George's son, which helps to relieve his suspicions, but never entirely.

George has forced Morwenna to marry a pastor who is an older man and a widower with two children.  The randy Reverend Osborn (Ossie) is a disgusting horn-dog who only wants her for her body - she however, is in love with Drake Carne and though she can't stop the wedding from happening, she never gives a single part of her true self to her husband.  You can't help but feel bad for poor Morwenna!  She has a son and her sister comes to help her care for the house and child.  Morwenna has a difficult childbirth and Rev. Horny is not allowed to have sex with her so he turns to her sister Rowella and has his way with her quite often.  In true soap opera style, Rowella ends up pregnant - or is she?  She blackmails Ossie into giving her a large sum of money to marry the local librarian so no one will find out and ruin his career.  It is only later, that Ossie runs into her and sees she is NOT pregnant and he is furious. Personally, I love that Rowella put the screws to the odious Ossie.  Not to be outdone by her sly sister, Morwenna twists the screw by telling Ossie if he ever touches her again, she will tell the world how he seduced her little sister. That doesn't impress old Ossie, so she then tells him she will KILL their son!! This is her ace-in-the-hole and it frees her from having to perform her wifely duties forever.  (On the one hand, I'm thinking YAY Morwenna! - on the other, I'm thinking Kill her baby??, holy crap!)

Meanwhile, back at Trenwith, Elizabeth is off on an estate issue (George is out of town) and runs into our hero, Ross.  It is the first time they are alone together since the night he broke into her room and forced her to have sex with him.  Things are a little awkward at first, but the conversation moves along to the fact that Elizabeth's marriage is falling apart - she tells him that George suspects that Valentine is not his son, though she is certain he does not know about Ross coming to her room. This comes as a surprise to Ross who asks Elizabeth if the child is his.  She doesn't know for sure and tells him so.  Ross realizes he still has feelings for Lizzy, even though at the end of Warleggan he told Demelza he no longer cared about Elizabeth!  They touch on the events of the night he had his way with her and it is mention that after the first shock, Elizabeth was a willing partner, as many of us wanted to believe when we read it.  As they say goodbye, he can't stop himself from kissing her several times, not with true passion, but certainly not like a brother either.

We also learn more about Sam and a woman he desires named Emma.  He wants to marry her and convert her into an honest woman with the grace of God upon her.  She, however, is not all that certain she can live that life, though she does have feelings for him.  Drake in the meantime, is busy trying to run the business that Ross helped him acquire.  He pines for Morwenna but there is little he can do to change the situation.

Jud spills the beans to Demelza that Ross and Elizabeth had seen each other!  She does not confront Ross about it, however.  She meets Hugh Armitage, the man that Ross inadvertently saved from prison when he rescued Dwight.  Hugh falls hard for Demelza and is constantly making his feelings known, not even trying very hard to keep Ross from knowing about it.  Demelza is flattered and can't help herself from falling for Hugh's attentions, though she does try to keep things in line.   She and Ross have a heartfelt discussion about her feelings for Hugh and I believe Ross feels it is quite the same as his feelings for Elizabeth and though he doesn't say this to Demelza, it makes him far more understanding that you would expect him to be.  Demelza was married so young and never had admirers before Ross came into her life.  I truly believe she loves Ross deeply with everything she has, but this handsome young man, sending her love poems, telling her of his yearnings, comes into her life and weasels his way into her heart - it's a different kind of love and one she doesn't know how to handle.  One fateful day, after learning Hugh was going blind and nothing could be done about it, she spends an afternoon with him and allows him to sweet talk her into his arms and they make love on a deserted beach. I have to admit, I was disappointed in her!  As I was reading, I'm thinking DON'T DO IT !  DON'T DO IT!... but she didn't listen and did it anyway.  In her defense, she did try to dissuade him several times before she finally caved.  She realizes the magnitude of her transgression and I think she hates herself a little though I don't believe she regrets it - - at least not for now.  Maybe that changes in later books.   Ross, never actually asks her if she 'did it' with Hugh, but he knows something has happened.  He takes it pretty well considering he had a hissy fit when he learned of her failed attempt to seduce McNeil back in book four.  Demelza never actually admits she went all the way with Hugh, but she knows Ross knows.  She tells him she loves him, but if he wants her to leave she will.  He does not want her to leave - in spite of everything he loves her too much to let her go.
 
Our story ends with Ross and Demelza still walking that tightrope between love and betrayal, but not without hope that they will survive all that life has to throw at them!  I truly hope the TV series gets this far into the saga.  I'm happy I decided to tune in when Poldark aired.  It's opened a whole new world for me.

Pondering Poldark - season 3

I recently read somewhere that season three of Poldark is in the works - I'm hoping that's not just a rumor!!  I've been reading the books and since season one featured the first two books, I figured season two would cover the next two, Jeremy Poldark and Warleggan and posted about them here:

Pondering Poldark - season 2 .  

I have since finished reading The Black Moon and The Four Swans.  I feel confident that season three will likely cover these two.


It's only fair to shout SPOILER ALERT ! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! right about now.  If you don't want to know what happens, stop now !!

The Black Moon was a pretty quick read but advanced the saga nicely.  In the beginning we find Ross and Demelza have made every attempt to mend the rift in their marriage.  While they are not completely healed, they are committed to each other in every way.  They have a baby girl named Clowance - I would really like to know if that name was made up by Winston Graham or if it is a Cornish name!  I will have to research that at some point.  Wheal Leisure belongs to George Warleggan and has been closed.  Wheal Grace is doing very well and has put Ross in good financial shape. 

Elizabeth and George have a son, named Valentine. (poor kid - lol) born on the night of an eclipse of the moon, hence the title The Black Moon. This is considered a bad omen!  Now any veteran soap opera watcher, such as myself, has to wonder if Ross is the father of Valentine.  We know he forced his attentions on Elizabeth just before she marries George - seven months later there is a baby.  However, George suspects nothing at this point and is very happy he has a son.  Personally I think Ross is the baby-daddy, but it is never made certain.  All the while I was reading, I was waiting for Aunt Agatha to point out a birthmark or something that is common in the Poldark family history.  That did not happen, but in the end, she doesn't let me down! 

 Aunt Agatha is soon to be 100 years old and she dearly wants to make it to that age and plans an elaborate party to commemorate it.  She does all this to annoy that upstart, George, who she hates as much as Ross does.  George is beyond cruel to her most of the time and near her birthday he cancels her plans and basically upsets her which leads to her death, but not before she plants the seed of doubt in his mind regarding Valentine - she tells him that baby was NOT a 7 month baby.  I was happy that Aunt Aggie put the screws to George before she died.  It made me feel proud to know her, so to speak.

Dr. Enys and Caroline are still very much in love and want to get married, however he goes into service and gets captured by the French and is living in deplorable conditions in the prison.  Ross cannot bear to think of his friend enduring this and even though Demelza is against it, he takes off to rescue Dwight.  It was tense reading because I was constantly afraid Ross would get caught too, but in the end he heroically saves his friend and another officer who would later cause him a great deal of grief in The Four Swans.

Demelza has two brothers who come to Nampara looking for work.  Ross reluctantly helps them.  We get to know the youngest one, Drake, pretty well as he falls in love with Geoffrey Charles' governess, Morwenna, who is Elizabeth's cousin, and she falls for him too.  George, being the prick he is, has plans for her that will basically ruin her life.  Good Lord, I despise George.  LOL  I had thought at the end of the first season on TV, that he might be redeemable, however, if Debbie Horsefield follows the books, he is not making any headway in that direction (though he's still not as bad as Uncle Cary).
Anyway, Drake and Morwenna's story is a welcome addition to the epic adventure.

A lot of ground was covered with the characters, along with a lot of history.  In fact, I found myself skimming the historical stuff because I was anxious to get on with the story! (I probably shouldn't admit that, lol, but it has been done before and if I really like the book, I re-read it.) The best thing for me, was that Ross and Demelza seemingly survived the heartbreak of the events in Warleggan. Or maybe the real best thing is, thanks to Aidan and Eleanor and the rest of the fantastic cast of the show, I see their faces as I read the story.  I like that added dimension.

So, if you have read this, what did you think?  Did you worry a bit when Ross and Caroline had a moment or two?  Did you get invested in Drake and Morwenna's love story?  Do you think George is gonna get worse before he gets better?  Did you skip over the historical stuff too?  Come on now - Fess up so I won't feel alone in my transgression LOL !

The Four Swans was harder for me to read, but that's another post, hopefully before I forget what happens!

Echoes of the past....

Where does the time go?  It was about 20 years ago that I was part of a group on Prodigy where I would often post essays about what life was like when I was kid.  I look back on that time quite fondly!  I grew up in a large family in a small suburb north of Detroit and have many good memories of those early days of my life.  Here is one of my memories from way back when.

Berkley, 1996:
We moved to our current home when our daughter was 3 years old.  One of things we were going to do at some time in the future was cut down and remove an old maple tree that was putting out roots that were destroying the driveway to the garage.  About a year after moving, I mentioned to my husband about cutting down that tree.  A little voice popped up "you can't cut down Charlotte".  I looked at Mim...."Charlotte??" "Yes, that is Charlotte and you can't cut her down."  I said "you gave that tree a name?"... "She told me"..."Oh, I see"  Jim looked at me and shrugged "we can't cut down Charlotte" and that was that.... 16 years later the driveway is a mess on one side, but Charlotte is still standing proud and tall...the home to various birds every spring.

I can understand that attachment to a tree.  When I was a kid we had Weeping Willows in our yard.  I loved those willow trees..... although I never knew their names, or if I did, I have forgotten them. I lived in a sub-division built in 1949, the year I was born.  When my family moved in, there were no trees, no grass, and every house on the block was exactly the same.  I don't remember it that way, because I was born shortly after Mom and Dad moved there.

Our house on Royal Ave. around 1952

One of the first things they did was plant two small weeping willows in the back yard.  Those trees grew quickly and by the time I was old enough to want to climb trees, they were just the right size. I can still see them there, one bigger than the other, with their long and graceful branches sweeping the lawn.  It was wonderful to sit in the shade of those beautiful trees and read my favorite books, or play with my favorite dolls.  At one point, we discovered you could climb the smaller one and get on top of the garage roof!  Now that was an adventure in itself....it seemed so high...at least a mile and it made you feel so bold to think you would dare the dangerous trek to that lofty perch...overlooking the WHOLE WORLD. It was about that time, my Mother decided the trees were getting too big for the yard... and she was right, but still, I felt a little pang of sorrow when they cut the smaller tree down.  But we still had the bigger one to enjoy, although it was rapidly becoming impossible to climb.

Artwork by The Brothers Hildebrandt

When I was a bit older and read The Fellowship of the Ring for the first time, Old Man Willow, in my mind, looked  just like that old willow in my own backyard!  A few years ago, the big tree had to come down too...it was just overwhelming that little yard.  But my love of trees followed me to adulthood... the stately Oak trees that gave me acorns to fashion into fairy dishes, so long ago; the brilliant Maples with seeds like helicopters to toss in the air and watch as they twirled to the ground; the golden leaves of the Aspens, quaking in the slightest breeze, that became the magical Mallorn trees of  Lothlorien; and the graceful  sweeping elegance of the Weeping Willows that gave me so much joy in those days of  lazy summer afternoons, middle earth, and sitting on top of the world.

My little sister leaning on the old willow tree in our backyard



The Last Goodbye...

This past week we lost a few artists in music and movies/theater.  It's always a little shocking when it's someone you personally admire!  I was not a David Bowie fan, but I know how his followers feel. I felt pretty much the same way when we lost John Lennon and George Harrison.  I was a total beatle-maniac back in the day - yes! one of those screaming teenagers...although I never really screamed when I saw them live in Detroit at the old hockey stadium.  I was up in the nosebleed section (as usual) and all the screamers were on the main floor and I felt too self-consicous to let join in with them.


I am, however, a fan of Alan Rickman.  My first encounter with his talent was Die Hard, in which he played the nefarious Hans Gruber - what a wonderful role!  I didn't know he was British, his accent was so convincing.  Then he switched to an American one when John runs into him.  Brilliant.


Then came Quigley Down Under - another evil man, but glorious to the end.  I remember seeing him a film that I can't remember the name of, in which he played a sweet and loveable guy and was pleasantly suprised to see him a role like that.  I wish I could remember the name of the movie - it seems to me, his character was an artist. 


If I were to try and name a favorite role, I'd guess it would be Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility, followed closely by Alexander Dane in Galaxy Quest and of course, Severus Snape in Harry Potter - indeed my favorite scene in all the Potter movies is when he finds Lily dead and he's crying as he holds her - very powerful scene. 


So here is my tribute to this wonderful actor - I hope you can view it on whatever device you use, but if you have trouble, find a pc!  Pictures are from image searches and I do not have any specific information on who took them.  If you feel one of them is exclusively yours, give yourself credit in the comments.  Including stills from Die Hard, Quigley Down Under, Robin Hood Prince of Theives, Blow Dry, Galaxy Quest, Sense and Sensibility, Love Actually, and Harry Potter.

When is enough, enough?



Watching the president today as he told the nation he was taking steps to put more gun controls in place got me to thinking about this situation.  I don't think I'm in the minority when I say I support the 2nd amendment to the constitution which allows our citizens the right to bear arms.  It's one of the 2 most sacred freedoms to me personally (the other being freedom of religion and the separation of church and state).

However...  that doesn't mean I think everyone should be able to have anything they want in the way of firearms !!

I fully support everything the president wants to do.  Nothing he proposed to do will negate the 2nd amendment!  I also fully expect the Obama haters and the gun extremists will be flooding the internet with their memes, threats, and other bullshit.  That's ok, it's a free country after all.

Here's my answer to said bullshit:

When is enough, enough?

For the Love of Mitchell......

I felt like making a video of Mitchell from Being Human and I still don't have the proper software to do it, so I made a another slideshow featuring pictures from all over the net that I have collected in the past seven months - I sincerely do not know who took the photos with the exception of a few screen shots I took from my DVD of season one of Being Human.  If you the viewer, feel one of the photos used in this vid is exclusively one of yours, feel free to give your self credit in the comments.  The song used is a clip from an mp3 that I purchased on Amazon and is sung by a duo called The Civil Wars. 





Here are the lyrics used in the vid:

It's not your eyes
It's not what you say
It's not your laughter that gives you away
You're just lonely
You've been lonely, too long

All your actin'
Your thin disguise
All your perfectly delivered lies
They don't fool me
You've been lonely, too long

Let me in the wall, you've built around
And we can light a match and burn it down
Let me hold your hand and dance 'round and 'round the flame
In front of us
Dust to....

You've held your head up
You've fought the fight
You bear the scars
You've done your time
Listen to me
You've been lonely, too long

Let me in the wall, you've built around
And we can light a match and burn them down
And let me hold your hand and dance 'round and 'round the flames
In front of us
Dust to dust