Butterfly Day
9 August

Last weekend at Quakers, discussion centred around how few butterflies there had been this year.

Today showed that they've simply been delayed. Our garden was heaving with them and they swarmed the buddleja. Most numerous were the Peacock butterflies.

This is good because it means that we have consistently drawn them to our garden for over five years now.

Ross and I shouldn't actually have been at home. We have been trying to visit his parents for the past two weekends. Last weekend Ross was feeling depleted; this weekend his family have been struck down by a tummy bug. In both cases, we postponed the trip. This means that it's probably going to be September now before we get to see them.

So, we spent time in the garden instead. The combination of sun and rain which we have been having this summer has favoured all vegetation - weeds as well as flowers and shrubs. So, I weeded. Ross continued with his long-term project of re-pointing the wall exposed by the demolition of the outhouses.

We also talked a little with our neighbours. Spencer's replacements are a jolly lot - the two young lads (Matthew, the elder, is ten) have been inquisitive about the idea of two men living together but we've explained that it's cheaper than having two houses.

Jay, in the bottom flat on the other side, has split up with his girlfriend. She has taken their baby off who knows where; he has ceremoniously burnt all her belongings. It does seem that no-one who lives in that flat seems to have a happy time of things.

The top flat had remained empty for a long while after last year's drugs raid and is still unoccupied. However, the landlord's wife's son is due to move in once the the place has been renovated. Given the state it was left in by the previous occupants, this could take a long while.

We had been putting off going to see the latest Harry Potter movie because the intention was to see it with Ross's parents. But, with all the delays, we could wait no longer and took ourselves off to the Plaza cinema last night.

Well the two and a half hours passed easily enough but I'm afraid that I came away dissatisfied. The pace of the whole thing felt rushed rather than headlong. The film felt simply as though it were a rapid canter through an outline of the narrative with no pause for context or significance. As a consequence, unlike the novel, there didn't appear to be any shape or flow to the piece.

And many important issues were glossed over and this is bound to affect not only future narratives but also the message of the series as a whole.

For example, we heard little or nothing about...

• why Harry was having extra lessons with Dumbledore
• the importance of Voldemort's back history and why Dumbledore is searching for horcruxes
• how Dumbledore's hand was injured destroying the horcrux contained in Marvolo Gaunt's ring - this belonged to Tom Riddle and will be bequeathed to Harry by Dumbledore in Book 7
• the importance for Voldemort of both the Prophecy and the idea of The Chosen One
• Snape's overhearing of part of the Prophecy and telling what he heard to Voldemort
• Dumbledore's insistence on Snape's remorse at having caused James and Lily Potter's deaths
• Slughorn's insistence on Harry having inherited his ability at potions from his mother Lily
• Harry and Ron's admiration for the Half-Blood Prince
• Harry unknowingly using Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem to mark the position of the Half-Blood Prince's potions book in the Room of Requirements
• Dumbledore's burial in a crypt at Hogwart's holding his wand in his hand

So, that's really most of the plot of the next novel completely goosed.

On the whole, the staging was pretty OK. Visually, the whole film had a sort of bleached quality that suggested the continuing presence of Dementors - though they were never mentioned. Character portrayals were as good as they were allowed to be in the circumstances. I don't think that Maggie Smith, Ronnie Coltrane or Alan Rickman were used to their best advantages.

However, I really disliked Jim Broadbent's portrayal of Horace Slughorn. It's the first time that I've really taken exception to any of the characterisations - though I think that Richard Harris was a better Dumbledore than Michael Gambon has proven to be.

On the other hand, I'm finding Tom Felton's smartly suited Draco Malfoy curiously and increasingly attractive.

So, mixed feelings overall. I think that it's one of the least successful adaptations so far even if it's a reasonable film in its own right.

Very good, however, even though it was screened nearly a month ago, was Children of Earth - a week long series of Torchwood. It was the best television we've had so far the summer. As with anything by Russell T Davies, there were moments of thrilling action and conflicted emotions, a narrative drive of almost operatic bravura and humour of quite jaw-dropping brilliance - there was a fabulous comment about school league tables.

The only thing that I disliked was that the programmes had a definite feel of being the end of the franchise - which is a great pity as I've really enjoyed the alien chasing antics over the past few years.

I suppose I should also put on record my dislike of this volume of short stories by DH Lawrence. Written late in his life, they are a distillation of all of the tics and quirks of his literary style which I was enthralled by in my younger years and which, now, seem mannered and irritating. I did not complete the set. I could not. I gave up.