Saturday 29 June 2013

Mum, Dad and their tame otters

Daphne Neville with Rudi and Martin Neville with Belinda - their tame otters

My parents have kept tame otters since about 1980.
Over the years they have collected quite a few stories about them.


They are very inquisitive,


love eggs


and playing in the hay.


but most of all, they love being loved.

They appeared on CBBC TV in 'Wild' one Saturday morning recently
and will be at the Royal Welsh Show all this week 

These beautiful photographs were taken recently for a feature in the Sunday Telegraph

Please click here for the article published on 21st July 2013 


Friday 21 June 2013

A Wild Garden in Gloucestershire ~




For everything there is a season,
    a time for every activity under heaven.



A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.


A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.


A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.


A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.


A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.


A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time ti be quiet and a time to speak.


A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.



Ecclesiastes 3 v 1-8


Monday 3 June 2013

Mum is to appear in the new film 'Summer in February'



'Summer in February'
Dan Stevens, Daphne Neville and Dominic Cooper
on location during the filming of 'Summer in February'


The movie 'Summer in February' opens with a scene on a Cornish cliff top that features my mother as a bird-watcher. She tells me that she looks just like her mother on screen.

'Summer in February', stars Dominic Cooper as the turn-of-the-century artist AJ Munnings, Emily Browning as Florence Carter-Wood his wife and Dan Stevens as Gilbert Evans.

The film is beautifully photographed by Andrew Dunn, who funnily enough was the lighting cameraman when I worked on the crew of the BBC drama serial 'My Family and Other Animals' made on location in Corfu. He had a house near ours in the Cotswolds and knows all about my mother's kitchen.

'Dominic Cooper is horrid,' she declared.

'Really horrid? Horrid in real life?'

'Oh, no. Horrid as the character. In real life he couldn't be sweeter. He has a lovely smile.'

Dominic Cooper as AJ Munnings with Daphne Neville who plays a bird-watcher in 'Summer in February'

You won't see Mum on the trailer but it is beautiful ~



To read a little about Dan Stevens' next film please click here.