the thirty nine steps (pt. ii)

a beautiful summer day here in peterpatch with the temperature hovering around 25 celsius, feels like 29 celsius says the weather channel. my friend cathy took me berry picking for the first time in my life. we each picked a basket of strawberries - apparently it's late for strawberries but there were tons and tons of them - well hundreds of them anyway! the berry patch lies about twenty miles north of peterborough in a lovely setting of orderly rows of berries, gorgeous tree-lines, and dusty cart tracks.

when we went to pay for the berries my friend asked in an unnecessarily loud voice, "how old are you steven?" "fifty one" i replied . . . . "and it's his first time berry picking!" she added with glee. shock and horror and absolute stunned amazement rippled through the little shack. "where do you live that you can't pick berries?" asked the bemused proprietor. i was not too ashamed to answer that i'd always always bought my berries at the shop or that my parents had done all the preserving and bottling so why would i bother . . . . . but now when i reflect on it all . . . oh i'm so ashamed of myself!!

however! positively . . . . i am going back in a couple of weeks to pick tomatoes and i am going to try my hand at chutney. so there. i loved loved loved picking the berries. it was so fun! in-between picking and eating the bright red firm luscious lovely yummy sweet little berries, my friend and i talked education research and planned out some big plans for the coming academic year which made it double fun. right now i am enjoying a tasty dark beer from hockley valley. tomorrow my wife and son will be on the eurostar train that will take them under the english channel to paris. later tomorrow they will go up the eiffel tower and then have dinner at a lovely restaurant and a special illumination drive. it amazes me to write all that.

tonight i am going to continue to enjoy the "thirty nine steps". in this episode things get a little sloppier as in more interesting still! here are some cool pics from the movie including this one that if you watch early in the film, features our very own hitchcock - yep the director - in a very brief cameo....
here are a couple more stills . . .


you know you're tired of teasers so push the play button and find out what happens in the second installment of “the thirty nine steps”.

part four.
part five.
part six.
absolutely ripping stuff! i can't wait for the next installment . . . tomorrow i'll post the third and last post of . . . the thirty nine steps!!