SOL’S GARDEN JOBS FOR JULY

Harvest Jerusalem artichokes and yacón. Replant corms for more.

Finish planting of garlic, onions, and shallots. Keep them weed-free with mulch or regular hoeing. Cloche leafy greens.

Erect a fence for climbing peas.

Liquid fertilise leafy greens like Brassicas with seaweed, urine, or manure brews for better growth.

Plant perennials like asparagus, globe artichokes and horseradish.

Tidy up edges with loose rocks and wood to remove hibernating slugs and snails.

Put out early seed potatoes to chit in the light for strong sprouts, ready for early-August planting. Prepare early potato beds with loads of organic matter and compost. Early planting is advisable with the threat of the psyllid pest.

Hothouse:

Plant more salads. Clean plastic or glass for more light. Tidy propagation stuff in preparation for August sowing. Make or buy seed raising or potting up mix.

Sow direct: All seeds 1, 12 and 28 July. Mesclun salad and spring onions (also 2, 10-11, 28-29 July). Broad beans (also 3-4, 12 and 30-31 July). Flowers, eg lobelia (also 9 and 27 July).

Sow for transplanting: All seeds 1, 12 and 28 July. Leafy greens (spinach, spinach beet, lettuce, endive, spring cabbage, Chinese cabbage) (also 2, 10-11, 28-29 July). Onions (red and brown) (also 6-7 July). Flowers, eg snapdragon (also 9 and 27 July).

Plant: Best 14-25 July. Salad greens, spinach beet (cover), spinach, cabbages, garlic, onions, broccoli, and cauliflower.

Flowers, eg divide gladioli.

Herb care:

Re-pot herbs in containers with new mix.

Transplant rooted cuttings like rosemary in a dryish sunny spot.

Fruit care:

Harvest cherry guavas, citrus, tamarillos, pepinos and kiwifruit.

Protect young subtropicals like avocados with frost/wind cloth.

Plant beneficial perennials into the orchard, like dahlias, multiplying leeks, and flowers like everlasting daisy, to add diversity.

Feed orchard if haven’t yet with mix of dolomite/lime, rock phosphate, wood ash and manure, or do a soil test. Mulch orchard with wood chip after pruning your shelter or ornamentals.

Divide rhubarb and plant to create more plants. Spray citrus with all-purpose oil or neem for scale/aphid/ whitefly.

Spray all fruits with diluted seaweed. Spray copper oxychloride or lime sulphur (but not both together) on disease-prone fruits.

General garden care:

Plant perennials, shrubs, and trees.

General garden maintenance, like unblocking drains, redoing paths and wooden edging, clean and fix tools. Organise garden gear, eg stakes, string lines, cloches, labels, etc.

Prune roses and other ornamental trees and shrubs. Take semi-hardwood and hardwood cuttings (eg deciduous trees and shrubs), putting them in coarse sand and sawdust. Transplant rooted cuttings, eg hebe.

Tidy up perennial borders, shredding woody material for mulch or compost.

Divide herbaceous perennials like Shasta daisy. Turn compost heaps. Cover.

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Review: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Screening Schedule - July

Fri 30 4:00 Elemental (PG) FINAL

7:30 Indiana Jones & the Dial of Destiny (M)

Sat 1 3:00 GB Community Light Festival (Koha)

7:30 AllShorts Film Festival (M) ENCORE

Sun 2 4:00 NT Live: Much Ado About Nothing (PG) $25/$20

7:30 The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (M) FINAL

Wed 5 5:30 Indiana Jones & the Dial of Destiny (M) FINAL

Thu 6 2:00 The Little Mermaid (PG)

As will be evident to anyone having seen the trailer for The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, veteran British thespian Jim Broadbent takes on the title role so effortlessly that this hardly feels like acting. And the fact that he also recorded the audiobook of the original novel, which this film is based upon, cements him even more deeply into this role.

As with most seemingly quaint British films featuring wellknown talent of a certain age since the pandemic, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry conceals a dark heart, and the walk itself will turn out to be the lesser of the challenges Harold must overcome.

Harold Fry is a quiet man, living an apparently unremarkable life with his wife Maureen (Penelope Wilton), in the south of England. On hearing that a former workmate, Queenie Hennessy, is dying of cancer in a hospice at the other end of the country, he writes her a letter and sets out to post it, little realising that he won’t see his home again for months.

A chance encounter sets Harold on a completely unexpected path, and he decides that by walking the 500 miles to Berwickupon-Tweed to see Queenie, he can somehow keep her alive.

So far, so cosily eccentric. Unsuspecting audiences will probably assume a smile of polite amusement as Harold’s adventure begins, encouraged to think it will stay put for the duration of the film.

“The only time you walk is to get to the car!” shrieks his horrified wife when he informs her of his impromptu odyssey, from a phone box (he’s left his cellphone on the kitchen table). Maureen’s degree of hurt at his abandonment is our first hint of something more traumatic beneath the surface of their life together.

But in the meantime, Harold is hitting his stride. Meeting various people along the way, he is struck by the kindness of strangers, particularly when his exhausted body collapses and he is taken in by Martina, a Slovenian immigrant who is forced to work as a cleaner. She treats his infected blisters with brusque efficiency and selflessly lets him recover in her spare room for a couple of days. When he timidly enquires if she is a nurse, she drily corrects him: “I’m a doctor – they let women do that, these days”. Martina is a perfect example of one of many characters who you can be forgiven for thinking a more interesting film could have been built around. Will, the born-again homeless youth who begs to join the pensioner on his journey, is another.

However, as Harold’s mission gains momentum and the media become aware, this most unremarkable of men becomes a reluctant national celebrity. Initially amused, he quickly discovers the downside of having a noisy band of followers encroaching upon his personal journey. But the time he has had to reflect also allows us to see into Harold’s tragic past and understand the true reasons for his unexpected ordeal. A gentle film about a long walk becomes a searing examination of grief and regret, with Broadbent and Wilton giving full vent to their prodigious talent. Mistakes of the past can’t be undone, but as he nears his destination, Harold also discovers that some kind of peace and even salvation might still be possible.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is a remarkable journey, geographically and emotionally, but also not an easy one in either respect.

Still on the subject of intrepid pensioners, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny screens at 7.30pm tonight. Adventuring archeologist Doctor Henry Jones, Jr needs no introduction, but hopes are high that this fifth and final film in the franchise will give him the rousing farewell he deserves.

And for those of you who missed it, there is an encore screening of the tremendously successful AllShorts Film festival tomorrow night. Make sure you catch the best AllShorts yet!

7:30 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part 1) (PG) ENCORE

Fri 7 4:00 The Little Mermaid 3D (PG) FINAL

Sat

7:30 Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (M)

7:30

Fri

7:30

Sat 15 2:00 RAINY DAY ONLY MATINEE

7:30 Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (Part 1) (TBC)

Sun 16 4:30 Jos (Whispers of Gold prequel) (E) ENCORE

7:30 Eric Clapton: Across 24 Nights (TBC) FINAL

Wed 19 5:30 Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (Part 1) (TBC)

Thu 20 7:30 Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (M) FINAL

Fri 21 4:00 Cats in the Museum (G) FINAL

7:30 Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (Part 1) (TBC) FINAL

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THIS PROGRAMME:

SCHOOL HOLIDAY PROGRAMME

CLASSIC FILM SEASON

GB LIGHT FESTIVAL: 3PM Come along to this community event with music, projections, spoken word, circus, comedy and dance. Will continue onto the Junction Green at 5.30. Koha entry.

JOS (E) Documentary 1hr30m ENCORE

For nearly 100 years Jos Divis, who saved a town, was missing from histories of NZ photography. Whispers of Gold will play as a prequel which tells Waiuta’s story from its beginnings to the current day.

The youngest of King Triton’s daughters and the most defiant, Ariel longs to find out more about the world beyond the sea and, while visiting the surface, falls for the dashing Prince Eric.

We have some fun movies coming up these holidays, with an extra 2pm screening on a Thursday. Wet day movies at 2pm on Monday, Tuesday & Saturday (final Saturday will be the 22nd). See programme for more details.

JULY

HOLIDAYS SUN 9 th

Movie Descriptions

THE LITTLE MERMAID (PG) 2hr15m Fantasy/Kids/Family

Starting on Sunday 9th July at 4.30, we have our first classic film with Singin’ in the Rain from 1952! These will continue every 3 weeks till the end of October. More details to follow.

ALLSHORTS FILM FESTIVAL (M) 1hr30m ENCORE

An encore of some of the best/ favourite short films from the festival. Films from around the world with something for everyone with music, docos, dramas, comedy, fantasy, adventure, animation + more.

CATS IN THE MUSEUM (G) Kids/Family 1hr30m

Family film about the famous four-legged inhabitants of the St Petersburg Winter Palace—museum cats that protect the territory of the State Hermitage from rats and mice.

Musical/Romance

ERIC CLAPTON: ACROSS 24 NIGHTS (TBC) 2hrs

Music/Live Performance

A cinematic remaster of Eric Clapton's 24-night-long string of performances, with different line-ups and sets, in the early '90s at the Royal Albert Hall.

Documentary

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: DEAD RECKONING (P 1) (TBC) 2hr30m

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission yet: To track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands.

TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS (M) 2hr10m Action

Go on a '90s globetrotting adventure with the Autobots and introduce a whole new faction of Transformer – the Maximals – to the existing battle on earth between Autobots and Decepticons.

MET OPERA: FALSTAFF (Verdi) (PG) 3hr15m Sun 23 July

Baritone Michael Volle stars as the caddish knight Falstaff, gleefully tormented by a trio of clever women who deliver his comeuppance, in Verdi’s glorious Shakespearean comedy.

Action/Thriller

THE BLUE CAFTAN (M) Drama 2hrs (subtitles) Sat 22 July Halim has been married for a long time to Mina, with whom he runs a traditional caftan store in the médina of Salé, in Morocco. The couple has always lived with Halim's secret, his homosexuality.

SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952) Classic Film (G) 1hr40m Comedy MGM's 1952 classic musical of Hollywood's golden age, with Gene Kelly dancing up a storm. Roger Ebert: "There is no movie musical more fun than Singin' in the Rain, and few that remain as fresh..."

Musical/Romance