In which I will watch things other than Doctor Who (so long as they contain DW-linked actors)

I went to see An Education today and really enjoyed it.  Carey Muligan is indeed outstanding.  Our Sally Sparrow totally deserves her Oscar nomination.  Her performance hits just the right mix of confidence and vulnerability.   Also, I was startled to see Olivia Williams, known to Dollhouse fans as Adelle Dewitt, in this movie too!  She wears some really bad glasses to play the hard-edged yet caring teacher, and of course she rocks. 

Following the lead of just about my entire flist, I've finally started watching Merlin.  I am currently five episodes in and having a grand time.  It makes Doctor Who seem based on rigorous logic, but it's far too charming not to love. The cast is absolutely gorgeous (and contains Giles!)  Merlin in particular is utterly adorkable.  Also, the slash doesn't need goggles.  (Seriously, Merlin thrashing around in a fever dream while calling out Arthur's name?  That has to be intentionally slashy.)   Part of me wants to rush through at top speed so I can be caught up enough to participate in fandom without spoilers, but part of me wants to go slowly to savor the pleasure of discovering a new series. 

In Blackwater Woods

Meme from jaclynhyde  (I think someone else on the f-list also posted this meme lately and I neglected to do it then):  when you see this, post a poem in your journal.

In Blackwater Woods
by Mary Oliver
--------------------------

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,

the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned

in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side

is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

---------------------------

I discovered this poem because of a lovely wallpaper (that I now can't find the maker of, alas!) featuring Ten, Rose, and Jack that quoted the final nine lines.  It's a gorgeous, wise poem.