A Mixed Bag

Somedays I don't see a living soul in the village.
Other days it feels like Piccadilly Circus down the lane.
Such is the way of the world.
The DIY lesbians from Prestatyn called in yesterday morning with a pressie of a large sack of layers pellets for the hens. You may remember me mentioning them a while back, as they were the gals that put together three donated flat back chicken coops in forty minutes flat!
Come the zombie apocalypse, they will be useful women to have on your team!  
I curbed the urge to ask them to repair the loose slates on the cottage roof, though I am sure if I had asked them both would have shot up the ladder like a ferret up a drainpipe
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As we were chatting Maureen from the village friendship group called down with some info for the Community Council website..... I have copied her info below for any interested party to read...... the club welcomes any new members, and after that  I found a small queue of  two customers standing uncertainly by the back gate waiting for eggs. Winifred was standing guard in front of them with her best blank expression on her face.
Bulldogs seldom smile...even when they are hysterically happy......thats why they make excellent guard dogs

After this, I delivered eggs to affable despot Jason and to customers on Chapel Street and as I was walking back home, a red car shot past me with a middle aged woman shouting energetically through the open window, she was waving like a loon!
"CON-------GRAT--------U----------LATIONS!!!!!!!" she yelled
It was Eirlys from the farm on the other side of the village......I think she had just read my blog!

Around lunchtime, Bunty, turned up for a cup of coffee She was on her way back from collecting a load of cement.


Bunty? near enough

we drank our coffee, leaning on the field gate, without saying very much. In her hutch by the gate, Mary popped her head out of her sleeping quarters and sat watching us quietly

" there's a fucking rabbit in that chicken coop" Bunty growled in passing

If you look close enough... the whole world seems just a tad surreal!
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The Trelawnyd Friendship Club
By Maureen Gregory (Club Chair)

Trelawnyd Friendship Club came into being 32 years ago and was founded for the benefit of the residents of Trelawnyd and surrounding villages.
We have a membership of 80 wth a regular participation of between 50-60 souls.
We are a voluntary organisation with a committee of 12 .
Mrs Irene Murray is Club Treasurer and Mrs Anne Hindle is Club Secretary.
I think the reason we are such a successful club lies in the fact that we “don’t think old!” Even though our members range between 60 and 92, we all feel years “younger in the head..not in the body!”
Apart from a month’s holiday in August, we have a club meeting and one trip out every month. At the meetings in the memorial Hall we have speakers, quizzes, musical entertainments and the odd bingo.
We pride ourselves on a marvellously diverse programme of speakers.
We do tend NOT to have speakers on medical conditions and illnesses as we hope when our members come to us for an afternoon out, they can forget their aches and pains and be entertained or informed on “brighter” subjects. This is not digging our heels in the sand but is how we keep the afternoon light, bright and enjoyable
Indeed, one of our most favourite entertainers was Fatima the belly dancer! Who invited us all to join in with her dancing! …..which we all did!!!
I think our members enjoy coming and it keeps us all involved, interested, entertained and above all not isolated.
One of the great rewards is seeing friendships forged and loneliness eliminated.
Mrs Murray organises the trips. I, as Chair, organises the speakers and Mrs Hindle completes the secretarial leg work and applies for grant support. I was asked recently by Flintshire County Council to speak at a meeting of the 50+ network, which is funded by the “older Peroples’ Strategy” in Flintshire. They wanted to know the secret of such a successful club!...I told them that I thought it was because we think young and try to keep a sense of fun in everything we do.
The whole ethos is to keep our older community involved, interested , entertained and above all NOT isolated.

Further information on Trelawnyd’s Friendship Group can be sought from Chair Maureen Gregory on Trelawnyd 570604

50 comments:

  1. I think l`'ll move to Trelawnyd so I can join!

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  2. Me too Diane!
    Did you watch the @Gay Wedding the musical' last night John?
    I found it very moving and also entertaining, laughing and crying in equal parts.

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    1. No I didn't but I read about it..... Chris hated it....he hates fuss

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  3. I really did move onto the wrong hillside didn't I, Trelawnyd seems much more like my kind of place.

    I currently have a Jack Russell guarding a bone in the bathroom, she barks at anyone daring to use the toilet!! A Pug sleeping upside down on the sofa snoring for England and the other Jack Russell with her nether regions poking out of a rabbit hole half way up the hill.

    I have a cockerel sat on the shelf in the shed and two hens that think it much easier to push through a barbed wire fence to lay their eggs in a pile of mouldy leaves than it is to step into a nesting box in the comfort of the henhouse.

    I dread to think what it will be like here when the pigs and goats arrive!!

    (And 'DIY lesbians' made me laugh out loud!!)

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    Replies
    1. I seriously want you to enter EVERYTHING in the flower show this year
      Have you seen the schedule?

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    2. OMG can we enter? can we have an internet version?

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    3. No I haven't seen the schedule .... dare I look!!

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  4. Bunty becomes more attractive by the day!

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  5. Seems a bit of a Clatterford moment! Your stories are so lovely. They just set the day for me. Makes for a varied and colorful world....I still say it would be a great sitcom.

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  6. Put me down for belly dancing .
    Jane x

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  7. Methinks your blog and comments should be recommended reading for the Friendship Club. Entertaining, with a global reach! It's like a free-for-all pen-pal club.

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    Replies
    1. I have bigged up going gently to the friendship group..I wonder if any are reading this rubbish?

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  8. Actually, the world is wonderfully real. Especially in spring!

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  9. Anonymous1:18 pm

    You can never have enough DIY females as friends......we're a great bunch.
    Are you going to build Mary a little wire run so she can get some exercise now that her leg is starting to improve?

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    Replies
    1. I have a spare run, but at the moment two broody hens are sitting on eggs in it

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  10. What a wonderful friendship club! They sound so positive and cheerful and I like the fact that they avoid talking about illness and ailments, which can bring people down big time. It sounds like a lovely place to live.

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  11. I love these kind of days.....never know what will happen next.
    Yes, life can be very surreal alright!

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  12. you make my sister and i doing wasjigs sound so boring got to getout could you ask your diy girs to pop in

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    Replies
    1. Been drinking susiepoo?

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    2. Anonymous9:21 am

      What are wasjigs' or is it a question I shouldn't ask in polite society?

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    3. A wasjig is a back to front jigsaw some are a scene where you have to imagine how it would look 50 yrs on, some there is a person and you have to try to put together what he is looking at ..They are more difficult than a normal jigsaw but very addictive

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  13. You make me laugh every time I read you and right now that is a gift. :o) I just wish I was your neighbor so I could be having coffee out at the field gate and buying some of your fresh eggs. Thanks for sharing your life here.

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  14. Hello, Dear John! I've been snowed in all year. I'm so glad to be able to read a bit back on your blog and catch up. Love to you...from your Isobelle... xoxoxoxoxoxo

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  15. If you are involved in that Friendship Group John, then I am sure that all the criteria mentioned in the ethos statement are fulfilled! (particularly the entertainment).

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    Replies
    1. It's nothing to do with me pat... I'm just Bigging it up for the council website

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  16. The world IS surreal - which is a part of its charm.

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  17. I have suggested to Rachel that she move to Trelawnyd. The place was made for her.

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    Replies
    1. Oh I think the genteel Bath is much more her bag

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    2. I'd rather give Bunty a slipped berth, talking of mixed bags.

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    3. I can't remember. I was pissed when I wrote it.

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  18. I would love to live some where like that. Never boring

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    Replies
    1. In the winter...it's dreadfully boring sol

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  19. You have some dynamic ladies there! Bunty is a name that warms my heart and the talented DIY'ers have enviable skills, I have never used a power tool, I must remedy that - also love your Friendship group, you must get Fatima back, I have only belly danced once although I remember a colleague of mine once wanted me to dance the 7 veils for him, he was a little perky that day x x x

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    Replies
    1. Northern women.....
      They saved Britain so many times peaches

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  20. The Friendship Club sounds wonderful. I followed your advice about the tits thing on the garden club blog-not a big hit.....however the 'I was so excited about spring I wet my plants' joke did better. A book you might enjoy is Bachelor Brothers Bed and Breakfast by Bill Richardson-although fiction he could be writing about your village,complete with lesbian car mechanics.

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  21. "she would have shot up the ladder like a ferret up a drainpipe"...I just about spit my drink all over my computer. If there is a zombie apocalypse, I'm going to find a way to get there!

    p.s. I wish we had some DIY lesbians near our farm, I've got a ton of projects....

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  22. Is Bunty coming to the wedding? Thought she might make a good MC?!

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    Replies
    1. Funny I have not got her telephone number
      She tends to call in on spec so to speak

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  23. I wants to join the friendship club and I'm nearly old enough to do so. How nice they sound.

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  24. I hope I'm sunning myself in heaven long before the zombie apocalypse.

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  25. Somehow I am a little sad there is no video to accompany the following statement.
    "Indeed, one of our most favourite entertainers was Fatima the belly dancer! Who invited us all to join in with her dancing! …..which we all did!!!"

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  26. John, you never fail to make us laugh - you bugger you! I've also had a good laugh at some of the comments left about us!!! xx

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I love all comments Except abusive ones from arseholes