Mrs Jones and Mrs Hughes

I know it seems as though Trelawnyd is populated by a whole army of nicknamed given characters from a Gerald Durrell novel but it was never always thus. A decade ago, before I ever knew of the existance of village Elder Islwyn, Big Mary & Gay Gordon, Gentleman farmer Ralph, Auntie Gladys, The Affable Despots, The Red Faced Welsh Farmer ( RFWF) and now the world famous Mrs Trellis, I knew no one.
This morning at 6 am, I was walking back home in The Prof's soggy slippers with the dogs when I realised the date.
It's the second of September today.
We got the keys to the cottage exactly a decade ago.
It was, as I recall a weekday afternoon. Chris as usual was at work and I had driven up from our other cottage in Meliden to the village. It was cold but sunny.
The cottage was a shell then. It had cold laminate floors in the living room and bare badly painted walls and typical of an ancient property with 18 inch walls it felt cold and slightly damp without being aired.
I busied myself with list making and cleaning.

We only had two dogs then. A spoilt lovable Welsh terrier called Finlay and a bad tempered Scottie bitch called Maddie. Both dogs sat on the bedroom window seat in the sun, looking out over the field, I was to rent a few years later.
I wondered if we had done the right thing.
We knew no one in the village, I was still getting used to the fact I was a junior nurse again in a small district general hospital and I suddenly missed not running my own Ward  with a group of people I knew and respected. Sheffield was a city filed with friendly faces and friends.
It all seemed rather daunting.
I was washing paintwork down in the bedroom, preparing it for painting when I heard the front gate open. Both dogs were looking down at something through the window and I heard the faint chatter of voices. sing song voices in Welsh.
Now it was neigh on 25 years since I learnt Welsh at school, and rapid conversational Welsh spoken quickly and punctuated with many expressions of surprise such as " duw duw duw" ( pronounced Dew, Dew, Dew) left me completely in the dark, and so I crept downstairs so see who it was.

Peeping through the living room window, were two elderly ladies .

One was dressed neatly a tweed skirt and hat, the other more scruffily in a old green cardigan. Both were straining their eyes next to the glass in order to get a good look of the living room.
I heard the scruffier one say the English words " Doctor and nurse " to which the other lady gave a big " ooooooh "
Our arrival had obviously been discussed already by village gossips!
I let them amble off back up the lane and hurried through the kitchen to catch them both as they were passing the back wall.
The lady in the cardigan had taken the other's arm . I noticed that she had massively swollen legs and no ankles to speak of.
" Hello!" I called out and both women jumped like deer.
" Hello" both replied together
I decided then and there to be socialble
And I held my hand out to shake their hands
The first two people I met from Trelawnyd .....alas they are no longer with us

Mrs Banks- Hughes and Mrs Jones

Funny what you remember  eh?