Just Before Bed

All the neighbour's lights have come on .

Walked bulldog in bare feet for last walk of the night. Stepped on frog

Frog screamed

I screamed even louder

Bulldog then swallowed frog

I then screamed again

Off to lie down in a darkened room

A New Set Of Characters

The new Trelawnyd community Association had their open afternoon today in the village hall and it was nice to see a new set of characters coming into the spotlight as we , the committee from the Flower Show step back into the shadows .
Information from the friendship group and choir stood alongside the flyers for the folk music concerts, newly proposed youth club, art and craft group, women's institute and environmental society and even the local archery club brought a full scale target in the shape of a wild boar to advertise their presence .
One wag who stopped by my table ( I was bigging up the village afternoon tea party event in July btw ) suggested that we use the archery club to remove Irene from the church field!

This will divide things

Trelawnyd Church has a shiny new notice on the gates...Now I am the first one to argue all dogs should be well behaved and under their owners control at all times but I think this decision is heavy handed especially as the old churchyard cemetary is overseen by flintshire county council. Interestingly on the council website it is stated that dogs are " always welcome in cemeteries as long as they are on a lead"I understand that the sign was put up by the church council after village elder Islwyn was accidentally head butted by a local Labrador

So I for one will be enjoying the old graveyard with old Winnie in tow for a good while longer

56 .....50 fucking 6

I am 56 today
I know my own mind, I know myself, I know what I like.
I know what I don't like..I'm not a silly young queen.......never had been
It's my birthday though.....
Later I will tell you about my " No dogs in the churchyard" debacle

But for now this is how I feel about my birthday.....and how I will celebrate it......
ITS A quiet affair
Hey ho

Over To You

Bingley , the turkey on the way to the vets in the car! 

A popular post

I have a question today. A question to my blog followers.
What blog entry on Going Gently do you most remember?
And why?

The Story Of Number 21

Number 21

Recently I was asked by a new blog follower to tell them the story of Number 21
The rather sweet photo of the piglet on my side bar somewhat intrigued them and they wanted to know more about her and why I had celebrated her in such a way.
They may be surprised to find out that Number 21 was a pure monster.

Some years ago now , after some weeks preparation I came home with two piglets in the back of the old berlingo. The little boar was a perky saddleback and the sow piglet was a feisty Gloucester old spot.
I planned to fatten both up for the table.
From the get go, I was determined not to get attached to the two of them and so always referred to both by their  ear tag numbers.
It was not hard not to get attached to number 21.
She was a real bitch.

Where Number 12  grew into a massive, benign six footer teddy bear of a pig Number 21 developed clear psycopathic tendencies . Mercilessly she bullied her sty mate, nipping and biting him away from any tidbit that I or the neighbours threw for them and over a two month period she caught and ate at least twelve chickens who were stupid enough to wander into her enclosure. ( I had put the losses down to a fox until I actually saw her attack and rip to pieces a sleepy buff Orpington who had chosen to sunbathe in the wrong place.

The lovely number 12 with 21

When she was fully grown I refused to enter the sty without a pig board or a stick for protection for where Number 12 would nibble my fingers playfully as I stroked him Number 21 would try to take great chunks out of my wellies , thighs and buttocks when the mood took her.

I was constantly paranoid about her and the dogs as I had no doubt that if she caught one of them she would have killed them within seconds and this fear was substantiated by the sight of her once disembowelling a newly deceased female turkey called Gloria, a body that I lowered into the sty at 8 am one morning and one that had totally disappeared ( beak, feathers and feet included) by noon.

I shed a small tear when Number 12 wandered good naturedly into the abattoir in Denbigh a year to the day after he arrived.
I didn't miss Number 21 at all.
But she sure did taste good!

Over 85 kilos of sausages 

Laburnum On Fire

I was late cooking supper tonight.
In true a Rachel style I'll tell you what I cooked
Lamb, new potatoes in a tad of butter and green veg.
The leader of the male voice choir had rung earlier. He had posted the posters of the village concert  through our letter box and had been embroiled in a tug of war with William after doing so.
He had left the tooth marked posters by the front door after a short battle and had rung me to see if I could display them on the village notice boards .
A few people ask me such favours as I have an allen key which the handiman than put in the notice boards gave me just because I lived nearby!

Anyhow Winnie , Albert and I took the slightly battered posters up to the main road and after hanging them, Albert and I took ourselves off to the churchyard to look at the laburnum tree which had burst into a mass of gold in the setting sun.
Winnie stamped her fat feet by the lychGate in impatience as we did so

The golden laburnum 

Carshare

Many readers here will never of heard of the gentle Uk comedy series Carshare.
Following such Northern based classics as The Royale Family and Victoria Wood's Dinnerladies , Carshare's plot and narrative are simple, plain working class affairs.
Set essentially in a small car on the A roads of rush hour Manchester it is the will-they, won't - they story of John and Kayleigh, two retail workers who share a car to get to work.
John ( Peter Kay)is a lumpy commitment phobe who hides his shyness behind exasperated humour and Kayleigh ( a delightfully warm Sian Gibson) is a bubbly , slightly dippy girl looking for the Mr Right,and together they chat about life, music, shared colleagues and gossip and during the series' brief three year run. All over that time audience has been busting a gut to see the two of them finally get together and bowing to that need Kay has produced a satisfying ending to the uneven courtship
Last night's finale was a typically gentle affair.
There was no big kiss.
No big, drama .
Just a gentle love story of two, slightly sad souls who finally hold hands and commit to each other on the way to work.
Not a dry eye in the house

Tea Tent Shenanigains

My brother in law runs The Prestatyn Classic Car Show 
My sister organises the catering with a team of volunteers that are similar to my old Flower Committee despots.
Thousands of people descend on the seaside town as they did today and most want a drink and a cake and comfortable place to park their arse .
I joined the small team of eight volunteers and a smattering of air cadet teenagers in the furnace hot tea tent.
Pauline was sweating cobs over a mound of babs and stated she " couldn't stop as she'd only done the ham and not the cheese " as the others busied themselves over cutting the cakes into manageable chunks.
It was going swimmingly until the water urns blew their fuses
Luckily previous flower Show disasters have made my sister and I used to sudden tits up moments like these so after collecting a collection of kettles from local shops we entered a local house and started ferrying boiling water into the tea tent whilst the other ladies fended off a small riot with glasses orange squash and the odd Ribena before the handyman arrived.
The lady in charge of the washing up bowl flirted outrageously as I took over the tea making responsibilities . My previous Trelawnyd memorial hall kitchen experience obviously impressed her....but I knew she was only after another trusted pair of hands for the Prestatyn Flower Show teatent as matriarch Denise was on holiday!
There is no room for ditherers in a busy teatent

I only did a four hour stint, ( whilst most of the volunteers did all day!!!)  but after I had finished I had to go home to lay down in a darkened , cool room

A Load Of Bullocks

It's a hot day today and I am just about to walk down the 2 mile ( 600 feet drop) walk to the coast.
I'm helping out in the tea tent at the Prestatyn Car Show an big event organised by my brother in law
Refreshment tents need a cool head, and an ability to squeeze a dozen teabags at once while smiling through the back of your head.
A piece of cake!
I'll post some hetero macho photos of the event later, and because of the mostly " male" nature of the event I will make sure I dig out my zombie apron for the event
In the meantime I will leave you with a shot of the friendly bullocks from the other side of the village
Mary loves them so

Leo Varadkar

A brief snapshot of Varadkar's speech

Driving around beautiful rural Ireland earlier this week,one could not help to notice banner after banner screaming for support of the existing abortion laws.
To me the vote to ammend, what I see as a restrictive , barbaric and illogical set of rules was a no brainer and Leo Varadker's speech celebrating this monumental change almost brought me to tears this morning.