Arse into gear

list for the week.
1. Start clearing the back garden ready for some more cottage flower planting. Last year the garden looked lovely (above)
2. Finish clearing the final vegetable bed and plant the first of my potatoes, broad beans ,shallots and onions
3. Paint the pig house and pick up fence posts for the new pig run
4. Set up the first of this year's fertilized eggs into the incubator.
5. Start to chicken proof the vegetable beds

Happy Mother-in-laws day

Its mother's day today.
Happy Mother's (in law) day Sorrel
x

Lizzy cooks her goose

Lizzy(Left) and Jane (right) are my two female poults (I have had to rename the two stags Darcy and Bingley) and one of them, has somewhat of an evil streak. Gloria has been sought out yet again by one of them and her neck wound has been extended and deepened.
I moved Gloria and Boris into the furthest enclosure and caught the aggressive female turkey (it turned out to be Lizzy) venting her frustration on the diminutive Bingley.
Note to self: Lizzy will be fattened up and eaten very soon!!

Kes flies again

The former thriving holiday resort of Rhyl (6 miles away to the north) is now one of the most deprived areas in the whole of Wales. Unemployment,antisocial behaviour, crime, drugs,a change in the holiday habits of the nation and the credit crunch have stripped the town of of its previous "splendor" making it a truly depressing and unattractive dumping ground.

Mind you, I was interested to read that a local initiative has given hope and a purpose to three young boys from the town, by enrolling them as apprentice falconers.

It is hoped that by training these three lads in the ancient discipline, then the seagull nuisance on the Promenade areas will be drastically reduced.

I found the story a hopeful and positive and of course the influence of Ken Loache's 1969 film Kes, has not been lost by myself or the local media at this time, which is not always a bad thing.

Perhaps I am riding a little higher and more hopeful in the wake of seeing Precious drag her sorry arse out of the ghetto on Thursday night......perhaps I am just tired of hearing bad news story after bad news story from the trailer trash capital of North Wales......who knows?

All I do know, is that there is a therapeutic benefit to be had by constant animal responsibility a fact which has been seen ad nauseum in Hollywood, in literature and on tv.......(remember The Yearling? Lassie Come Home? Tarka the otter? The War Horse? The Snow Goose? Marley and Me ? etc etc)

It is a fact we all know, and I think subscribe to......perhaps more initiatives like this should be supported.

Time for an apprentice me thinks

Exhaustion hysteria.

Intensive care was extremely busy today. It was the usual story....too many critically ill patients and just enough staff to cope with them!
By mid afternoon the constant pressure got to us all... and we, the nurses indulged in a bout of stupid behaviour (joking around with a somewhat perplexed and overly serious radiographer) and a short burst of hysterical giggling at absolutely nothing!
In eleven and a half hours I have looked after one high dependency patient and two intensive care patients.
Give me humping a ton of stones around in my field anytime!

Wall Bore

I have got bored with the mess around the wall repairs, and in a fit of queeny control freak(ery) I have moved 42 wheelbarrows of boulders and stone from one side of the field to the other. Islwyn will be able to use this surplus to line the stream bank in the graveyard.
By 4pm, my legs and arms had turned to jelly but as you can see from the following before and after photographs, it was worth the effort to get things ship shape.

(Above) The original breach in the wall, where the hens happily climbed up into the old Churchyard

The new and improved Church wall, complete with a secluded dining area!!! (and wheelbarrow)

Anyhow, enough already with wall news....even I am getting slightly bored with it all now! Tonight is a treat night for us as we have Fish and Chips for tea! (American readers may have to google fish and chips!) We also throw caution to the wind and indulge ourselves with a large side order of mushy peas ( more googling required here !!!), after which I aim to climb into a very VERY hot bath with Homes and Antiques magazine, to soak away the soreness of today's work.

I am working all day tomorrow, so Chris is on animal watch (which should be fun) He and Boris have not seen each other for a while, and the turkey, I think, is ready to kick some Dr Chris Burton ass!!!

Precious

I was more than dubious about watching Precious as I was not at all sure that I wanted to face the story of an poor,illiterate black, pregnant teenager from Harlem and her efforts to escape a terrible abusive home life in the ghetto. After all, The Lovely Bones, depressed me far too much on Tuesday night!
I was surprised by Precious; for, as a film that chronicles the systematic abuse of a morbidly obese and emotionally stunted girl it is strangely uplifting and at times daringly hopeful. It also has flashes of laugh-out-loud humour amid the frightening set pieces of vile behaviour and violence which gives the audience some respite from the depressing subject matter.
Precious is played by newcomer Gabourey Sidibe (top photo),, and her giant bulk hides her emotions wonderfully giving the character the flatness of effect which is perfect for the role. She looks like an inscrutable giant, so any sympathy the audience has for her ( and you can almost feel the sympathy roll from the audience in waves) is wonderfully deserved.
The acting honours however must go to Mo'nique (the actress and comic-above) who is simply stunning as Mary, Precious' contradicting, violent and mentally ill mother. Her performance is reigned in , just the right side of evil monster and is a revelation.

Mariah Carey (right) is also quite impressive as a social worker involved in the family's case. She gives an intelligent, wry and rather subtle performance which really,really surprised me.

Mind you, not everything in the movie works as well as the acting. Some of the school scenes do feel a little like something from " the Ghetto kids from fame" but director Lee Daniels , to be fair, keeps these to an absolute minimum, relying on the gritty, painfully ponderous and desperate need from Precious to find happiness to move the emotions.

With some great acting, Precious is one of the most upbeat "abuse" stories that I have ever seen.
9/10
Go and see it.

One foot in the Grave (yard)

The wall is all but finished! This morning I got into my stride with dry stone walling and with Islwyn taking the lead again we cracked on through till the afternoon quite nicely.
Ok I need to wrap up the work with small filling stones and flat "topping" stones to give the top of the wall a good appearance, but I am pleased as punch with the result.

The weather is lovely but will be cold later as the skies are so clear. so I have taken advantage of the warm afternoon by completing some gardening and mucking out the pig run.

Chris is working late tonight in Cardiff, so I am off to see Precious with Hazel....Oh joy, another film about Child abuse.......sometimes don't you just wish you could sit through a Walt Disney movie....?

How apt

I bleached the toilet yesterday and last night sat down on the basin with the lid up!!!
I am suffering for it today.......hence the video!!!

Wall update

Poor Gloria, with the purple antibacterial spray covering her damaged neck, she does look a sorry sight. I moved their house into the main compound this morning, far away from the bullying youngsters, which was great for them but bad news for Islwyn who had called around to potter away with the church wall.
Boris absolutely hates Islwyn, who he blames for an "attack" on one of his runner ducks a day or so ago (Islwyn in fact saved the distressed duck who was stuck in the poultry fencing), so until I turned up , Islwyn was fending off a persistently aggressive turkey stag with a couple of bamboo poles as he got on with sizing up the stones for the wall.
The dry stone wall is almost three quarters finished and I had the opportunity to place more of the key stones in position which is a pastime that has all the addictive qualities of a crossword or computer game. Sizing up the stones and positioning them, is wonderfully relaxing work, and takes me an absolute age to do properly whereas Islwyn bangs the stones into the right places with envious ease
I think the Church Council and the village should be grateful to him for all the hard work he has done. By repairing the wall, Islwyn has saved the Church hundreds of pounds.

No other news to report today. I have completed a load of paperwork for Chris ( all of his expenses) and have buried Elizabeth, the oldest of the buff orpingtons ,who died last night on her nest.

The Not-so-lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones has been marketed in its previews as a bit of murder whodunit (albeit one that is being partly solved by the murder victim herself-14 year old Susie Salmon who is caught between worlds as it were ) and after sitting through this somewhat overlong mismatch romp of heaven fantasy,serial killing, ghosts, grief and teenage longing. I can understand just why the publicity team pitched this movie the way they did.
The film, put quite simply, is a bit of a mess.
Putting aside the overlong surreal glimpses into the over coloured,imagery laden pre heaven world, the film's study of a family going through a life changing grief is fascinating yet all too brief.
Mark Walberg and Rachel Weisz give solidly moving performances as the parents; Rose McLver is quite spunky as Susie's younger sister and the fabulous Susan Sarandon looks as though she had great fun playing the booze ridden,big haired grandmother who single handedly keeps the family together.A film that concentrated upon the family and their journey after the murder would have , for me, made for a better movie, but I guess wouldn't have kept to the "spirit" of the novel, a novel, which I am sure I would have hated.
So we have overlong shots of Susie ( a great performance by Saoirse Ronan by the way) looking wistfully into the strange heaven skyline while fighting against the urge not to walk away into the light.
We have the serial Killer (Stanley Tucci) planning his next murder.
and we have the odd girl next to the rubbish dump who has "visions" of what may or may not be going on.....couple this with a rather uncomfortably long lead up to the murder, and a slasher movie,( he-knows-you-are-hiding-upstairs) teenage girl chase sequence and you have seen everything
It's all a bit much.
6/10

Hangover Hell, Gloria gets battered,and wall update

The final single malt was not a good idea at Geoff's last night.
I usually do not experience hangovers, mind you I usually stick to either white wine or gin and tonic when I have a tipple....!
Last night we had a beer, some wine and finished with whiskey (not a drink I like generally) and this morning I had a teenage hangover the size of Australia!
I sorted the animals out in a fugue state, walked the dogs ( well they walked me) and went back to bed with a pint of water, two aspirin and the wish to die peacefully!
At my age I should know better.
So I feel as though it has been a waste of a day.
The turkey poults took advantage of my absence this morning and attacked Gloria with a concentrated barrage of pecks to the back of her neck. This afternoon I confined her to barracks, cleaned her wound and sprayed it with some antiseptic wound spray. Tomorrow I will move her and Boris into the large hen run, well away from angry beaks
The Church wall is coming on great guns, thanks primarily to Islwyn's talent and good eye for placing the faced stones. It doesn't look as though a huge amount of work has been done, but you have to remember that the centre of the wall was pushed out around 3 feet.

Tonight I am off to see The Lovely Bones.

Oscar thoughts,a teaching session and more spring work

As a lonely teen I used to love the Oscars. Hidden away in my bedroom with the black and white portable television late at night, I would be sat there, pen in paper in hand, making copious notes on the winners, losers and nominees and invariably would be disappointed by the fickle nature of the voting.
I didn't stay up to watch the ceremony last night, my days of making reference notes are long since gone, but I do take an active interest in the results, especially after a day digging and weeding!
Of course last night's results were a no brainer!; after a few years with non Americans winning the main acting honours, it was time for the academy to stick with American-as-apple pie nominations and so,of course,Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock won their first awards.

I cannot comment of the quality of the acting for these two categories, as I have not seen either movie as yet, but I am glad that both Bridges and Bullock won. Bullock especially is not known for her "serious" acting, but she has a likability about her which goes a long long way in the public's eyes....I guess it is just time for her,as it was for the likes of Sally "you like me, you really like me" field, a few years ago!

Lots of nice frocks were on show, Sam Worthington looked sexy as hell, and Vera Farminga (pity she didn't win her oscar for Up in the air) won the award for worst chick in a frock!

Anyway I will move on from discussing one over dressed bird, to discuss another!
This afternoon a group of walkers stopped by the field to buy some eggs and ended up staying for an impromptu teaching session.!
The group ( from Birkenhead) seemed to be fascinated in the behaviour of the hens, and were tickled pink by the protective instinct shown by the cockerels when a small group of buzzards flew over.
Jesus,(below) is especially excitable when danger is threatened, and will growl like a tiger when he feels at risk. Unfortunately he has not got a group of hens all of his own to protect, so ended up galloping over to the runner ducks to save some face....
One elderly lady from the amblers group took my number and asked if I would show some members of her social "friendship" group around the field one afternoon. I agreed as long as non one sues me! ( the thought of some old gal falling over a wayward guinea fowl and breaking a hip worries me! or am I getting a little paranoid?)
Anyhow the group, as it turned out, was a catholic Church walkers club, and after learning that they were, in fact, watching "Jesus" ,they collapsed into a mass of cackles and laughter, especially as one of their party was called Mary!
"Ooooh Mary meet Jesus...." one old fella kept repeating,,,,,,,
I had forgotten how scousers find humour in EVERYTHING!!
Anyhow, the final veg plot is almost finished (below) I have only a few more metres to clear. Planting can start very soon!

Chris is away tonight so I am off to Geoff's for a glass of wine and a chat, to while away the evening. This week I am going to catch up with my Oscar movies, The Lovely Bones and Precious need to be seen!

Boys of BOSTON flag football team

I am not a follower of football but I could make an exception....
(love the cleaning lady at 25 seconds)

Man flu & Jobs done

Chris has a cold.....( sorry I am supposed to say manflu) and has spent all of Sunday in his pyjamas ! ( which I think is a bit common) He kept his PJs on ( with what I noticed to be a nicely coordinating hat and scarf) when he came over to the field to watch me dig out the beds.
It has been another lovely day today, with blue skies and no wind;
I have cleared the raspberry bed of weeds which was a herculean act in in itself

And completely stripped my pea frames of weeds and rubbish. After an awful winter the allotment is starting to take shape yet again

The Poseidon Adventure New Years Celebration and Capsize

I am being a geek this morning......if you have the time,AND the inclination watch this video then have a look at the following home made video ( filmed in a garage incidently)
The attention to detail is amazing!

"Poseidon Adventure" Parody Pt. 3

Start watching the video around 3.30......and compare it with the original!.......you will see just how clever this home made spoof it!

Glorious 39

Glorious 39, is a movie with one helluva cast of Brit favourites! Bill Nighy,Jenny Agutter, Julie Christie, David Tennent, Christopher Lee, Romola Garai,Hugh Bonneville, Charlie Cox and Jeremy Northern all pop up in this uneven, unbelievable and rather clunky espionage thriller set on the eve of World War 2
I can't be bothered discussing the plot, suffice to say that there were more holes in it than a block of Swiss Cheese.....and I have to say that the acting from Bill Nighy in particular has to be seen to be believed!- he actually looks as though he is reading his lines from a slow moving autocue- it's a dreadfully embarrassing performance which is not helped by an awful script and character motivations that the audience cannot quite understand!

Garai, on a plus note gives her 1930 heroine everything she's got, and Charlie Cox is sexy-as-hell as her smoothie boyfriend (above left).....but nothing else saves this poorer version of a 39 Steps-ish thriller
6/10

No news day

The weather today has been warm and springlike.
We had a jolt first thing as when we were lying in bed with a cup of tea and the usual blanket of dogs (and cat), four horses walked past the cottage, loose on the lane.
Chris and I galloped outside ( Chris in his stocking feet) and we managed to stop the horses before they ambled up to the main road. After a bit of arm waving we drove the animals into a spare field down the lane, where their owners would collect them all later.
The weather seems to have galvanised the whole village into gardening action, as everywhere mowers had been started and flower beds cleared out!
Steve (aka Islwyn) has made another new start on the Church wall, with me acting as barrow boy, and this afternoon I have cleared yet another vegetable bed....
Later we are off to Theatre Clwyd to see Glorious 39.

ME,me,me,me,me,me and me....

Am I the only person who suffers from the occasional bouts of depressive realization that I am getting older? Today I had two such flashes of reality.
The first came when I was having a cup of coffee in front of the tv. A quiz programme " Eggheads" was on and 5 contestants, all sat in a line, were introducing themselves.
The first four men on the team were good looking men in their thirties,and mentally I could almost see myself sat with them answering the questions like a good 'un! The fifth man looked a right old crock in comparison and I had the shock of my life when he stated that his name was Brian and he was 45!
Two years younger than me!!!
Gawd.....it is at times like these that I suddenly realise that I am completely "middle aged" and not the young man that I often think I am.
It is a depressing thought, and one that was compounded by a glimpse of my hands later on in the day. Now I know we all see at our hands a million times a day, but I guess that we only LOOK at our hands only very occasionally. I did, just that this evening when I was rubbing moisturiser cream into my allotment ravaged palms, and I was shocked to see a pair of hands that belonged to my father!
All wrinkled and cracked, I now am sad to admit that I have geriatric digits!

..........and let's not forget the knackered old body to go with them....................