detox

After lots of fruit juice, a good sleep and gallons of water, I feel detoxed and back to normal. I have taken the advice of my city friends who all commented "Haven't you a red face?" when I saw them on Friday, and have put some sun screen on today!
It is another lovely day, so I was up early to walk the dogs (Chris had a late night so slept in) before I moved the new chicks out of their "nursery" cage into the shed proper
A mixture of bantams and cross hybrids, an increase in the number of white chicks leads me to believe that new boy Jesus has got the hang of mating with anything and everything. The bunch seems happy and healthy so far....10 hatched and 10 healthy...so I am happy.

Right must dash, am now off to water the new growing vegetables, walk the dogs, then I will plant some sprouts, cabbage, and more cauliflower

I am too old for all this

I got to Sheffield by mid afternoon after catching up with old friend Joy (below) who was a little under the weather and couldn't make our evening meet.

After a mooch around the city centre (above Sheffield's version of the London Eye) I over indulged myself in the usual wine fest/gossip fest/laughter fest that is a Sheffield reunion
night out.

I won't do into too many details, but suffice to say that I am far too old to be trying to get into the wrong hotel bedroom whilst being much worse for wear!

Nuala and I woke up this morning with very fuzzy heads, but enjoyed the usual night out "post mortem" amid fits of giggles whist hiding under the duvet....

You wouldn't think we are in our forties would you.

Typical bad photos after too much vino! The hangover left me at 4pm

Liverpool Ball

As I have been fading somewhat Chris donned his glad rags (as had my sisters and Brother in law) and has gone to St George's Hall in Liverpool for a night of ballroom dancing and merriment

I intend to slob with a diet coke

Home Number Two

Isn't there a song entitled "wherever I lay my hat that's my home?".....well it sounds bloody daft to me! Having said this when we left Sheffield in 2005 (two dogs, two cats, two of us and tons of luggage all crammed inside a Volkswagen Polo)..my life effectively was transported back to Wales and home was relocated in just that 2 hour drive.
I loved my old house in Sheffield, it was a large Victorian terrace with a sweet partly walled garden.We shared a ginnel (alley) with next door (Bel-Ami) and the sun always seemed to shine through the windows of the dining room which always looked as though it has been designed in the 1930s.
However when we left the house, "home" went with us in that Polo, and that was effectively and very simply....well....that!
Having said this I always consider myself as having two homes in some ways.....Our Welsh home at Bwthyn-y-llan and my affectionate "home" and that is the city of Sheffield.
Today, after a year (yes that long) I will drive over the Pennines and catch up with the city (John Lewis department store- oh be still my beating heart!;.....the art deco City Hall, the Peace Gardens (pic)etc.....but more importantly I will be catching up with the people that we left behind and I guess it is people and relationships that really make a home feel like home.
So...I will catch up with Joy (a friend and colleague from my Spinal Injury days) then have a long overdue catch up with Jane ( an ex girlfriend!) before meeting up with best mate Mike (yes he who is crap at keeping in touch) his wife Bev, Kathryn, Vince, Julie and of course Jonney H (who will be swishing into All Bar One, fashionably late, no doubt wearing something figure hugging and expensive from Zara!
Nuala will be meeting us there after catching the fast train up from London to complete the group (she left Sheffield in the early 1990's) and for one night only, I can look smart, not smell of chicken shit and catch up with old friends

Iranian films.......suck (well this one did)

Hazel and I hated No One Knows About Persian Cats. The semi documentary style cinematography, the slightly manic 1960 Richard Lester ish style narrative and some terrible performances didn't help this desperate story of the underground music culture in Tehran.
We left after an hour which was ok...we had a beer and a chat, and made up after me having "words" we her recently recently!
As we drove over Prestatyn hill, there was an amazing sunset (as predicted) over the sea....very hazy and pinky.....and not at all disasterfilm ish........

Volcanic Peace

As I was brushing the front path this morning a neighbour stopped by and asked if I noticed anything odd about the sky. Apart from being a deep azure blue, I couldn't figure anything out of the ordinary, that is, until he pointed out that there were no jet vapour trails zigzagging over the heavens! (pic from the front garden)
"It's the Iceland volcano" he explained excitedly " there is a toxic cloud coming our way and all planes have been grounded!" (yes, it did sound all very 2012 !!!) Now I did have visions of the villagers, with hankies tied around the faces battling a Pompeii type ash cloud, which I thank goodness will not materialise (after all, I had just washed the cottage windows!!!), but I have found the whole unfolding story quite fascinating.
I think that the only effects we will feel here in Trelawnyd, is reportedly a "lavender" sunset

Off to the pictures with Hazel this evening to see No One Knows About Persian Cats, review later

Sigh!

It has been too dry (yes dry!!!) for me to start planting out today, so I have fenced off the second vegetable bed in an effort to protect my delicate seedlings from chicken damage.Iceberg lettuce have already been planted under the cloches, and after the next bout of rain we experience I will plant out more potatoes, leeks and broadbeans.

As I was working this afternoon, I listened with interest to the radio news that the Pope's second in command Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone has linked homosexuality with paedophilia in an attempt to defuse the sex scandals that have blighted the Catholic Church as of late.

While, I think that Cardinal Betone's words were perhaps just an unthinking and confusing conclusion to a recent Vatican research project on the subject of "Church abuse", by dangerously connecting being gay to child abuse, he has potentially put back the progression of gay rights and gay acceptance in some areas of the world, irreversibly.

In more "enlightened" countries, the remarks , I hope, will just backfire spectaculary on the beligered and blinkered Church itself, and some of me feels that the Cardinal's words should just be given the contempt that they deserve and should just be ignored....

sad, sad, sad............

Sheffield Plans

I am pretty excited!
Friday I am meeting up with Nu up in Sheffield and we are going to catch up with a load of old friends for a night of laughter and gossip!
I left Sheffield in 2005 and Nu left in 1995 , so it will be a real nostalgic "blast from the past" night out when we all get together in ALL BAR ONE.....! especially as Nu and I are sharing a hotel room! which is so...well teenage !
Been texting like mad over the last few days in order to liaise with old mates!
tee hee
photo:- the famous vintage police box located next to the Town Hall in sheffield city centre

Spring Photos

The Chicks in the shed are nearly a week old now and all seem robust and healthy little buggers. The smallest (above) is a part bantam mongrel and is an absolute sweetie!
With the pigs gone there is plenty of jobs to be getting on with. I cleaned their hut out, and cleared much of their enclosure of dirty straw and droppings before re seeding the ground.
The Bourbon red turkeys will be housed into the hut as soon as the chicks are old enough to go outside. The chicks will be housed in the present turkey house. All I have to do now is sort out a potential goose house! (if you remember, there are four giant goose eggs in the incubator!)

As I weeded the been and pea beds this afternoon, the sun has been blazing and the turkeys have been clumsily mating amid clouds of feathers and uncomfortable screaming. I have erected the runner, french bean and pea supports and was kept company by the dogs and the obligatory Albert who always refused to be left out of anything

The creeping buttercups have covered the Churchyard in a blanket of yellow, and the backdrop of colour and nature is, I am sure, some sort of comfort for the increased numbers of visitors to the graveyard.

There seems to have been a lot of burials recently, and the newly bereaved to and fro along the neat paths and green borders all day long....As I work, I wave to some that I recognise, and thank goodness for the nice weather, a country graveyard in the sun, must bring a great deal of peace and comfort to troubled minds.....I moved the turkeys down to the bottom of the field....so that their sexual antics didn't bother any of the visitors too much.

As I came in to wash up before collecting the Berlingo, I spied Auntie Gladys who was sat quietly in the sun on the far side of the Churchyard ("Auntie is her generic Village name!)!. She waved vaguely as I waved to her (at ninety I don't think she actually recognised me at that distance! and as she got up to slowly amble her way home I had a huge rush of affection for this old lady who always reminds me of a white haired and smiling Woody Allen, She is one of the nicest and most respected villagers I have met since our time here.

She has been a member of the Flower Show Committee ( and the village welfare committee before that) for 57 years!

I have only been Chairman for two!!!

On Line?

I couldn't get on line yesterday. Computer said an emphatic "NO!"
wasted an hour talking to a technical officer from the Indian subcontinent trying to solve the issue only to be told that the whole village had lost its connection to the world!
Feeling like a sad geek, I was rather bereft without my daily helping of blogdom.

I have been typing this diary without fail for four years now (internet crashes and the odd holiday apart)...and the ritual and discipline of sitting down with laptop and coffee is a daily joy

Having said this I am typing this entry at my sister's house before I take the trusty Berlingo in for it's second crack at an MOT....and Janet's A key does not work at all well......you try writing something without a soddin A in it......

Hopefully the diary of a man hurtling through a mid life country crisis will be back on line tomorrow!

Pastures new

The pigs on their arrival last year

The pigs left the field today.
They have been adopted by an animal park over in Cambridgeshire (http://www.hamertonzoopark.com/), as breeding mates for a rare breed boar, who has been alone for quite some time.
The park looks lovely and finally I am sort of glad that they have a large new home and a chance to experience piglets.
Just over a week ago, I was suddenly made aware that the Glebe field's lease prohibits the presence of pigs, and the very future of the allotment had been put into jeopardy by this fact as well as a series of oversights (on my part)
I won't go into too many details, there is no real need to do so now as, after much wringing of hands, anxiety and angst (it was awful!), most things have now been sorted out to a satisfactory level, however I thought it appropriate for the girls to be re-homed, so that my existence here is above board and legal and more importantly safe.
And so, Gladys and Nora have gone. They came to me over a year ago after a chance meeting with their owner at the animal feed shop. She needed a home for them immediately as she was unexpectedly moving to the US....and I was a sucker for a sob story.
The girls became minor celebrities here in the field. Over the past year, they have been visited by a whole string of villagers clutching loaves of bread and bags of veg clippings.and subsequently they turned from small,.slight sows who lived in a small concrete sty, into fat old girls who have charmed half the village and who have lived a comfortable life in a field with a lovely view.
I shall miss them.

Thought for the day

"The purity of a person's heart can be quickly measured by how they regard animals." - Anonymous

Camp Rosettes

The rosettes have arrived for the Flower Show Stewards, Show Secretary and me the Chairman......Humm they can only be described as being well....large........showey and just a tad......well camp!!!!
God Knows what the committee will say when they see them!

Chicken Course 2010

Another small group of affable despots completed their "Chicken Course for beginners" this morning. Today I had a chance to reinforce some of the areas we covered in the three weeks "theory" sessions and the "students" had a chance to closely examine a live chicken (Lily the tame buff was poked and prodded by a load of eager fingers!!!)

I taught them how to check for mites and lice then they had a go at wing clipping and general health checks, before I let them loose on the chicks.

It was all very relaxed and good natured fun.

Spring pace

It has felt a little like summer this afternoon.

The planting of more beans, cabbage and beetroot has been pleasantly interrupted by neighbours' visits and chats, so the pace of the day has felt somewhat plodding and pedestrian.

Ann from round the corner came to feed the pigs with her grandson who was wide eyed with silent admiration after he held a couple of the new chicks, and neighbours Ian and Helen from the Mill house from down the lane called in for eggs and a hopeful mention in today's blog!!

The red faced Welsh farmer dropped off a load of shavings for the hen coops as another neighbour Pippa ambled past ( she called around last night for eggs and taught me where to look in the night sky for Venus and Mercury)...earlier in the morning I talked to the widow who buried her husband earlier in the week , as she visited the graveyard, I had waved to her almost daily for months as she was always a regular visitor to the Church, but never had spoken to her before. It felt good to be able to offer my condolences

Let's hope this fine weather continues, it certainly lifts the spirits

Lambs

The guy that wanted his lambs rearing suddenly wanted payment for them and seemed unwilling to provide appropriate paperwork....
Given the nature of DEFRA regulations....I have now told him I am not interested
Hey ho

Dragon

I had the oddest dream last night.
It was a surreal story about my fraternal Grandmother, who died thirty years ago now.

When I was growing up I was lucky enough to have three grandparents living. My Maternal grandparents Gran and Grandad Fry, were huge dominant forces for good in their grandchildrens' lives, and we saw them constantly when growing up in those long hot days of childhood.

My father's mother, the diminutive Granny Gray, was to me , a benign and slightly more distant figure in my life. To us children she was a jolly, white haired , bespeckled, spherical old lady with slightly bowed legs and a handbag the size of her head.

She kept a folder hankie up her right sleeve of her cardigan, always smelt of talc and bought Battenberg cake for us to eat every Thursday afternoon, a day she used to "come for tea".
As Children, she remained a rather sweet, slightly bland old lady that never quite came up to scratch against a more robust, ham armed, big hearted Gran Fry, who seemed to eclipse everyone with her all encompassing maternalism!

Anyhow I digress. I thought it strange that I dreamt about Granny Gray last night. I have not really thought about her for years. But last night, there I was in my dream, stood in her 1940's style kitchen. On the walls were the over painted wooden cupboards filled with cups on hooks and flowery plates. The massive American style "refrigerator" was still motoring away with the old fashioned milk bottles inside it and on the drainer I could see glasses of sweet RIBENA all poured out to drink.I must have been 11 (coughs ...in 1973) when I last experienced this sight
The kitchen smelt musty and "old lady-ish" and the kitchen door was open so I could walk down the steep back door step into the sparse sun backed garden, where regimented rows of "old lady flowers" (carnations, hydrangeas and dahlias) lined up next to the brick path bordering.
Now in the dream, I knew what I was after. I walked to the front garden (through a green slatted gate) to find the small red stone Welsh dragon which sat against the path. I always loved this small garden figure, and when I grandmother died, I was always sad that I hadn't asked for it, now in my dream I was suddenly busy digging it up and off I went, with it tucked under my arm, stealing it!!!

Where the hell did this dream come from?
A few weeks ago I walked past my grandmother's old house ( her family had built four identical Edwardian houses for the siblings of the family in the centre of nearby Prestatyn). I remember thinking about the dragon (long since gone now)......

It would have looked lovely in our garden

Cabbages & houseperson blues

There was a funeral this afternoon at the Church, so I stationed myself in the field to prevent any bothersome turkey and runner duck activity as the mourners gathered around the graveside

I know just what to do now to minimise mourner irritation! The junior turkeys are locked away in their shed, and all of the poultry are fed spaghetti an half hour before the funeral starts; thus happily stuffed with carbohydrates the birds all retire to sleep in the field margins and minimal distraction is caused!

As the funeral took place, I planted row upon row of cabbages which all have been covered with netting. Then several rows of broad beans and peas followed as the sun shone down. The allotment is now completely back into shape if not just a little behind last year's growing schedule.

Now as blog readers be aware, I never complain about my allotment, and I am perfectly comfortable with my adopted role as "househusband"..but do you know, after today I feel just a little unappreciated with coping with the more banal aspects of home life.......now I expect just a little solidarity here by those, like me, who have to cope with the mundane and boring !
Today I had to wait a wasted hour or so for the car to have its MOT (which it bloody well failed), fanny-arsed around for an absolute age with my hand down the patio drain in an effort to clear a blocked pipe, scrubbed the lounge carpet with biological washing powder to remove George's uncharacteristic piss stain before mowing the front lawn ( a neighbour commented that it was looking scruffy), washing the cottage windows, and bleaching the kitchen floor free of grubby paw prints for the second time today before bagging up 7 bin bags of rubbish for collection tomorrow and dettol scrubbing the patio!
Chris (on his way to cosmopolitan excitement in London) was less than happy with the fact that the Berlingo failed, and my ill conceived presumption that he was "being all urbane and sophisticated" coupled with the fact I could actually smell just how bad my sweat shirt smelt after a good half hour's pee scrubbing...has made me feel a little undervalued....
I would really mind if I drank gin all day and watched Jeremy Kyle
Oh I wish I could always walk around the house baking pies and wiping my fat arms on my apron with a smile.............
or am I just being a little queeny again?

Wire Coathangers!!!!!!

I can be queeny as the rest of them!
However, if I do have "words" with a friend...I usually pride myself in sorting an "issue" out in a civilised, adult and only s-l-i-g-h-t-l-y Mommie Dearest kind of way!
Today was a case in point.
I have not heard from Hazel for a few weeks! no reply to my texts.....emails went unanswered and all this was pretty unusual...so yesterday I called again asking if everything was ok.....now when I got an eventual answer it was an email that did not acknowledge any reason for her silence and so I had two choices.....I could have said "well that's just Hazel!" and forgot about it....or I could have done a Sally Field from Brothers and Sisters and make a statement!
Of course I made a statement and I told her that I was upset by her apparent silence
I have always generally been able to share my bad feelings with friends as well as the good. I feel there is no point letting things fester....., done, that..worn the T shirt.......and boy, it doesn't work at all well and always seems to come right back at ya.
No, I think when you are pissed off with someone, you should endeavor to let them know it
and so I had a few words...
....and of course it was gratefully received....
Apologies were made,
Group hugs were initiated,
and we are going out next week....
.....hummm yes....I AM just as queeny as everyone else....

In just one day....we have GREENERY

At last spring has sprung. The flowering current in the garden has burst into life almost under the cover of darkness, and the field has turned from a dull lifeless brown/green to a warmer and more vibrant olive green. Accompanying the change of season has been a lift in my spirits. This is not just due to the warmer weather, the allotment itself has been under a bit of a threat recently, and this threat seems to have been resolved today.....and all I can do is sigh.

Anyhow after spending much of the day sorting out the trusty Berlingo for her MOT tomorrow (4 new tyres, new windscreen wipers etc), I sorted out some more chicken wire to nail to the dividing fencing between the field and graveyard. A couple of the more enterprising runner ducks have just developed the knack of sneaking under the smallest of breaks in the present day fencing...so with a bit of elbow grease, I should make the Graveyard a no go area.

Five more Chicks hatched out last night, so I have ten robust multicoloured hybrids squatting under the heat lamp in the shed. It is so nice to have some more babies again . In the post I received four goose eggs and some more guinea fowl eggs , so in a month or so, hopefully the next group of babies will be ready for some shed rehabilitation.....

The circle of life continues.

Finally, I must say a big thank you to Joanna (http://boonedockswilcox.blogspot.com/ ) for her thoughtful gift!..I have never had a gift from the Appalachians before!!