Serendipity returns

 

I’ve talked about serendipity before.

Ever since my husband left, when I’ve desperately required money

It has arrived, out of the blue

Just when it was needed….

When I had no car a PPI claim came in.

When solicitor and tax bills came in unexpectedly a mortgage rebate turned up

And when I had vets bills a galore a pension underpayment was acknowledged 

I’ve been very lucky. 

Only yesterday me and my counselling chums met up for dinner and Some of the conversation centred about the cost of the course which the three of us are all self funding. 

Of the three of us, my worries re paying course fees seemed most precarious.

Well today I received an email from an organisation that supports nurse education and development. I had approached them an age ago regarding an application for grant support. 

Well that support came through today and will pay for the whole of my first year’s University fees!

How fantastic is that? 

Perhaps more good fortune than serendipitous but great whatever the definition. 

I sat in Churchyard this morning and reviewed my good fortune after watering my laburnum which is going from strength to strength. It feels as though, financially , I have been watched over by guardian Angel of sorts  

It’s a nice feeling. 

As I sat there, I noticed that Auntie Glad’s gravestone had been updated and renewed 

I touched it before walking back home 

And how did the date go. ? 

I hear you ask

Well it went nicely 

Mark talked easily and seems like a very nice man

He’s a widower from covid time and I think, not quite over his husband’s death.

I will meet him again for coffee

Breaking Bread

My counselling besties Caroline and Donna 

There’s a lot to be said for meals out with loved ones.

Monday my family met up for a barbecue  for my brother in law ‘s birthday, 

relaxed, funny and chatty.

I loved it.

And yesterday I met a friend for breakfast which proved to be a gossip and laugh over sausage sandwiches and great coffee.

Great fun.

Last night I met up with my counselling friends at Pen y Bryn in Colwyn Bay and three hours around a table of food which included wild boar apple  pie and gravy to die for, shot past in an instant. 

We start our course in a month and all have felt mutually supported before the challenge starts …it’s nice to have our clique in place.

Im also pleased that my idea of a group get together means that the  numerous members of the Trelawnyd Community Association are getting together for a curry night inside the hall in a few weeks time. 

I thought we deserved some down time , using the hall as a venue , just for us….

Bring your own booze…..I intend to weave my way home late that night……

There is something fundamental about breaking bread together. Sitting with those you love and like, with food and drink and talking and laughing and telling stories.

No phones, no tv, no other distractions . 

Just gossip, and chatter, and sharing the odd morsel 

Around a table 

Face to face

Karl Jenkins - " THE ARMED MAN " Benedictus

A fellow scruffy Welshman Karl Jenkins The Armed Man is a piece of music you have to see live and in a big venue. 

I saw it in London over twenty years ago and realised then I would never tire of the Benedictus .

I listened to it this morning with the cottage windows wide and with the music floating over the graveyard 

Date

I’m working all weekend so will fill some of the space before hand doing a few nice things.

Coffee with a friend tomorrow morning , breakfast with another ( that was this morning) Dinner out with my counselling friends tomorrow evening and an on line film course on zoom Friday morning. 

Friday afternoon I’m on that date I told you about a few weeks ago.

I’ve changed my whole view on dating, I think. 

I’m not cynical 

But I’m realistic…..and dating will only occur in a local watering hole “ for coffee”

“ coffee” means you can make a run for it if things are not quite what you hoped for.

No investment in dinner. No long drives, no feeling trapped 

And no bullshit

Over coffee I can smell bullshit a mile away.

Roses, Ballet, Castration and other stories

 

 I spent today at home. 

Bedding was washed and hung on the field gate to dry.

Underwear and t shirts on the kitchen wall and shrubbery.

I washed windows and cleaned paintwork 

Washed floors and mopped the old uneven wooden floorboards

Ones that date from 1760

You can tell it’s the summer holidays as a gaggle of children ran up and down the lane shouting “ The Queen , Curtsey at the Queen!!!!” as Roger barked excitedly at them running up and down the gravel path like a loon.

The Queen cut out now is beaming up the lane from my spare bedroom

The local children find her presence amusing.

I read a counselling text book in the afternoon and fell asleep for a while with Mary  under my arm. She is in season and Roger is still awaiting a reschedule of his castration ( sickness at the vets caused his original one to be cancelled) 

I need to rebook him tomorrow 

I made Mandu dumplings with kimchi and ground pork spiced with garlic and fresh ginger and cleaned Bluebell inside and out .

Before sweeping the paths clear of rose petals from the climbing rose which is still blooming strongly around the front door.

I love that I have a living stereotype of roses around the front door 

The blooms are a deep red this year and look magnificent .

I rang Chic Eleanor and arranged to meet for coffee and booked to see old Trev in his residential home later in the week. I will take the information the visitors to the flower show gave me when they dropped off the Hall blueprints. He’ll find them interesting. 

I also had an email prompt by the Royal Opera House to book tickets for the ballet Don Quixote in October for my sister’s Christmas pressie so I booked them quicksticks as tickets fly so quickly  and also managed booked us in for a meal on the balcony restaurant before hand …what fun 

I’ve always wanted to go.

How wonderful that we can.

Hey ho

Bunting Bank

 

The TCA phone box is up and running as a food bank, information centred book swap and whatever you want it to be, now that Sailor John has furnished it with its own shelving unit .

I popped up yesterday with a few books and some bunting.

Ok the bunting isn’t practical but it’s pretty and some deserving soul may like it 

Food banks shouldn’t  always be all about food.

I went to a barbecue last night, my brother in law was 75

I don’t see him as an older man , I see the and hear the teenage man/boy I first met in the middle sixties when I was a very small boy. 

I’ve known him 61 years, the same as both my sisters ….wow

Anyhow today looks sunny. 

And washing the cottage windows is the planned job for the day

I’ve picked hydrangea heads and put them in vases in the living room and kitchen and saw Terry sulking in the lane with his dog as I did so,

“ I woz robbed “ was all he said, smiling at the floor

This afternoon I read a counselling text book , the saddest of quotes

“ We Leave doors open for people , who’ll never knock again….how stubborn the human heart”

Oppenheimer

 I went to a morning showing of Oppenheimer today

A film so intricate, complicated and detailed it probably mirrored the remarkable life of the theoretical  physicist J Oppenheimer very well indeed . 

The film by director Christopher Nolan is complicated and nuanced. It covered three time periods in Oppenheimers development of the hydrogen bomb highlighting the intensity of the storylines with some roars of musics and sound effects.

Cillian Murphy is impressive as the charismatic yet quite unlikable Doctor, and captures the intensity of the character in a kind of almost reptilian way. Oppenheimer was a womaniser and had an Ego to boot. He knew his abilities and was conceited enough to blindly disregard his position within the government machine until that government took a dislike to his communist sympathies after the war. 

This is a male orientated film with fine performances from Murphy, Robert Downey Junior as Lewis Strauus the head of the Us Atomic Energy Commission, and Matt Damon, a General in charge of Los Alamos , the secret town in the desert where the scientist developed the A bomb.

Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s second wife and Florence Pugh as his communist sympathiser  psychiatrist mistress have only minor parts in the drama, which is a shame as both interesting characters could have been explored further, but I guess the narrative ( which is complicated enough ) does last for three hours.

Oppenheimer is an excellent, intelligent and overall detailed movie which weaves magnificently intricate scenes together with intense editing and skill. 

It’s worth the effort of concentration 

A new Star

 I just have to tell you that next year’s Flower Show poster will feature this young mum from the village who won second in the Jam class yesterday

It’s priceless 

A Boiled Egg

 I’m only going to share one story about the Flower Show

Ive done it to death over the last week.

But this story is about the power of feeling a part of something.

Of joining in.

Of community.

Eirlys is a friend of mine. She’s like me, not built for fashion or elegance and is at her happiest mucking our her hens in a tired old jumper.

She is the first to say this, before you reach for your keyboards.

Anyhow, it’s been a very tough year for Eirlys. Her husband died in the winter and like many, rural widows, she’s been a bit isolated and all rather flat.

Yesterday she came and chaperoned the arts and crafts judge to help me out.

She also entered the boiled egg class in the cookery section, an event slightly fraught with difficulties as she arrived a whole 24 hours too early clutching said boiled egg on a plastic plate. 

After realising her mistake , she spent yesterday early morning boiling scores of eggs before turning up at the right time but in a rainstorm, laughing but stressed

“I ve dropped me egg in the street” she shouted at everyone when she walked into the hall but with a bit of cajoling peeled it before arranging it on a plate alongside the nine other entries.

She left just before the cookery judges assessed the eggs, with all the forensic detail of a coroner, she was happy that she had played her part.

After the show, I dropped off to her farmhouse with the egg. She had entered a vase of flowers too which I returned too; flowers she had picked from alongside the hard shoulder of London Road. And before she could draw breath I showed her First Prize certificate for Best Egg!

She laughed hard and long and almost seemed suddenly overwhelmed by the happiness and fun of the whole day. 

It was never about the egg,

How could it have been?

It was all about sharing, and company, companionship 

And being a part of something, ever slightly bigger than yourself and your own worries

The Trelawnyd Flower Show

The Manleys

Cameron with his prizewinning succulent 

Me making a final speech

Jo and ian

The family who brought the Hall’s original plans were guests of honour 

Hattie, Adam and Pippa

The hall’s original plans  brought as a gift of the day

Debbie the vegetable judge

 

Enjoy

 I’m buggered and have just sat down with a very VERY large Spanish Sherry.

Dorothy is licking my feet and all is well

In just three hours, Ian and I with just two helpers set up the whole show after the day care kids had left the hall at three.

In previous years six hours was the general timescale 

True I had a mini meltdown because the classes where run anti-clockwise instead of clockwise , but I pulled myself up by my bra straps and stopped my mini strop 

With the school children’s art entries and their novelty vegetable productions mean that our entries number is heading towards 450

Enjoy the video

A little gem by ex villager kelda 

Update 2

 

I’m in between jobs and have an hour and a half window before we set the hall up for the show. There’s a children’s activity day booked in the hall today and they finish at 3pm

That means we have to set up the whole show in three hours 

The exhibits start coming in at 6pm

Yesterday we has 220 exhibits entered

By some good fortune today, we have now have just over 400 total 

How good is that?

Update

 

Well Roger is exhausted 

As I’ve been , baking, and cooking, and constructing novelty vegetable animals and making up hamper prizes, a busy line of villagers has called my name over the kitchen wall in order to drop entry forms in or to donate to the raffle hamper. 

To date we have 220 exhibits booked in!!!!!!!?and enough food to make two luxury food hampers .

Roger has got so excited at the number of visitors he’s bounced himself stupid saying hello to everyone and now is laid out on the carpet with his tongue flopped out and his legs jumping at dreams of multiple cuddles with happy strangers.

He’s the sweetest dog I’ve ever owned 

Deadline for entries is noon tomorrow 

I’m overwhelmed with the support for such a little show 

Thank you to blogger Meanqueen too for her support,  your gift was generous and gratefully received 

Building Up For The Show

It was humid and barmy last night and I sat on the patio for two hours towards dusk sipping some Spanish Sherry, a friend gave me as a gift to remember Barcelona by. 

The Sherry was decanted into what looked like a small Kilner jar and was smuggled in from Spain in hand luggage .

I felt rather pissed when I got up to receive Flower Show entries from Animal Helper Pat and Sue T from London Road.

The Chinese lanterns cheered the wet patio up between showers

Agapanthus, always a showy bloom

The dogs left me though and filled the trendy blue sofa in the living room.

Today I’m baking my “ Against Terry” items for the flower Show

Terry should be doing the same

.

Auntie Glad and her scones 

We are incredibly competitive and have been going head to head in the baking class  since 2010 

Ideally I should be making my scones fresh the morning I needed them like auntie Glad used to do… mind you she once made 70 scones in one morning before the flower show when she was in her early 90s without drawing sweat. I’m making 5 for my challenge against Terry and I’m sweating cobs! 

We are going head to head in the quiche, scones and fruit cake . 

The cut off point for entries is Friday morning and I’ve already received 140 so far including a single bloom from Bethan from Byron Street who had to be talked into sacrificing one of her beloved blue agapanthus.

Terry and I at the last flower Show four years ago

 

 

Other People’s Lives

  I don’t get a lot of rest in Flower Show week.

It’s my second night shift at work and I’ve had broken sleep.

Di from Choir dropped off two jars of jam to be entered as she is away on Friday.

I’ve always relaxed the rules for the benefit of more entries, and am happy to put exhibits in for absent supporters.

I dropped off a cake tin too.

One of the Going Gently characters had asked for it last week and I bumbled into her kitchen like a tubby teenager not initially realizing that she had been crying.

She busied herself inside the pan cupboard and wiped her eyes with her apron.

And I pretended I hadn’t noticed

We talked about the death of Mad Organist of Father Timothy’s recent death ( He was the vicar of nearby Dyserth) and of the Flower Show, of Singing in the Rain and the fact some scrote had stolen two planters of busylizzies that had been donated by the TCA from London road.

As I turned to go I asked her gently if she was alright.

And she nodded bravely through a watery smile

“I will be” she said quietly 

After The Rain (feat. Rachael Wooding & Tom Deering) (Live)

 It’s Yorkshire day today

So says Gabby Roslyn on radio 2 this morning.

I was driving home from work and she was banging on about nothing

She didn’t have much of substance to say about God,’s Own Country

I think I know parts of Yorkshire well.

I lived in York between 1986 and 1989

Then Sheffield between 1989 and 2006

I miss the counties very much 

York was my equivalent time to a young man’s university days 

But I grew up in Sheffield…..

In so many ways