One of the most beautiful of all French films …the lad with the glasses always reminds me of my nephew leo, who is visiting in July
What To Wear?
I met my supervisor this morning.
I liked her.
I banged on for an hour about me, until she finally said she felt as though she could work with me
“You have a warmth about you” she observed, a positive I gratefully accepted without question and we laughed when I showed off my diary, which I think makes me look like the mini counsellor I am.
From there I bought some new “. Counsellor” clothes for my start next week. A plain brown knitted top and green cargo pants. Not scruffy enough to look new age but not too smart to make me feel uncomfortable .
I bought cheap petunias for the pots outside on the way home and chatted to villagers as they passed as I filled the patio plantpots with cheap colour
End of Term
My group today ( in part)
Last day in University today.
It was nice that all of us are through with no drop outs.
We start again September 10th and all have summer placements as trainee counsellors.
Tomorrow I meet my supervisor in the morning, then village leader Ian in the afternoon to sort out this year’s Flower Show.
I think I’m off to the cinema at teatime too
I would like this photo of villager Jenny with her prize winning jam from last years show to be on the front of this year’s schedule
What do you think?
Montana Archers
Four 12 hour shifts back to back was a bit much
Tonight I shared a tuna filled jacket potato with Mary sat at the kitchen table and fell asleep holding my fork.
When I flickered my eyes open the potato had gone
So had Mary
I’m typing this in the garden with a gin and tonic
It’s not a sunny dusk
In fact today it’s a chilly one
But the Montana arch looks mighty fine
Speaking of Archers, it’s all go in Ambridge
George crashed drunk Alice’s car into Mick’s car sending, Mick, Joy and Fallon into the river Am
Denise and Alistair ( who are on a dirty evening out) comes to the rescue but it’s close thing
George puts a comatose Alice into the driving seat
Bloody hell, I need another gin
Sun On My Face
I was slightly annoyed around five.
I had missed the sunny day ….asleep.
It couldn’t have been helped.
I chatted to Mandy and John from next door and sat out on the patio with my face to the sun, a coffee mug in hand.
It was glorious.
To close your eyes and only to see pink and orange on the back of your eyelids.
And warmth on your face
It was Blissful.
The pink in my eyes reflected the pinks flowering in one of the untidy planters and the warm sun brightened my mood as the coffee did it’s job
I was reminded of an evening a decade or so ago when the ghost hens took centre stage on the field
“ .It was approaching dusk on a summer's evening and the rest of the field was in constant motion.
The other hens were mooching homewards to roost, the geese were bickering over a patch of grass like they do and the hysterical runner ducks were being , well, just hysterical.
Only the Ghost hens remained still. Sitting in the evening sun until their white plumage tinged pink..........
with their fat bottoms planted into the grass like old ladies arses on comfy armchairs.
Their faces were held very high as they enjoyed the last bit of sunshine of the day.”
What Day Is it?
I’m working until Monday morning, overtime money which will come in handy.
And. I’ve just got up with a mug of coffee
I will leave for work early as I need to buy a birthday gift for the support worker on duty tonight and I will pop in a card thanking her for returning Roger yesterday.
I will leave you with this video
A simple geeky night out for many
But it kind of moved me greatly
Roger’s Escape
I don’t speak to my neighbours to the rear of my cottage.
It started over me complaining of noise not long after they moved in and I’ve made no attempt at reconciling
Yesterday I found myself sitting in Bluebell charging my phone. Only my portable charger seemed to be working and I needed the phone to call my prospective supervisor before I left for work
So there I sat waiting for the phone to charge, where I lost myself in day dreaming and thought. I realised it was The Prof’s birthday and emailed him a happy birthday note on impulse.
, all the while I was sat there Roger watched me from inside the gate, wanting to get near me. Somehow in the next few minutes he managed to scramble over the wall into next doors garden and managed to run around and through a few gardens and tried to enter my neighbours house from the rear, sending their gaggle of dogs in an absolute frenzy of yapping.
Oblivious to this I continued to sit in Bluebell watching my phone. That was until the lady of the house appeared in a dressing gown holding a truly repentant Roger in her arms. Is he Yours? She called cheerfully.
Roger was terribly frightened, not only by his brief break out into the unknown but by the fact a total stranger had picked him up. He trembled noticeably and buried his head into my armpit .
A real baby
I took him from my neighbour and thanked her for returning him. It was a little embarrassing but perhaps it’s time to cease hostilities, I thought, grateful he hadn’t ran across the fields towards the sheep.
We sat in Bluebell together as I phoned my supervisor .
Roger meekly curled up on my knee
His shaking stopped.
Drama
Years ago I went out with a drama Queen
He was big on gestures and huge of emotion.
He also had a temper, as have I
So we fitted badly. And the relationship was full of highs and lows
And addictive drama.
I’ve hated drama in any form since then.
I just don’t want to know it.
The nurse in me abhors drama,
It’s pointless and helps no one practically, and often just gets in the way of things.
It’s as if the emotion camouflages the reality
We always watch the noisy child don’t we?
I turn into my elder sister at times of drama, with a pursed lip and strong quiet I’m not doing this now
statement, which sets a scene.
Sure it’s often more satisfying to join in with the drama as their teeth often fit your wounds but eventually it’s all pointless , and fruitless and as hollow and dead as an old log in a wood.
Or as Kenneth Williams final words said what’s the bloody point?
No drama , just the Garden Arch Montana blooming this morning
Serendipity
The other week I told you all that I had a rebate from my electricity bill , money from which I put towards my next year’s counselling college bills. Rebates from my water bill and money hidden away in a jar brought the total saved up to 1000£ Allowing a further pension rebate to pay for my trip to see the lisping Spanish Choir ( my troll went apoplectic at my failure to add to my savings!!!)
Today I did overtime at work ( to pay for my own counselling sessions) and in a down moment read an email from management telling the staff that we were to receive a one off payment in Lieu of a wage increase.
This was an unexpected bonus for the staff and even though I’m part time I will receive approximately 500 + £ extra next month!!!
500£ will more than pay for the outstanding college fees of 1400£ I will owe and will also help with my supervision bills too
How lucky am I?
I sang I have A Dream when I got home with Roger bouncing alongside me like a loon
Please as punch as I was
I really do realise just how lucky I have been
Carmen
I went to see the live performance of Carmen at The Royal Opera House last night. I went with my sisters who both thought they were going to see a ballet, so there was much muted laughter as we took our seats.
We were all disappointed, me for the fact the staging was in a moody, shadowy 1970s Spain and not all frocks, sweaty factory workers and matador buttocks and for them that there was no ballet dancing.
The music, led by sexy as fuck conductor Antoello Manacorda is adorable as always and in the lead the 27 year old Russian Aigul Akhmetshina really shines in a performance of power and confidence and charm.
By the time I got home and relaxed it was nearly eleven, and it amused me, as I sat and wrote this with a drink, that Roger had positioned himself next to the front door fire vent with his nose resting against the slats .
He was listening to see if he could hear the Blackbird moving in her nest as she had been doing all day .
He does amuse me
The following video has Aigul performing Carmen when only 22 years old
Amazing
Quiet
Another video of the lisping Spanish Choir…enjoy…..
a quieter day today, some reading , catching up with jobs ,
It’s sunny this morning so the cottage windows are wide open, Roger is watching the blackbird’s back and forth to its nest in the honeysuckle and has been for over an hour now
Carmen live from the Royal Opera House later
Therapy
Tonight I completed my seventh episode of counselling experience as a client. As trainee counsellors we all are required to experience therapy first hand and pay for it too, and I’ve found the experience awkward, challenging, emotional and enlightening, as my counsellor is based in the “eclectic” theory base of counselling rather than pure client centred base of therapy that I’m being trained in.
My counsellor ventured something I need to think about too
He suggested I was coming out of a clinical depression .one which started a year after my husband left me and one which had been fed and watered by covid
I’m still processing this
But I sort of know he is right.
I’m a month into a strict diet and only last week I joked with him that weight loss was my last goal back to getting back to the real me.
He didn’t challenge me then…..he didn’t have to, as we both read each other’s non verbals,
The elephant in the room.
What I thought was a new start generally, may have been an end to a depression , I never really realised I had
Spring
It’s spring and the scented wild garlic flowers like white fireworks fill the road between Llanasa and Trelawnyd in a carpet. The village is slowly bursting into spring colour too with tulips and aubritia filling neat borders and alongside lawns and forsythia is blooming along side cherry trees, in Rhodfa Arthur.
It’s too early for my laburnum to flower, but I’ve just checked and she’s still standing valiantly in the graveyard a stones throw from the cottage.
Many of the fields feel a dirty green brown, but green is winning and that’s a cheerful statement as is the toing and froing of the female blackbird as she next builds in the honeysuckle over the front door.
People are out walking and gardening again, and Neville Lancelot posted a cracking photograph of goldfinches sparring in his garden on the village Facebook page.
The Dawn chorus seems louder somehow and the badgers are back in force in the lane as the Cubs are now ready to forage. They bicker like children and have woken Roger up regularly over the past week. When he barks, the Cubs jump as one, catching their claws on the concrete of next doors drive with a clatter.
All We need now,
Are some blue skies
To last for a few weeks
“ Peace, All I want Is Peace!”
As the Pro Palestinian demonstration passed the corner of the aptly named Hope Street an elderly woman with long flowing grey hair cried out to a handful of students on the pavement “ Peace, all I want is peace” and they like me, burst into spontaneous applause.
Alfie Moore’s one man show was more amusing than hilarious, and I thought he makes a better dinner party guest than a stand up comedian . His radio 4 show is punchier and more informative, but I was glad I went.
The meal at the gastro-pub on Catherine Street, was a real treat, and it’s worth not eating for the rest of the day, just to get get close up and personal with the slabs of rare beef they shlope onto your plate….
Bloody lovely.
Chester and Liverpool are two cities, each with their own vibe. It was nice to have the city vibe, albeit for a few hours this weekend
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
It’s Sunday morning
And I’m glad I’ve organised another activity day out for today
I need it, I need the filling….
I’m off to meet my friend Colin for lunch at The Blackburne Arms near to Liverpool Cathedral ( bloody lovely food) then I’m off to a talk by Alfie Moore ( below) at the Philharmonic
Moore is a regular on Radio 4 and is a stand up and ex Yorkshire policeman of 20 years.
His stories into police work are as funny as they are insightful
I walked the Welsh in a local Bluebell wood yesterday
I will do the same this morning
I used to have a beautiful bluebell watercolour
‘You’re like a vitamin enriched Brian Blessed’
I caught up with my sleep last night, and did so heavily,
But managed to catch up with Sheffield Jane on video before I crashed
It was Roger who eventually woke me up wanting a wee at 9 ish.
Unlike Dorothy who used to gently occlude my airway with her own neck, Roger tapped my face playfully with a heavy paw
Mary, as usual was dead to the world.
I’ve walked and fed them and when they settle, I will go to Chester to meet my friend Nigel for lunch
This has pleased me as later tonight I’m off to see Troy Hawke a stand up comedian in his one man show.
As you can see from his improv video, he’s quick witted and as sharpe as Margot Channing.
I’m going with Rhian, one of the doctors at work.
Mrs Trellis Sends a Story
Through the letter box this afternoon , a short essay
Its 15.00 and I am home after my counselling placement induction. It didn’t start until 10 am so I like an old rocker I slept in the car after night shift in the car park.
A wash of the face and I was ready to go.
Off to bed
Fuck it
My pension had some sort of rebate on it, so unexpectedly a few hundred pounds will be coming my way
I thought, I may put it towards my University fees but I’ve already contributed to that pot , so in true Gemini style I said fuck it……the lisping choir awaits.
And so I’m going to see them!!!! With the lovely orchestra and conductor Silvia Sanz Torre of course, presenting a Gala of Zarzuelas! I am off to Madrid for 48 hours to see them at The National Music Auditorium in a months time.
Hey ho
Lighten up
I haven’t seen Islwyn to ask about the watering can.
The village social media is full of it.
I was in college all day yesterday.
We finished PD group after three and I drove to the beach again to sit with my face in the sun with a cup of tea and a Bryn Williams sausage roll in hand.
I felt better for it.
Gawd, I don’t know about you but I’m finding myself less patient with people who take themselves far too seriously, especially here in blogland
It must be exhausting being so effin’ pretentious
Jesus! Lighten up a little !
Ok I was eating the aforementioned Bryn Williams sausage roll yesterday
And it cost a bleeding fortune
But I was also wearing my T shirt with HERBIVORE emblazoned on the front of it
I just liked the frocks
Jason, Islwyn and the case of the stolen watering can
I caught up with two of Trelawnyd’s biggest characters yesterday
Affable Despot Jason is still around and is just emerging from his usual yearly hibernation. In spring, like the hedgehogs , he shows his public face , and like Cher, resurrects himself for another year of real life scrutiny.
I have a spare ticket to see Troy Hawke on Saturday but unfortunately he’s working , but my message was welcomingly received and we promised each other that we’d meet up very soon, which was nice.
Village Elder Islwyn stopped just before The Archers , he was dressed in his normal uniform of huge yellow workman’s jacket and beanie hat and he wasn’t happy as someone had stolen one of the graveyard watering cans. With forensic certainty he narrowed down the theft to Saturday morning and apparently has some unshared evidence from a local’s door camera
“ Can you put the details on your blog” he asked, aware that I have 10 thousand page views a day “ if it suddenly turns up again, we’ll say no more about it”:
I promised I would
I hope the can is returned for the thief’s sake
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