Euphorbia, anemones and NO soil !!!

Well, it's one of those muggy wet days today, and after a couple of minutes in the garden you are soaking "damp"!!. The rubble has been taken from the car pull in and after two hours hard slog I have got it clean and tidy, which pleases me!

Been planning the new garden also! cannot do anything else as the top soil has still not appeared, so spent a while at Jackson's picking various cottage garden herbaceous plants such as Euphorbia and anemomes (bottom picture). So I have quite a nice selection of plants all ready, but NO SOIL!!!

Pleased with this picture of yellow flowers as it is one of my planters by the back door! can't remember the name of the plant but I have just bought around ten plants to screen the hen house when it is returned to its rightful place in the back garden!



I have entered my baskets and planters in the Trelawnyd flower show, so have been busy buffing everything up for when the judges amble by!! no sign of any elderly matronly types with clip boards as yet, but I would like to think I have a bit of a chance!..Later , on our tea time walk I am off to suss out the opposition!!








Tomorrow I am off to the dentist! Managed to find one in Holywell of all places that is taking new patients! I could have gone to Rhyl, but couldn't bring myself ! I am gearing myself for University at the moment , so am getting all those jobs "that cost" out of the way! Hence the wall, garden,plants and decoration!!!
Our old neighbours from Cefn-y-gryrch Glenys and Geoff are comming up soon to decorate our bathroom with a bargain wallpaper from Laura Ashley! They are a sparky retired couple that never stop talking and laughing...watch the blog for their picture soon, they're priceless!!!

neighbours

The ritual after nights is to clean the cottage from top to bottom, and during an particularly difficult time scrubbing the floor tonight, whilst listening to Eddie Mayer on Radio 4 , I did have a pang of missing my old neighbour and good friend John from Sheffield.

He always seemed to pop in with a welcome quick hello,or an interesting story .We would have a quick gossip, cup of tea,debate over a watched film or play then he would be gone, and those brief but regular contacts firmly cemented our friendship over many years!

Our neighbours here, are just that!!!.... nice neighbours!! .....I do miss my old one!

Finlay

He sat like this for hours

Favourite clothes, burnt buttocks and no soil!

Well nights take over your life, and you realize all you
do is eat, sleep and clean the chickens. Made an effort today and got up at 2.15pm and walked the dogs around the village. As I was leaving Chris turned up after riding. He was wearing his riding garb AND sported a jaunty black and white neckerchief!
Hummm! Very David Essex circa 1975 (Silver Dream Machine!)....I am sure Brian Aldridge actually wears a similar one in Archerland!.

Got me thinking of my favourite piece of clothing! I am not blessed with good taste when it comes to haberdashery! But I am fond of my "dog" shorts. If you look carefully you can make out embroidered labradors. Bought from a shop in the Rockerfeller Centre NY, they please me!

On a painfull level, I burnt my buttocks on some grime remover I left in the bath when I was cleaning it.....oh for normal life! by the way, my soil has not been delivered!!!

Working the next 3 nights

enough said!!!

If I am working nights I don't seem to get a lot done during the day. Put my application in for the Trelawnyd flowershow, Victoria sponge,hanging baskets, tubs, flowers from the garden and photo of pets (Finlay- who else?). The secretary of the show, a very pleasant woman said that new blood in the show would be great, but did say that the judging was very "tough"!!. The show is very 1950's so watch this space for some vintage pictures!.
Went to the craft shop Mullberrys in Dyserth with my sister, and was delighted to see that they seemed to have sold my old arm chair , don't know for sure as the owners are on holiday, but perhaps the proceeds can go towards some plants for the back garden.
Bought some lavender plants and a lovely climbing rose for the arch at Jackson's too.

Last night Chris and I went to the local Blue Lion at Cwm for a meal! I made him pay as he had invited one of the next door neighbours too ( Carol with the Welsh terrier), but we had a nice time, and the food was lovely! Especially the black pudding wrapped in pastry!!!

ok,ok things I HATE!

I hate

The gibbon featured trailer trash woman who used to terrorize the world at our old cottage (yes you know who you are, you gummy slattern!)

People that speed through our village,

lavender pillows,

yobs with designer fighting dogs,

old men in baseball caps,

Mother and baby parking spaces at supermarkets,

People that amble side by side on the pavement,

Mobile phones going off in the theatre or cinema,

Trailer trash people that sponge off the state and live life as victims,

large tattoos

men with big earrings,

Bad service ANYWHERE!

stripy wallpaper with boarders,

Old people's front gardens that are made up of paving stones,

vertical window blinds,

Toilets on trains,

Litter, open black bin bags & Wheelie bins with pictures of foliage on them,

Gung ho action films with no soul,

America's patronizing attitude,

most Politicians,

The dumbing down of the British way of life.

Motor racing on television,

People that yell all the time,

Humidity and having prickly heat,

friendships that finish,

People that need to be nasty, that pre judge, that are racist & homophobic to others, in order to live their lives the way they know.

I did hate Richard Whitely off countdown!

An hour to kill

Waiting for the weather to clear so that I can go out, so thought I would do my own list of things I love, almost in reply to my friend Nigel's eloquent blog detailing his favourite things. Mine I would think , will be more on a par with the level of Julie Andrews' "....Brown paper packages, tied up with string...", but who cares?

I agree with Nige though I will concentrate on things rather than people ( and animals of course!).

Hummmmmm, things I love?
Chatsworth House, especially the sculpture gallery

Cleaning the house from top to bottom, and having a cup of tea while I survey my hard work



Sitting in a near empty cinema



A dogs nose on my knee


Sitting on the top dam at Redmires looking down at Sheffield on a nice sunny day

Yellow Iris

Watching lightening at night, whilst in bed

Watching black and white films on an afternoon, being inside when it's raining. Letters from a friend


Getting an unexpected text from a friend




Gardening in silence, watering my handing baskets, cutting the lawn edges,


Snow (the crisp very cold and non slushy stuff), having a roaring fire in the cottage

Anything art deco

The angel sculpture in central park, which is simply quite beautifull

Christmas in general, but especially the build up, and preparation

ALL BAR ONE.. well more importantly time with friends gossiping,laughing and emotional romping

Bangers and Mash

Observing little acts of kindness

Old Nuns on planes

after a half hour brainstorm waiting for the vet to be bothered to turn up after her lunch, my other favourite things are

Edith Marimbirie's ( an African nurse I used to work with) chuckle

That clean smell at the Dentist,

very windy days on the beach

free range eggs

Laura Ashley cushions

1930's green paint

old needlepoints

a house full of antiques,

The crisp heat you get in the morning when on holiday in Sitges,

family & friends photographs nicely framed.

The Archers theme tune, (dum-dee-dum-dee-dum-dee-dum!!!)

The smell of Jasmine

coriander

The Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station

Prestatyn wind farm

Well the list is endless, and as I haven't got all day and the dogs need their walk, I will leave it there, no doubt I can think of hundreds more!!!

Not a bag of laughs

disappointed slightly today as all the top soil for the back garden won't be delivered until Saturday. So wondered what to do this afternoon after all the chores were finished. Took myself to Theatre Clwyd in Mold, had lunch and a proper coffee, and went to the cinema to see Shooting Dogs. As usual there was only 3 people in the audience, but that's the way I like it!

The film, detailing an actual event, centred around the 1994 Rwandan

genocide, and in particular the fate of some 2500 Tutis who took refuge at an

United Nation's compound at the ETO High School.

The film, worthy and harrowing, mirrored the likes of Hotel Rwanda and Schindler's List, and told the ultimate massacre story without hysteria or sentimentality. It covered the terrible narrative through the eyes of two fictitional characters, a Belgian priest ( John Hurt, on excellent form) and a young English teacher (Hugh Dancy), and did so with some intelligence. One other character, (a world weary BBC reporter, the excellent Nicola Walker) says at one point.

" When I was in Bosnia, I saw a dead white woman in the street and I thought of my mother.......in Africa you see a dead woman and its just another dead African"

It is a terrible thing to say, but perhaps in some ways a true one. Is it ingrained racism that she was alluding to? or over exposure by the media of African disasters, drought and revolt? ..perhaps it was a bit of both. Either way, the truth hidden in that statement made me feel rather ashamed.

Left the cinema feeling rather thoughtfull and deflated, so marched the dogs up Gop Hill to blow the cobwebs away

As you can see it was a lovely walk, and came home to have a bacon butty and felt alot better. Chris is back tonight, so the cottage will feel more normal ( and less tidy) which is nice. Got another film for us to watch, a more different film to Shooting Dogs you couldn't possibly imagine. Went the day well? Is a wartime propaganda film about evil Germans taking over a quaint English Village (like you do!!) and how the villagers , pull together and fight back, ie (Lady blah blah getting blown up saving the village children as cockney land girl (Thora Hird) blasts the hun with a shotgun!!!)......I love this film as it portrays wartime/village life that never really existed, (but Chris thinks it really did exist!!!

Oh by the way Happy Birthday Mike!!!!!!xx did you enjoy the DVDs..........????? all the best mate!