Spring time at last! New windows and the flower show committee meets!

It's official! spring has sprung! The warmer weather and longer sunshine days have had its effect on the girls and today we have had our first egg in months! and a whopper it is too, no wonder there was some frantic clucking going on this morning.

Had a couple of hours sleep after nights and after the usual walk on the beach (Fin looking slightly more sprightly than yesterday) got home in time for the window fitter to do his stuff. The Bathroom and Chatsworth Room windows now look clean, tidy and NOT knackered 1980 eyesores! as they did and I can't wait for a long bath just so I can enjoy looking at them!!!

The workman had both windows fitted in an afternoon, and did a pretty good job, mind you our elation at Robina's first egg WAS slightly lost on him. (He smiled politly and somewhat weakly when Chris showed him the egg)

The Trelawnyd Flower show committee meeting finally took place at "Auntie Glads", this evening and it was lovely to finally formally meet the 87 year old powerhouse. Very Welsh, very friendly and with a keen interest in everything Auntie Glad seems to have a special place in the collective village heart. I know she is the unoffical mascot of the Trelawnyd Male voice choir, who she caters for, every Tuesday. The committee apparently always meets at her old house in the centre of the village and traditionally enjoys lashings of her tea and cakes during the agenda discussions! (Tonight was lovely fruit scones!- there goes my weightwatcher points! I did notice that the women in the meeting were given china cups while the men had more robust mugs!)

The flower show has been running for nearly 40 years and many of the comittee members have faded away with illness and age, so there seems a slight despiration in some of the remaining members to seek new blood to keep the tradition going and I am all too happy to be directed by them and to help out. I am actually looking forward to it

Mushroom crop number 1 & Little Children and Nu the film star

Taking the turf off the top of the allotment is back breaking work but I got stuck in for a couple of hours this afternoon, and I must admit one tiny corner does resemble something akin to a vegetable patch ( well actually it looks like a large untidy war grave!) The world and his wife have stopped to give me advice "oh you don't want to do it like this, you want to do it like that" sort of thing, but I am happy to do the work in a more laborious way,as it will help with the weightwatchers "weigh in".


Had a sneaky look at my mushroom crop this morning and hey presto we have a crop! smells something awful, but certainly might have enough for breakfast on sunday! cute little buggers eh?


Little Children (2006) was a big let down at Theatre Clwyd tonight. I suspect I would have enjoyed the novel by Tom Perrotta , as the brief explanatory narration excerpts were beautifully written and incisive,but to be honest I found the film lumpy and rather boring . Kate Winslet was ok and so was pretty boy Patrick Wilson (pic) but I couldn't just care very much about anyone of them....a fatal flaw in the film world! Nice to see Hazel though! apparently Hubby is getting jealous that I am accompanying her to the flicks so often! Hum so take her yourself!!!





Spoke to Nu briefly tonight before going out, having nu withdrawl at the moment and can't wait to meet up soon.She sent me some wedding pics tonight and I love this one as she looks very Hollywood! (nice mirror! by the way! )

Very Rita Hayworth in Gilda!!!!

ps Fin is still not right but certainly better! Presently is lying on the couch with me with his paw on the computer screen! oh ever the actor! pps..........................................................................................
I was at work yesterday for a 12 hour shift and when I got home Chris was all frazzled after looking after Finlay and the three others AND getting the dinner ready and all the other normal shit!....I was very grateful but had to laugh today as Carole from down the road told me that she had enjoyed looking after Meg, Maddie AND George ALL day on Sunday!............

Big Music

Jerome Moross wrote one great movie score and I could never believe he did not win an oscar for his magnificent musical theme for the 1958 film The Big Country (1958) which I listened to all the way home from work tonight!!!!!! It is my very favourite western, for many reasons other than the music (which can only be surpassed by the theme from Magnificent Seven) , It has Gregory Peck at his most virtuous ,Charlton Heston at his most handsome and Jean Simmons at her most beautiful! Was she actually quoted as saying during the long and arduous shoot "Who do I have to fuck to get off this picture?" Think I will watch the dvd later!
Love Burl Ives shouting at his no-good son Churck Conners " Crawl, you act like a dog, crawl like one! Crawl I said, crawl! ".....

Bringing Fin home, Helping Rol and back to normality

Chicken on the couch as a bit of a treat, and sporting his IV bandage like a medal, Finlay is back home and is asleep next to me. Not quite back to his usual self (a few wee accidents so far) but I will settle for what we have got. Chris is slouched on the sofa busy reading some biography about the Queen Mother (bless), Maddie is comatose on the arm chair and is farting peacefully, her stubby legs wagging; Meg and George are play fighting in the kitchen and Joan is wandering in and out and out and in, constantly in senile motion-! I can smile to myself just a little, things are just how they should be!

Caught up with old friend Rol this afternoon who has had the melancholy job of clearing his mum's house of furniture after her sad death last year. I am fully aware of how difficult and emotional this job can be and was happy to help albeit in a tiny and advisory way with some of her antiques! Wierd to hear him rather that to see him as he seems to have the thickest and Brummie accents now! a vast change from his original North Wales lilt! It was good to catch up! Very odd to think that we first met 26 years ago! how time flys!

Back to hospital tomorrow, as I am working all day am also on night shift Wednesday which is a bummer as the first meeting of the Trelawnyd Flower Show Committee is scheduled at 7pm. Yeap next weeks blogs are going to be so exciting!! watch this space

Animal hospital, weightwatchers and hopefull news

It has been a rollercoaster ride of a day. Managed to get hold of the consultant Vet this morning and went in to the animal hospital at 2pm with a very heavy heart. The consultant was a "jolly hockeysticks" type of woman who went through all the news clearly and concisely. Finlay's condition had improved with steroids, bags of fluids and a heavy dose of antibiotics, and the original diagnosis had seemed to have shifted from a brain event to a serious systemic infection of some sorts. She explained with a smile that he wasn't out of the woods by any means, but his neurology loss had reversed and he probably could go home tomorrow! I could hardly believe it as everyone had prepared us for his potential death only last night! I could have kissed her! A nurse in scrubs brought him out to see me and rather a sad ( and still connected to 500mls of dextrose saline) Finlay tottered out and hauled himself onto my knee with a weak but genuine open mouthed smile!. My boy was back!

Anyway enough of this emotion, the whole 24 hours has been all a bit much and Chris and I have been so touched my so many phone calls and good wishes from friends and family! Carole from down the road .......has been especially good looking after the three "little ones" when all this was going on! anyhow changing the subject.........................................................Yesterday I started work on the allotment which was bloody back breaking to say the least. Moving the rotavator is a cross between battling Charlton Heston's Chariot and hauling in a two ton Marlin, and I suspect digging the 40 foot plot will help with my weightwatchers point loss! (look at the silhouette of the stomach!) Mind you when we went to out weigh in yesterday I had lost ( wait for it!) SIX AND A HALF POUNDS!! Fat Bastard!

Crap day

It is 10 to 1 (am) on Friday morning, I cannot sleep and I can honestly say that today has been the worst I have experienced in years.Finlay became more a more lethargic over the day, and suspecting something neurological (but hoping something gastric) was afoot I rang the vet and got him seen at tea time after Fin refused to walk and could hardly stand. I knew he had a brain event as soon as I saw the vet worriedly checked his propreoception and ask quietly "Have you insurance?" I couldn't quite believe my reaction as I promptly burst into tears, as for the first time, I thought we could loose him. My head tell me at in the great scheme of things what with things like Nu's mum being so ill, and sudden illness seen at work all the time, a sick dog isn't seen as important, but Finlay has possessed a huge part of my heart and my life for 5 years and the thought of loosing him has devastated me.
The young woman vet was very good, she gave me a minute to collect myself and offered me the option of referring him to the animal hospital near Ellesmere Port that specialises in brain disorders but I know things look rather bleak. She gave him some steroids and a painkiller and I took him home prepared to take him to the animal hospital on Friday morning, of course he has deteriorated and I have just taken him to the hospital where they are giving him fluid resuscitation before a formal assessment tomorrow morning ( well this morning now)
I feel so crap, but cannot talk to anyone about it all even chris without getting overly upset and I just can't allow myself to do that at least at the moment.
I just want my boy back.

A long e mail and back to the land

Been discussing memories and perceptions with a friend over the past 24 hours or so, and he recalled a conversation from his youth which I thought was quite moving

"When I was 16 and spent my summer in France I asked Madame Farcy what it was like to have been living in Paris during the Occupation and I remember her answer so clearly: "I was a school girl. I got up every day and went to school - but there were German soldiers standing on the street corner. Sometimes they smiled."
Life's like that. Whenever I have hard times - and I have had a few over the years - I wake up the following
morning and there's a new day to live through

Thought I would take a "before " picture of the field, you can't see the pegs marking out the first of my allotment beds and I hope to have three "agricultural" areas 40 feet by 20 each! The soil is heavy clay so this is the upper most area of the field so hopefully will drain a little better. Just before I took this picture I disturbed a buzzard eating a wood pigeon in the long grass!

The view on the left is the rest of the field in the opposite direction and this is were the new hen house and run will be situated as well as the compost pallets. The run will be around 40 feet by 30 and the fencing will be around five foot high. The birds will have to have their wings clipped to keep the buggers in but thats not a difficult operation
Finlay had been pretty ill today, noting too specific, but he has been lethargic and just plain "odd", standing for long periods with head bowed in the kitchen, refusing to walk etc. Perhaps the trip to the vets yesterday persuaded him that he was ill?

A blunt Polish vet and the allotment finally starts!!!!

After several large fits last week I decided to take Fin to the vets to discuss anti-epileptic meds. I am really against him starting phenobarbitone as I feel it is potentially sedating and in high doses potentially dangerous to the liver, but I need to be open to discussion. Part of Fin's charm is his exceptionally friendly nature, and anything that could compromise that worries me. Anyhow off we trouped to the vets and as usual the waiting room was packed with the usual suspects when we arrived! Everyone looked rather nonplussed and the obvious reason was the fact that on duty was another new vet. With a thick polish accent a pretty young woman called out "Haw is next?" The waiting room as one all started to look at each other and the nearest woman stated "I am waiting to see Mr Sargent!" One after another four others stated the same thing and I felt terribly sorry for the young woman. Mr Sargent (see previous blogs) IS a delightfull James Herriot senior partner and obviously trusted by his large number of customers but the whole situation seemed rather insulting to her. Being in a hurry I was more than delighted to jump the queue, and was soon in the surgery with the Polish vet giving Fin the once over. Now, I work with a lot of Polish medics and enjoy the blunt direct way they sometimes communicate and am never upset by them, this vet was no different as she remarked sharply "Vhy is he vet ?" (I had bathed him earlier) , I explained and she nodded in a hard unsmiling way! Fin who loves even an unsmiling new vet kept looking at her with his open mouthed happy charm and soon had her grinning and fussing him, anyhow to cut a long story short (and after discussion and deliberation from 2 other vets) we all decided to leave Fin well alone! Fits and all, I hope it is the right decision. (is it me or is he smiling in this pic?)

Just got back from the local horticultural society talk with Ann and the guest speaker was a bigwig at the Chelsea Flower show, an affable and articulate vegetable grower called Medwin Williams (http://www.medwynsofanglesey.co.uk/) Came away all fired up with allotment fever ( and two bags of free compost!!!!-oh be still my beating heart!) Getting the rotavator tomorrow!!! and have got the corner posts for the chicken run, downside is the fact that George has shredded my green welly slip-ons! (Pic is a bunch of my daffs from the front garden)

Want to see Becoming Jane (2007) this weekend but am off to London on Friday for a wedding post mortem with Nu! She has treated me to some good theatre tickets (I cannot remember the play) as a thank you for what I did at the wedding ( what did I do?) and I can't wait to see her again! Perhaps Chris will let me drag him to the flicks next week?