And then there was 16.

I love this photo of the village taken from the Gop. The weather today is glorious and even with two hours sleep after nights, the view from the top is always worth the effort. Yesterday Chris and I went to the Poultry farm near Frodsham and bought another three Black rock hens. We are now officially at max numbers as the two hen houses cannot house any more birds. The three new hens look rather like teens at a new school and all are being bullied terribly by the others, well until the pecking order, re-jiggles itself. The new chucks are handsome darker version of Raquel Welsh, and have been named Glen Close (pic) and the weather girls. Here's hoping they all settle down together.

Jenny Eclair & pests abound.

I absolutely love Jenny Eclair in her talk show on LBC, on Saturday mornings. When I say Saturday mornings, I actually mean THIS morning, as she has just returned after three months in Australia, but after hearing her for the first time, I am a firm fan! I have enjoyed Mz Eclair from the variety of radio 4 quiz shows, she has participated in over the years, so to have her basically performing unaided for three hours is wonderful and a real tonic. Listening to her when I went for my powerwalk meant that I walked an extra 2 miles and actually laughed outloud several times down the country lanes between Trelawnyd and Llanasa.

I haven't bothered putting yet ANOTHER photo of the allotment on the blog today, but I have put one of the climbing rose over the arch in the back garden, which has just flowered! The allotment is under attack from the air and beneath the ground at the moment, black fly on my beans and moles ripping up most of my celery, ..........messy little buggers.

The weather has been glorious today and I suspect the hens had enjoyed the warmth as another 11 eggs today. I have has a score of orders in too and can hardly keep up with demand!

A lacklustre Alan Bennett

Office Suite is not one of Alan Bennett's better plays; in fact it is two plodding one act comedies both starring the talented Patricia Routledge, and looked as though it was written and should have stayed in the 1970's. Occasionally his sharp observational wit was evident in one liners such as when one middle aged neurotic office worker threatens to staple her colleagues "tits" together, but most of the play was rather bland. The venue was however, wonderfully impressive, Manchester's Lowery Theatre is quite stunning and Hazel and I enjoyed a small wine near the canal in the sunshine before and after the performance. Best bit of the evening!

Postscript............

ER's comic Morris, (aka Scott Grimes) pic, was wonderful in tonights episode on Luca and Abby's wedding. I have gone off ER for a little while, as it seems to be getting rather flat, but tonights offering was sharp,tight and funny. Excellent tv!

Fatfighters revisited, a baby blackbird and Heir to an Execution

Reached another milestone today as I am now 12 stone 12 lbs! 37 lbs has been lost and only a few more to go. The huge psychological milestone of 13 stone has been reached and surpassed and that feels wonderful.

When I got back home Joan seemed rather excited by something in our bedroom and there sitting quite still on the bookcase was a young blackbird from the nest above the front door. Before Joan could grab the little bugger I managed to gently nab him and carefully put him back into the nest where he promptly and inexpertly flew off with the parents in hot pursuit. Hope he makes it ok.


Last night I accidentally came across a documentary on E4, which was a little gem of a film. Heir to an Execution (2004) is the reflections of Ivy Meeropol,on the trial and execution of her grandparents Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953. The Rosenbergs, a middle class Jewish couple were lambasted for being Communists who sold nuclear secrets to the Russians, and their imprisonment and execution divided America as to their guilt. The documentary concentrated on Ivy Meeropol's Father Michael and Uncle Robert, who are the orphaned sons of the Rosenbergs, and who campaigned, albeit unsuccessfully to prove their parents innocence.

These two men, who were boys of ten and seven when their parents died, provided the documentary with colour,warmth and heart, and I found the story of how they were effectively dumped by their parents extensive family because of fear of ostracism or worse, incredibly moving. The documentary explored the difficult subjects of shame,cowardice and isolation caused by family secrets and the boys now men near their sixties were shown to be balanced, loving family men who survived their ordeal through the unconditional support of each other and of their adoptive parents Abel and Ann Meeropol. I found it fascinating that Abel Meeropol (under the pen name of Lewis Allan) wrote the classic anti-lynching anthem "Strange Fruit," made famous by singer Billie Holiday. The overall and vital message that this film gives the viewer, is that family love in its most honest forms can save the most desperate and unhappy of individuals and the beautiful scenes between Michael and his filmmaker daughter Ivy underlined this idea wonderfully. A lovely and unexpected film.

Could I be the weakest link?

Much to Chris' disgust, I have been informed today that I am scheduled for an audition for the tv show The Weakest Link! I am delighted as the telephone "pre-audition interview" was great fun! A bored but charming chap who sounded at the most 20, asked me various questions about my life. One question amused me greatly! He pointed out that on my original application form I described one of my interests as "dog keeping" and asked me what that entailed. He missed the irony slightly when I said "keeping dogs".

Flower show committee meeting this evening, which will mean doing what we are a told and eating Auntie Glad's wonderful scones!, Still feeling under the weather today but managed to sort out the garden and plant a load of celery in the allotment. Sold 18 eggs today too!

We have decided to get a couple of goats to graze the Church field, I would like pygmy goats as logistically it will be easier to cart them around in the back of the belingo, and as luck would have it Chris works alongside the head of the pygmy goat association so we have a "proper" contact who is very helpful . I would like to research goat owning for a good while before going ahead with the actual keeping, but I am looking forward in going ahead

A sign of the times and the orders come in!

I think I have had too much sun today when strimming another third of the Glebe field, as I now feel rather shivery and fluey! But even though I have had only an hours sleep this morning after night duty, I feel I have got alot done. Heard an interesting piece of trivia today from the BBC. Welsh language channel S4C is to broadcast a current affairs programme with Polish subtitles.
O Flaen Dy Lygaid (Before Your Eyes), produced by the BBC and broadcast on Tuesday, is thought to be the first UK TV show to use subtitles in Polish. How things change!According to unofficial sources (how do they work this one out?) there is over 10,000 Polish nationals living in and around Wrexham just East of us, and surmise that there are many,many more living along the North Wales coast. I wonder why is area in particular is attracting this particular group of people, or is it just a reflection of a National trend? anyhow I found the article interesting.

I put up a tatty poster up at work advertising our free range eggs and now have 8 orders for the girls' produce! I can now feel the pound signs "Ker-ching-ing" in my head. The pictured lettuce is freshly picked from the allotment , oh to be the hunter gatherer!

Strimming

The weather has been glorious today and quite inspirational after the bloody dreadful rain we had yesterday. I have walked the dogs on a deserted beach, had a 4 mile powerwalk and have strimmed literally half the field of weeds and long grass. It has been lovely, dirty,tiring and hard work, but lovely

No eggs sold today! guess I won't get rich quick being a hen entrepreneur. Am on nights tonight, am aiming to sell a few there!