It's raining 300 men

It has pissed down for much of the day! This video made me smile
enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Garden compliments

The Garden recieved the ultimate compliment today, this time from the lady in the corner house from the village who has the most spectacular garden! She said my back garden was beautiful!

Pottering in the eye of the storm

Today is the only fine day we are going to have for a while, well that's according to the BBC weather web site, so it has been a lovely pottering sort of day of catching up with allotment jobs and walking in the sun. Chris and I got up early and walked the dogs on the beach, then I managed to clean out the somewhat musty coop and weeded the veg patch which is looking quite healthy.


I love listening to the radio, when working in the allotment, and today had a real treat as it was the omnibus of the The Archers, followed by an insightful episode of Desert Island Discs. The joy of radio listening is that you can actually give the words,conversations and comments your total attention, and it was a joy to hear the relationship between singer Christy Moore and host Kirsty Young blossom. Radio allows you to pick up on when an interviewer actually likes and respects their interviewee, and I was impressed by Kirsty Young's ability to phrase and ask interesting and insightful questions. I found it fascinating comparing this interview with the one I heard between Faith Brown and Jenny Eclair yesterday. Faith Brown sounded terribly desperate while Eclair was polite yet obviously bored with the whole "old pals act" thing.


The allotment has started to bear its fruit, the lettuce we ate at Ann's yesterday was ours as was the garlic. The sweat peas are wonderful, as are my white "ice cream" roses. Just had time for a 4 mile powerwalk and more William lead training before a sleep this afternoon before work later!
I am worried that next week will make me go a little stir crazy as the weather will be turning wet and wintery, here's hoping.
Today has been a nice day

William (left) looking rather smug

Postscript to Tuesday Night

I love city skylines. There is something rather romantic about buildings set against green hills (as in Sheffield and Pittsburgh) or Water (New York ,Seattle and San Fransisco) Now I know it sounds rather odd lumping Sheffield with some of the most evocative cities in the world but I do think the Sheffield view can hold its own with the others. Last Tuesday Jonney had to attend a corporate do at the Millennium Galleries before we went out and after I had grabbed a Chardonnay, I disappeared onto the museum balcony at sunset to enjoy the view.And enjoy it I did...very much so. I was reminded of a night out years ago, with Mike and Bev and Bev's doctor friend Jackie who was then working at Weston Park Hospital. We ended up at the doctor's residence which was situated on the top of the hospital and I remember dancing in the dark, on the roof with the 360 degree view of the sparkling city lights and dark hills beyond. It was a magical experience!

On our last New York trip Chris and I (with Sorrel) went up the Rockefeller Centre at Night to see the view from the famous "Top of the Rock" observation platform. It was a wonderfully romantic , exciting and humbling experience. I think it is nice to have some of these memories linked together Sheffield/New York, New York/ Sheffield.

Julia Fordham - Happy Ever After

Found this, slightly dated video on U tube. It reminds me of the early 1990s and Nuala. A great sounding song, and definately one to play at my funeral! Still wet today but nicer, Chris and I are off to a family dinner at Ann's later

Oceans 13

Ocean's Thirteen (2007) was the ideal antidote to the torrential rain this afternoon; frothy slick and entertaining. Ok , the story had more holes than the average slice of Swiss Cheese, and if you went to the toilet, you would have missed most of the essential parts of the plot, but as a caper movie it was fun enough. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon, all looked as though they had fun making the movie and let old hands Elliott Gould and a very sexy Ellen Barkin steal the best performances! Not as good as the original, of course but miles better than the first sequel, it was a nice afternoon out of the rain.

Williams first day

The weather has been awful today, rain and more rain
so getting William trained on the lead has been a wet and cold experience. Male Welsh terriers seem more sociable and clingy than their female counterparts and certainly more demonstrative than the more self assured scotties, and William certainly is subscribing to that way of behaviour. He is quiet, friendly and loves to climb into a spare lap, and has taken Meg's occasional mistrusting snap, Maddie's aloofness and George's noisy banter in his stride.
Chris is working away tonight so as the rain is falling, I have stoked the fire, and have settled down with a good book.
Lost another half lb today at fatfighters, ( a bloody miracle given the amount of chips I bolted down the other night)

Mike,Jonney,William and a painful bite on the arse

Breaking my journey to collect William from Alfreton meant that I had an opportunity to meet up with Mike and Jonney Highfield (see pic left: sporting his Damian Lewis look!!) in Sheffield. Mike was bouncy and fun as always and John was on excellent, no-holds-barred,drag act ,knock 'em dead form, all night. We had a great night chatting and laughing, it was good to catch up.(even though I gobbled up a large tray of cheesy chips on the way home!)

I got to Alfreton around ten, and after a somewhat painful altercation with a very large and angry Russian terrier (more about that later) I had the difficult task of choosing one of three Welsh terriers which was available to buy.It took a good while of oooohing and arhing but I think I chose well.... William is six months old and looks rather like the adolescent he is, gangly and a little awkward. He is in need of drastic trim and is pretty crap on the lead but walked into the cottage in a friendly bouncy way and was immediately accepted by the other dogs, who I am sure recognised his kennel smell. At the time of writing they are all lying in a heap on the kitchen floor.

The four hour journey home was made worse by my aching arse!
When I got to the kennels, Susan's huge pack of dogs that frequent her courtyard, were no where to be seen. So confidently I opened the gate and foolishly walked towards the kitchen door. Suddenly there was a frightening baying from behind the house and seven dogs hurled themselves at me. Now generally I am not nervous of noisy dogs, but two of the seven were massive Russian terriers, waist tall and both rather angry. I stood my ground, and called for Susan, but both larger dogs went for me, one of them biting me twice on the buttock (see the delightful pic) .I felt such a twat as walking amid a pack of essentially strange dogs is foolish to say the least, and the outcome, albeit painful , could have been a helluve lot worse. Thank god for Susan's benign thirteen year old airedale, who quietly positioned herself between me and the most aggressive terrier, not in any heroic way, she just wanted to be friendly!