Supersize my cabbage, & "Bronwen" on the Beach,

With my trainer in shot to give a sense of scale,readers will not be surprised that I am pleased with the size of my cabbages! Also, I cannot quite keep up with potato orders from work and the village and need to dig up another few trugs tomorrow.


Prestatyn beach, like most Uk Beaches in bad weather, can look rather forlorn, and that can in turn feel rather depressing. Often I see an old school classmate at central beach, and meeting her often leaves me a tad melancholy which is often exaggerated by an overcast day. Bronwen (not her name) was never a popular girl in school and was often the butt of female bullies because of the affected way she carried herself. (her nickname was Queenie in way of explanation!). Thirty years later, she looks the same as she always did (unfashionable clothes with too tall a shoe heel) and sits in her car by the water for long stretches, reading the paper, with her senile mother slumped in the passenger seat. I always stop for a chat when I pass, as her scruffy affable terrier loves meeting up with my pack, and we swap smalltalk about pets,work and the weather. Perhaps I am totally wrong, but Bronwen always strikes me as that lonely lumpy girl, I always thought she was at school and with the risk of sounding patronising, I find that just a little sad.......

Norming and storming continues amid the dog pack and this is complicated when our pack meets with Celt and Samson (Carole's dogs) William continues to be a joy; bouncy,extremely lovable and just a bit gauche and spends much of his time falling over his oversized paws, rather like Scooby doo.

F#!*ing more rain

I am sick and tired of this bloody weather. Trying to have a normal Sunday morning (gardening,allotment,dog walking and chicken keeping) and I have been soaked four times now (to the soddin' skin too!!!) . I am sure that the hens are suffering from trench foot as their run now resembles the World War one battlefield.

Anyhow, took William out this morning for lead training and happened to walk past the Ebenezer Congregational Chapel in the village. It is an austere little chapel and I had always thought it was more or less defunct, as most places of worship usually are nowadays.This morning I realised that perhaps I was wrong as the hymn singing was strong,powerful and rather sweet!

Please read nige's blog at the following http://en-cee.blogspot.com/

(I am guilty as charged!!!!)

A mixed bag o' mashings

The bombings in London and this afternoon in Glasgow airport of all places are all designed to cause disruption and fear to the population already frayed at the edges with flood and wet weather. Despite the media I hope that the British people do what they always do so well in the face of calamity, and that is go about their normal lives without too much chaos and upset. Reading entries on the sheffield forum, that is exactly what people are wanting to do, and by doing so hopefully the terrorists will not gain the psychological upper hand.



The virtue of old fashioned products, came to the front today as (and apologies to Nige and other avid readers for this banal entry) I used the old tried and tested vim scourer on the nasty marks on the bath. Now I have tried glacier smelling mousses, biotic gel cleaners with scientific back up and

expensive anti-scum beating multi-sprays, all with little or no effect. Then this morning, with a rush down memory lane I used a ton of elbow grease and the trusty powder and BINGO!, clean bath! How sad is that? ......entries on a postcard please!


................and finally....When I was soaking in my beautifully clean bath this evening, I got to thinking about the phrase "looking without seeing" .On our bathroom wall is a 1940 print by Cecily Barker entitled "The Dead Nettle Fairy" Now we have this print for years, but tonight, for the very first time I realised how sweet and subtle the drawing actually is. Funny how you take things you see every day for granted isn't it? lesson for the day closeth!

The empire grows...and an Interesting French film

With the girls banging out the eggs big style, and orders coming in thick and fast, I have started to sell the ton of new potatoes left over from the allotment. This afternoon got rid of a load to a passing rambler, and I have made the most of the sunshine (more floods tomorrow I hear), and have walked on the beach,shopped and mown the lawn.

Tonight will be a night in, in front of the tv!



The other night watched an interesting film on one of those "out of the way" channels on sky. The French film Une liaison pornographique (1999) was a weird little number. A Parisian woman Nathalie Baye, advertises for a man on the Internet to fulfil her need for a pornographic affair. She meets, Spaniard Sergi López, and after a series of private liaisons they fall in love. The relationship falters and subsequently ends and that is about all there is ! yep it sounds a bit pretentious and very , well "French", but I must admit the leading actors gave the whole thing a heart, that perhaps the director did not want to show. The film does not show the "pornography" hinted by the title, but it concentrates on the little intimacies that surface between the two characters, making the whole thing rather more interesting. I thought Lopez particularly good ( he was the baddie to beat ALL baddies in Laberinto del fauno, El (2006))

Williams first hair cut and 20 bags of sugar!!!

William now looks like a real deco terrier! albeit a slightly skinny one! Took him to the dog groomer and fitted in weight watchers in between. Good news is that I have now lost the equivalent of 20 bags of sugar! only 3 lbs to go and thats it!!!

Listened to stories of Sheffield householders from Winn Gardens (just down the road from where we lived in Hillsborough) on radio 4 this morning, very sad!

Nights tonight!

wedding plans?

Spent the day knee deep in manure,so rang Chris at 6pm to meet me in The Ivory on his way home , (The new wine bar in Prestatyn). It was very nice too ( a bit like All Bar One, but withour the mother-in-law's tongue!---sorry Nige) , we manage to have a nice bottle of wine and meal!
Chris has now decided that a wedding IS on the cards ( after his confidence panic after Nu and Jim's wedding. ) and I had to chuckle to myself, as I knew he would change his mind. We had a nice evening bantering about who would come and who would do what and where! All I am bothered is that all the people we know and love are there and are happy, but I would LOVE to use the grotty village hall as some sort of venue. Anyhow we will see.........watch this space

Before and After

A before and after picture of the garden! only 8 months apart!

Sheffield gets it bad!

Just been reading the news that Sheffield came to a standstill yesterday. I suspect the emergency protocol was put into effect at the Northern general hospital, which was effectively cut off by the flood water!. Hundreds of people seemed to be trapped all over the city, and I can't believe that two people were drowned! it sounds terrible.The Stories on Sheffield forum http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=100 , are sobering too!

mind you, reading some of the posts does reinforce that "spirit that won the war" mentality, which is the saving grace from all this misery.

(left,a very scary picture of central Hillsborough. Below, am I wrong but is this near Meersbrook?)

Friends seem ok, Nige is stranded at home,(but is ready for war as he has saved water and candles!!!!!!!) Jonney has no electricity in Hillsborough,Jane is fine and Sarah was trapped overnight at the Spinal Unit

When you have live in a place that suffers on this great scale, the reality of disaster hits home. Sometimes the problem with the media is that we all are desensitised to a certain degree from the horror and sadness of this sort of thing because we "see" it every day on the news. To me these pictures are truly shocking.