Table shifting

The preparation for the flower show continues and after a particularly busy night shift looking after a chap with meningitis and two hours sleep, I went to the village hall to help hump all the tables around ready for the exhibitors on Saturday morning. Sylvia and Irene and I organised the tables and chairs and covered the whole of the tabletops with lining paper which was a real chore. Tomorrow morning we will put the primary school childrens' work on the walls, which will lighten the austere "look" of the hall a little. Usually the tea tables are left as you see them, so I suggested we cover them with a load of hand embroidered table cloths my mother made in the 1970s. They have never been put to good use and I think donating them to the show would be a nice gesture!. I also suggested we use all the sweat peas from my allotment to decorate each table , so hopefully the place will look a little more "decorative" Yes all very "gay"


we finished around 5pm, and I was glad to hear that the judge for the "best garden " category was very impressed with the cottage garden ( I wont officially hear the results until Saturday though!) I suspect I have not won, but having a commendation would be great.

Chris ha s been to the Flint and Denbigh show today with Janet and the Scotties, who came home covered head to tail with mud and totally exhausted from the stimulation of an animal show.

Rainy day jobs!

There is only one good thing about torrential rain, and that is that it allows you to catch up with those jobs that you often put to one side. After getting a dreadful soaking on the beach,delivering eggs and potatoes, collecting more applications for the flower show (we will be up around 100 % on last years applications!), organising Chris and Janet's picnic for tomorrow's Flint and Denbigh Show and cleaning and feeding the chickens (under an umbrella!) ; I have lit the fire, cleaned up the house and completed those hidden away jobs!

So I have completed the bookings for the kennels for our New York holiday and Christmas; written 2 letters and 6 e-mails to friends; brushed the dogs; tidied up the bureau in the living room; chucked out a load of paperwork and worked out my annual leave for work, which is useful as I am working nights tonight.

I am also very excited as I have booked a table for the famous Rainbow Room in the Rockerfeller Centre! for the Saturday night, when we are in New York! Its on the 65th floor and overlooks the city! I hope we are not sat next to the toilets!

I have just been poked!

Facebook? what's it all about? well I am buggered if I understand it all! This morning I got "poked" by someone I knew but have not seen for a long time, and someone I didn't know asked if I could confirm that I was their friend! Now I worked out that this person is probably a friend of Chris', but how did he know (and why?) to contact me? anyhow I am confused by the whole set up of it. Please can anyone explain it all- answers on a postcard please

The weather deteriorated at 5pm, but I managed to plant a load of Pat choi and iceberg lettuce and tidied up the back garden prior to the garden judging tomorrow.Although the garden looks ok, it is a pity that the flower show wasn't in June when the whole garden was at it's best. Sold a dozen eggs to a passing walker this morning and she asked if she could buy some sweet peas (pic) as the A frame in the allotment is groaning with them! I refused but let her come in a cut herself a large bunch, which she was tickled pink with. Keeping her happy was usefull as she bought a couple of kilos of potatoes and a large bunch of runner beans too!

Trelawnyd Flower Show Pressure

Bit of a reversal of roles today, as I have spent 8 hours at a resus study day and Chris has spent the day cooking, baking and houseworking! He was truly knackered when I got home and had to be congratulated on how neat and tidy the house was! Now I was secretly pleased but it did tickle me that the hoover was still left out in the living room, dirty washing in huge piles on the stairs and the ironing board and iron all left out in the bedroom.....HEY....it's a man's thing!

Anyhow have just sat down after getting things organised for the flower show. Sylvia (show sec) is panicking that only 4 people have entered the village "best garden" category, so I felt a certain amount of pressure to enter ours! (even though all the best flowers have gone over and I have dug up many of the ended herbaceous plants!) So tonight like a madman I have rearranged potted ferns and geranium ( in the dark) to balance the look of the garden, much to the consternation of the dogs who all lined up at the back gate to watch. I also managed to bake a couple of chocolate cakes to be sold at the tea kitchen on the day ( and have not broken it to Chris yet that I suspect he will be helping to sell tea and cakes on the day) Yes blog fans I will be sure and get a photo of THAT ONE!

it's 10.30 pm and I have just cut a few sweet peas for the allotment to encourage a good crop for the show on Saturday, time to walk the dogs and lock up the chickens and a sit down

5 Perseids

Nige is a mine of information and warned us that we may be able to see the perseids meteor shower this evening! ( the best shower until 2013) so with Joan gamely in tow, we stood in the garden, necks craned towards the North East like American rednecks in the 1950's. It was not as exciting as say something out of Deep Impact, but we did see at least five impressive examples! hey ho. and the evening was warm and pleasant

another day, another castle

Penrhyn Castle was a revelation today, as the 19th Century folly is quite stunning in its Victorian excesses!
I thought it was going to be heavy and rather Gothic in it's interior decoration, and it was! , but the effort,attention to detail and shear scale of the place is awesome and after a couple of hours exploring the dark brooding interiors I fell in love with the house even more than I did when I first saw Chatsworth House!.

Chris loved the fine silk wallpapers of the bedrooms ( with Queen Victoria's one ton slate bed lurking there) and some of the artwork hanging in the Staterooms ( Van Dyke, Rubins ,Canaletto and Rembrandt) where as Nigel and I loved the servant Kitchen and beautifully restored house keeper's sitting room.

We did not have a huge amount of time to walk
the grounds but we did manage to explore the walled garden which was beautifully set out. It was a nice bookend to a nice weekend, and as Nige got his train back to Sheffield on time, we had enough time to walk the dogs again on the beach

Nige and Chris (posing!)

Dragging poor Nige around North Wales

After dragging Nigel up the gop with the dogs (we actually saw a badger at 10 am daytime), I dragged him over to Conway ( up into the Castle) where I got jelly legs up the battlements, and had to be led (in true girly fashion) to the ground floor. The castle was amazing, and quite stunning in its design. After

chips at the harbour wall, we went shopping in Bangor then down to the beach again, dog walking! Poor Nige must have been bored silly. Good to see him as usual.

ps.Family and friends have put in over 40 entries to the Trelawnyd show so far!!!

Coed Bell

I am not one for visiting gravesides, I have never really felt the need to do so. But conversations with Chris and again with Mike last night about the dream I had about Fin and my maternal grandmother, made me think about Coed Bell, where my grandparents are buried.

I passed the cemetery this evening, on my way home from walking the dogs on the beach, and on the spur of the moment I stopped. It has been over 15 years since I visited their grave, but I remembered exactly where it was located on the hillside overlooking Liverpool bay.

I had forgotten just how basic the headstone inscription was, (my mother's decision I recall) and I think it's simplicity is kind of moving. I had also forgotten that Gran died only a year after Grandad, which made the inscription of "together" even more poignant.

I wasn't sad at visiting the cemetary, nor was I overly thoughtful at being there. It was just nice to remember them for a brief moment in the sunshine.