A matter of life or death

Like in a scene from a film, a Lockheed p-38 American World War 2 , has just been found down the coast aways, after it crashed over 60 years ago. The actual location is being kept secret and is apparently under surveillance, until the rare plane is recovered. I think the kite photo of the crash site is a cracking one

!

Gethin

OK,

I am begining to become a bit of a fan!

This picture made me smile when sitting down for the first time after a fraught few hours on ITU

Heaven

Heaven (2002) was a strange little film that I caught on my break last night. Unfortunately I only watched the odd half hour of it but I suspect I will try and watch the entire film on DVD if I can as the performances of the actors Cate Blanchett and the odd looking Giovanni Ribisi were quite compelling. I was particularly impressed with Ribisi who had a odd stillness about his performance as a shy Italian policeman who falls for a suspected terrorist, that was incredibly moving.

Been asleep all day, so Chris has been on chicken,duck,dog,and dinner duties which he has completed with a martyr type gusto! just on the way to work now!

Ruby

No we have not got another dog! Janet and Ned have been bitten by the canine bug and have bought a lercher cross called Ruby. Though not my cup of tea, (I prefer the stocky cocky terrier types rather than the aristocratic gracefulness of the "running" worker dogs) she is a lovely natured and impressive animal.
I look forward to watching her run circles around my four!
Working all weekend on nights so will miss Strictly Come Dancing this evening, which is a bummer! We have not done much today; walked the dogs on the beach ( The tiny figure of George and Chris makes the photo look posed)
Caught up with Ruby, then caught the end of Now Voyager on BBC2

Post Holiday Blues

The weather has been wet and cold since we got back from New York, subsequently the ground is unfit to plant my early spring shallots,onions, garlic and broad beans.
I have felt rather blue today, the euphoria of the holiday long forgotten. The dogs have all had the shits which is lovely, so Meg (pic) and William have had to have a long hot bath. Finlay used to love a bath, and always stood in the warm water quite still with his eyes closed, and strangely enough William reacted exactly the same way today!
To combat feeling sorry for myself, I have kept busy, doing being-in-control type things. So I have made lists,cleaned the house like a good un, had coffee with Hazel and took a phone call from a friend who had a few personal demons to talk about!
On another positive note British Airways has called ( from the States) to let me know that they are still searching for my filofax (which went missing en route to New York) and the council has been out to mark up the lane outside the cottage wall, so that the bollards can be erected. Non to soon as I caught another large lorry trying to scape around the corner yesterday ( sat nav had told them to come!) Luckily I managed to drag a policemen from main road traffic monitoring duties, to force the trailer trash driver to reverse the mile or so back to the A55!
The other pic is of the pretty cyclamen I planted near the back door

The art of manipulation

"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" is a strange affair . The format is simple;- deserving all America family (Mom, Dad and at least three "little ones"), are in dire need of a new home. One of the kids is disabled, mom has multiple sclerosis, the trailer is leaking, etc etc, so our motley group of designers ( one which shouts alot, another is a southern lisping queen, another is a blond cheerleader type , flattens the family's previous home and re builds a mansion for the near hysterical family to fawn all over with suitable gratitude. In the mean time a constantly cheering local population turn up trumps by pitching in and paying the family's mortgage off , baking pies and initiating group hugs by the score in the background.

Sounds dreadful eh? yeah too right, it is bloody awful! The house usually looks completely over the top, over designed and bloated with money; the presenters fake tanned to the hilt, and brimming with "sincerity", that makes you sick and the excesses of it presentation is all a bit too much. However, I am not ashamed to say that I do enjoy the blatant manipulation of the emotions when the family finally "see" their new house. Floods of tears, mum and dad on their knees thanking God with sobbing Children, locals and builders prostrate with hysteria and me lying on the couch, weeping away with the best of them!. It is a wonderful romp! and just like the ones we used to have watching the likes of "Little House on the Prairie" , Lassie Come Home or 'Animal Hospital' and is therapeutic as it is banal! I have watched it every night for three days and bawled every night

....................enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chicken sh*t and Swarovski-crystal and 76 bloody pounds

After waxing quite lyrically about the Met's swarovski chandeliers yesterday, I was happy after I googled a photograph of them ad actually found a picture! Mind you, there is no real sense of scale from this photo but it does give the viewer the idea of just how impressive 12 of these rising gracefully into the theatre ceiling would look!

I have spent a long day, clearing the field and cleaning and moving all the chicken houses. I know it is not that interesting a fact but I did fill a whole wheel barrow full of chicken shit!




The dogs have settled down with a typical post kennel lethargy. Meg is needy and clingy. Maddie is following me around like a shadow, William is sleeping most of the time, only George is bouncing around with a big smile on his face as usual.

Got a letter from the Nursing body UKCC today! registration fees per year will be 76 £!!!!! Can you soddin well believe it? I have to pay 76 quid to an impotent organisation for the privilege to actually work!!!!

Disgusting!!!

Fountain Sculptures..... a postscript

This detail is on the wall of the steps to the Central Park fountain,
Back home now, dogs all collapsed through barking for 6 days solid at the kennels!