Rain,

Torrential rain and gale force winds make the countryside brown and grey.The new wind turbine at the house at the edge of the village, can almost be heard from our cottage, it is whirring that loud. The turbine is impressive! and I would love to have something like it (albeit slightly smaller) in our field. The wind was so strong today, that I feared the whole thing would actually take off.
So today is another write off . The ground is too heavy to turn over and too wet and waterlogged to plant the rest of the shallots so I have spent the day completing plans for planting (yes more lists!)and pricing polytunnels on the internet. and picking out fruit bushes that could be planted in the upper field by the churchyard.
The things I want to get this year include

• a medium polytunnel
• another electric enclosure for the ducks and older hens (non egg layers)
• another 12 volt battery and transformer
• An incubator and heat lamps for the ducklings and chicks
• A small duckling/pullet house

Humm, perhaps a little overtime is in order

Idle Chatter: Nacido y Criado, Jeremy Clarkson, Village Renovation ,bread...and FINALLY MY FIELD!!!!!!

Nacido y criado (2006) Theatre Clwyd this evening.
Is a moody Argentinian movie which strangely has similar themes to Will Smith's I am Legend. Affluent designer Santiago (Guillermo Pfening) suffers a terrible car accident with his wife and daughter. Running away from his inner demons, he becomes increasingly unstable when working in a bleak Patagonian airport. This slow moving film is incredibly well shot by Guillermo Nieto) and in its own ponderous way, mirrors the more flashy mainstream vampire film with its themes of isolation,grief and guilty insanity. At times Nacido y Criado is as uncomfortable to watch as the bleak, harsh and unforgiving terrain of rural Patagonia, but as a study of a man in torment, it is at times riveting cinema.

"Clarkson stung after bank prank " Was one of the headlines on the BBC News website, and I was greatly amused to read the following:-

"Jeremy Clarkson found himself unexpectedly donating to charityTV presenter Jeremy Clarkson has lost money after publishing his bank details in his newspaper column.
The Top Gear host revealed his account numbers after rubbishing the furore over the loss of 25 million people's personal details on two computer discs.
He wanted to prove the story was a fuss about nothing.
But Clarkson admitted he was "wrong" after he discovered a reader had used the details to create a £500 direct debit to the charity Diabetes UK. "........ Clarkson has made a career out of strong opinions and bullying so it was evern so satisfying to hear that his pomposity had backfired on him!

Nice to see that work has started on the renovation of the village hall. The whole place is shut for the entire year, as the Edwardian building gets an overdue facelift.

Delivered eggs this morning and have planted early garlic and broad beans AND I have made some wholemeal bread(pic) and vegetable soup as the weather is bright but ever so cold.

24 eggs today, which is a record as I have only 25 female birds! Hormones must be pumping with the arrival of the men! The egg money is being put aside to pay for my incubator, heat lamps and chick feeders, so when spring finally arrives, I shall be ready.

and finally,...................I have finally agreed the annual rent for the field....only a year late the price will be £15 quid a month! and my agreement ON PAPER will arrive tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!
I feel I can actually get stuck in with all my plans

partisan hens and the weather draws in.....

No, not a photo of a dead hen, but a supposed action shot of Stanley post peck fight with Duncan.
I have been clearing the vegetable patches all morning, so I had a great chance to watch the new expanded flocks behaviour.
Duncan is definitely "cock-of-the-walk", he spends most of his time near the chicken coops surrounded by the majority of the females, who have turned themselves into rather bubble-headed groupies!
There is much billing and cooing amid the girls, but not all of the hens have followed suit. A few of the non conformists have sided with a rather gauche Stanley, and he and his little entourage (Whoopie Goldberg, Beatrice and a couple of the hookers) spend their time on the upper area of the run.
For the most part the two males are perfectly happy with each other, but just occasionally, especially when Stanley decieded he would like to increase his meagre girly group by catching the eye of the likes of a passing Robina or Glen Close, Duncan would then charge over and try to beat the crap out of him. These challenges are brief and showy, and if the girls could collectively sigh "ooohhhhhhh and arhhhhhh!" as they look on with admiration I am sure they would have done.
The weather turned this afternoon and the heavens opened big style. Leaving the allotment, I have cleaned out cupboards and drawers and the space under the stairs as well as cleared the refuse tip that is located under our bed!
Not the most interesting blog ( eh Carol?) but they can't always be interesting

Mamma Mia the Movie [trailer]

ok ok we saw the musical in New York and it was enjoyable pap!
This version looks rather good! Streep looks wonderful!

Back to Spinal Injuries

Oh My God! I didn't have time for even the briefest of blogs yesterday..How remiss!. Saturday night was phenomenally busy at work with me having two ITU patients to look after rather than the more manageable one!

Sunday night seemed Even busier as I has to transfer out on of my more stable patients so that an acute spinal injury patient could be admitted. Working in one of only 11 spinal injury units for 16 years, gave me an appreciation of the holes that can occur in DGH care, and last night was no different as the truth is that no one has a comprehensive or indeed in my humble experience an "adequate" working knowledge of the intricacies of care.

I wont bang on about it, but I was fairly satisfied that all the i's were dotted and the t's were crossed and I felt that the patient had more than a fighting chance against the banalities of small hospital care..

Fell asleep fully dressed on the couch when I go home at 8.30, covered with a blanket of dogs. Up again at 10.30 feeling like shit.I am too old for all this!!!!!!!

the sound of a house

chris has gone off to do horse things, he has palmed the dogs off to the ever supportive Carol and Joan has staggered off to do the strange things an elderly senile cat gets up to. In the middle of nights I have woken to the sound of an empty cottage .

Like most Seventeen Century cottages with 18 inch stone walls,it can get incredibly cold inside Bwthyn -y-llan, even when the sun is shining and the temperature is warming outside. so despite a quick venture out to answer the door to Janet and Ned who had popped up to see the roosters, I am back in bed waiting to drop off again, before another busy night shift.

I can hear absolutely NOTHING! perhaps the odd passing land rover or crow from Duncan, but essentially there is silence. Unlike big houses, our cottage does not have an orchestra of creaks and groans when unoccupied! it just sort of squats where it is, and it is strange not to hear Chris listening to re runs of bloody Miss Marple or hear the dogs squabbling of Joan bleating on about nothing.........................perhaps that is why I can't get back to sleep?

Internal cocks,and worries about religion

4.30am and Duncan started crowing. Pitch black, middle of the night, what's the bloody sense of that? what possible reason would he have to let rip at that time? I mean in the natural world all that says to nocturnal predators is "here I am, help yourself!)
Anyhow I went back to sleep and hopefully the neighbours did so as well as not one has been banging on my door with choppers in their hands.
Duncan is truly a magnificent cock ( ok stop the Carry on Farming Jokes), and has pranced around all morning showing off. Poor Stanley, who is the definite Spock to Duncan's Captain Kirk, has been lying in the dust bowl under the hen house with Robina! looking a bit girly

This morning I went to the church to finish paining the new radiators. The peaceful nature of the place\is lovely,
Friend John rang me on my mobile and had a panicky few minutes worrying that I had or will find religion very soon! He was even more on edge when I told him I had volunteered for the Church flowers and cleaning rota! DON'T WORRY JOHN, you wont see me in a verger's frock anytime soon!

It will be a sort of flat weekend as I am working an extra shift tonight and working on Sunday, but then I will have some time off next week to clear the rest of the allotment plots.

Meg seems brighter this morning ( I would too after a ton of chicken) Chris and I are just off to Prestatyn and Boots to be weighed in our weekly weigh-in...............................................

Disaster day: Poorly Meg,a Fat pikey Slag and supermarket Mayhem

Caught up with Nige yesterday which was great, and got up early to get back to the menagerie. The journey was fairly eventful (more about this later!), but got back at 10.30 to a kitchen awash with bloody diarrhoea and vomit. Obviously it was Meg who was not well and a rather "wan" Welsh terrier was rushed to the vets to be diagnosed with an non specific intestinal infection and worms (my idea)
Feeling sorry for herself, she has been treated with several large injections and chicken and rice, and is now curled up next to me.

I planned to enjoy the journey back to Wales, as I love Manchester Piccadilly with its shiny newness and coffee shops, and managed to write a score of catch up letters to friends whilst listening to LBC. The only fly in the ointment was the rather large shape of a loud sixteen year old fat slag type squeezed into in a pink hoodie, (red socks and gold slippers and belt). Now she and her only slightly better dressed friend ran up and down the platform shrieking and laughing, (well more of a waddle than an actual run) and I just knew they would be located in my carriage ( and how right I was...............!)
Now the language from their table was just foul! it was "f*cking this and f*cking that and f*cking the

soddin other", and was I surprised when they pulled four cans of fosters out of a carrier bag complete with a large bottle of Baily's cream?.........even though It was 9.20 am...no I was not!!!)
I managed to forget them for most of the journey as LBC was turned up full blast on my digital radio, but the inevitable happened during a particularly long and dirty tirade, ......yes...I tutted!
Fat slag obviously heard me, and feeling invincible she half stood, shook a fat fist of rings at me and spat out "Wadda you tutting me for.....you Tw*t?"
Now chavs like this can be intimidating to say the least, but I had been angry at their behaviour for an age and was having non of it. Now I can laugh at my reply, but then I could have easily lost it completely with this revolting specimen. Pulling one of my mother's old sayings from no-where I hissed "If you come near me I will slap you right into next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and you know I really would have done.
Fat slag sat down gurning and muttering, but she actually SAT down!
A small but a satisfying little victory.

Got poorly Meg sorted as previously mentioned, then just had time to feed the chickens (and have a tussle with Duncan who is already trying to protect his girls) and collect the leftovers from the local green grocer, to treat them with.
Had to pick Chris up at 6pm from the station, so dashed to Sainsburys to do the week shop and filled the Belingo with goodies before jetting out on the duel carriageway in a sudden downpour. It was when I was sliding around the mini roundabout when fate opened the boot door with great timing, and various bags of shopping flew out into the rain! I don't know who was more surprised? me or the score of lorry and car drivers behind me. A large bag of dry dog biscuits, 2 packets of dry pasta, two bags of rice , a box of low calorie stuffing and a small box of chicken stock cubes bounced under car tyres with gay abandon! Thank god the dogs where not all sat in the back!
Red faced and shaken I bolted for home
What a day!!!!!!!!!!!!