Finally, this year's work starts in ernest!

With only a brief jaunt to the beach with the mutts I have spent 5 hours solid sorting out the allotment. The weather has been glorious (i.e. dry) so lots have been done, which has been so good for me as I had been getting rather frustrated with the weather.

Today I have marked out the second vegetable patch, on the site of the huge bonfire of last year, and have cleared all the rocks,loose wood and weeds from the area.(right picture below)

Then I dug over the entire main patch,manured it and started my hardy broad beans off under the closhes.

I even managed to clear some of the rubbish from the hedges and cleaned out the coops, so the whole field now looks ready for action and neat and tidy.

Last night I made clear working "blueprints" of crop rotation and ordered more cheap seeds.

Ann's allotment group is meeting this week and I am sure I will be able to do "swaps"- eggs for seeds and sets from March onwards.

Duncan is truly a magnificent animal and has spent the day watching me carefully as I seem to be a bit of a threat to his "girls". Getting the cockerels seem to have been a good idea as this morning a stoat ran across the field near the hens. I suspect a stoat could if push came to shove fell a smaller hen, but with the roosters there I doubt that it would ever get the chance.!!! When he shot into view both Duncan and Stanley immediately ran forward to protect the others. I have read of this protection ability the males show but this is the first time I have actually witnessed it.

Kids! and Seraphim Falls

With Chris away in Oxford and London, I only have the dogs and a good DVD for company. Although you cannot really tell from the top photo, all four dogs have surreptitiously crawled onto the couch,each one desperate to be the one that lies closest to me. Is it only a year since George was a tiny puppy (below) I have always liked this picture of George and Meg, the two of them look more like soft toys rather than puppies.

Seraphim Falls (2006) On DVD this evening, was a good old fashioned western the likes of Jimmy Stewart and Van Heflin would have been proud to have appeared in. The story is the age old and well worn tale of vengeance, a vengeance which destroys humanity and reason and we have seen similar tales throughout literature and film. from the likes of Ahab in Moby Dick to Inspector Javert in Les Miserables.

In this film the man of vengeance is a sombre Liam Neeson who doggedly follows a windswept and rather aging Pierce Brosnan through a picturesque Rocky Mountains . The reason for the men's feud should have been left a mystery, as by revealing it in a heavy handed way and hour or so into the movie, the director David Von Ancken flattens the whole pace and tension of the piece.

However the film was an enjoyable DVD on a wet and windy night,and Pierce Brosnan;s performance was quite impressive.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and name that hen

I have always enjoyed the Academy Awards over the years! the false sincerity, the intense speeches, the awful nominees for best song! it is a bit of a tradition with me!

Who could forget Sally Field yelling "You Like me! You Like me" when she won best actress! or the deaf children from the Spencer Tracey school for the deaf signing the words to the film song "You light up my life" ( only to find out later that they were not deaf at all). I will always remember Whoopie Golderg add libbing her way through the 1999 ceremony in that red dress and every year I shed a tear when they play that old clip obituary piece with the names of the recently departed shown one after another!
I was sad in a way that the glitz had been quashed from the recent Golden Globe awards in Holywood on Sunday. The support by actors and other artistic staff of the Screen writers strike is no doubt a good thing but I hope that the Oscars will be safe in April!
Mind you, it is more difficult to actually watch the ceremony anymore as not many tv channels will actually show it, but I am hoping that Sky will come up trumps!


Anyhow I digress! I was glad to see that the film version of the Jean-Dominique Bauby novel The Diving Bell and the Butterfly won best direction for Julian Schnabel. The novel is an amazing unsentimental autobiography of a man totally paralysed by the severest of strokes. The account of his perceptions of his hospital care is sobering, at times shocking and provides lesions to all health care professionals that read it, in a similar vein to the psychiatric care bible Sans Everything by Russel Barton. The Barton book (written in the dark 1960 days of psychiatric care) was a milestone of my R.M.N. training, as it provided me with a horrific glimpse into the abuse that was endemic in the old asylum system.
I am looking forward in seeing how Schnabel adapts the Bauby novel, having the paudit for the Golden Globe members hopefully means that he has produced a great film.

ps Carol wanted to know the hens' names, so to keep her happy, here goes:

The Black hookers (the generic name for 6 black rocks who all look the same)
The Andrews Sisters (4 Sussex-whites)
The Nolan Sisters ( 4 red rockets)
Robina (the oldest hen- a Black speckled)
Glen Close,Trinny and Suzanna and Raquel Welsh ( red/golden hybrids)
Blanche,Beatrice and Rose (black and white hybrids)
Whoopie Goldberg (Grey hen)
Baby Jane (Grey speckled)
and Mildred Pierce (white speckled)

Hope that answers your questions!

A Movie Phantom

Now we did enjoy The Phantom of the Opera when we saw it a few years ago in New York. It is all spectacle,moody lighting and average songs, but it was dramatic, showey and thoroughly enjoyable in a fairly forgettable sort of way. Joel Schumacher's movie version (Channel 4 this evening) is an interesting interpretation that only works on a few levels for me.

I did enjoy the main set piece of the crashing of the giant chandelier onto the stage which was truly spectacular, and I did think that Gerard Butler made a sexy and strangely Scottish Phantom! but Christine (a rather vapid Emmy Rossum) was sadly lacking in any depth as was Patrick Wilson as pretty boy hero Raoul. The most effective acting came from the supporting cast which was surprising!
Miranda Richardson was great as Madam Giry,Minnie Driver hammed it up with gusto as Carlotta and I hate to say this but tit laden Jennifer Ellison was very effective as the virtuous Meg Giry!

However in general the whole film left me rather bored, and near the end I was praying that Butler would hurl the psychotic Rossum off the Paris Opera House roof!

I will stick to the stage version in future

"Tramp Stamps" and an attack of the vapours

I had to laugh this morning when listening to LBC. The early morning presenter,- camp-as-a-row-of-tents Steve Allen, cultivates a waspish ability to slag everyone and everything off. He pays particular attention to Chavs and bimbos, and this morning let rip on slaggy young women, like the one that foul mouthed me on the train back from Manchester the other morning. Not pausing for breath Allen berated these girls who sport lower back tattoos (he called them TRAMP STAMPS and with the obligatory "g" string always on show to the world.-I found his comments hilarious, and found myself laughing out loud when feeding the chucks at 8 am.
I love catty, predominantly gay(ish) humour. Steve Allen, Joan Rivers, Lily Savage,Jenny Eclair, John Highfield, all have the ability to make me literally cry with laughter,The put down, if carefully constructed can be a wonderfully funny statement.
I love the quote attributed to comedian Red Skelton, when commenting on the crowds that turned out for colleague Ed Wynn's death........rather wryly he stated “It proves what they say, give the public what they want to see and they'll come out for it”


Chris has spent the day on the couch covered with the duvet! The ever sweet natured Pippa, trod on his foot yesterday, and with a throbbing and rather disgustingly discoloured toe, he is "resting" as it were.
Chris does not "do" illness in any form,and is a bit of a hypochondriac!- indeed if we lived in 1890 I am sure that he would come down with an attack of the "vapours" at times of extreme stress!
So whist I have shuffled too and fro with cups of tea, soup,scuttles of coal and various dogs on leads,like a shambling Mrs Overall, he has lain prostrate with a rather happy Joan for company!

Spring!.......finally

Spring has sprung, albeit rather half heartedly.Typically I am working today, so have missed a day outside! but did have a sunny walk around the Marian.
Also typically, when I got home, it was pouring down with gale force winds to boot!
No other news to report!!!!- spent most of the day looking after a spinal injury patient: as usual I could have done with the equipment,a spinal injury unit could only offer, so rang Sheffield and a pragmatic sister called Jane off my old ward, to post me some things on loan.

I hate to sat this but Fearnley-Whittingstall's right!

I bought my first free range chicken today! No I have not increased the flock, but I have bitten the bullet and have finally realised what intensive farming methods are employed to rear the average Sunday roast. Thanks to River Cottage guru Whittingstall and publicity shy Jaimie Oliver,the nasty factory lives of the average six week old broiler chicken is now known to all. So during my amble around Sainsburys I have decided to put money where my mouth is and buy a happy chicken meal!- a corn fed, organic bird that has skipped around in the sun all day.
I know it smacks a little of "too little...too late" but now I feel I can face my girls with head held high

Personality vrs politics

I have been following the battle for London's Mayor between Ken Livingstone, Boris Johnson and Brian Paddick with interest over the last few weeks, and as in the race for the White House, this political battle has come down to personalities rather than just plain policy. Red Ken has proved himself to be passionate about his home city, but compared to Boris Johnson, he has lost the popular vote. Johnson, a likable buffoon has been quick in his intelligent insults and retorts to Livingstone's waspishness and this likability has overshadowed any hard work and positive achievements the existing mayor has done. Liberal Brian Paddick has also used his personality and positive first impressions to gain a foot hold in the race, but can many Londoners actually remember much about each candidates manifestos? I very much doubt it

Over in the US ,Hilary Clinton with her emotional outburst about her homeland won the New Hampshire Republican Primary! People ( hummm perhaps women in particular) were won over by her warmth and "sudden" humanity in that brief lapse of agnst .

I guess we will never take out the very real "human factor" out of politics. Journalists and the like that rather pompously say that we should be purely reflecting on the content of an argument rather than the person , sometimes have forgotten that actually liking and respecting the person in power is equally important to us the masses. Gut feelings are an important factor about being human, Sometimes we battle too much against this very real skill. Believing in someone is not just a case of reading a list of their goals?..........

Anyhow, busy day today! I have cleared the front garden of deadwood and weeds, cut back the climbing rose and honeysuckle by the door and painted another ( and the last) radiator in the Church. The affable rat killer called around again to check on the rodent pest levels and he was given half a dozen eggs for being so helpful ( and a cup of tea and a chat) The paperwork arrived from the land agents about my field as well!

with all the proviso's I suggested in include the allotment, fruit trees and animals!!