Thanks to Jeni Barnett

Thanks to new LBC presenter Jeni Barnett we now have a usable dining table.
I was listening to her the other day banging on about nothing too important, when her hysterical laughing caught my attention. Actually, I had to stop what I was doing (humping black bin bags of rubbish to be precise) to listen to her phone in about Londoners' embarrassing stories. The one about a stewardess mistaking Cofe Annan for Morgan Freeman sent her into lengthy cackles, and her obvious enjoyment of the subject matter warmed me to her. Anyhow I digress. This in turn made me listen to her later phone in about the importance of eating at a family table, and she was so passionate about it, I was inspired to clear our own table of clutter (which included seed potatos,coats,paperwork,allotment books a battery charger and various vegetable catalogues).
Before taking Chris to the station this morning, I caught him sitting at the table with a cup of tea, enjoying the feeling of fomality, a table gives you! I am at this moment enjoying the same sensation, but with a filter coffee and a bagel!


The photo on the right is the nearly completed Church wall, at the back of my field. The first of the fence posts are going in (you can just see it lying against the stone wall) and I can almost "taste" my boundary fence being finished . For those remotely bothered about such things, the churchyard is open to the back of my field, so when the odd chicken escapes (generally it is Stanley) they wander freely amongst the gravestones.
When the boundary goes in, another hundred square yards of "pasture" will be free for me to use.

Bert and the first snow storm!

It's strange how history repeats itself. Called in to wish Uncle Bert a happy 80th Birthday with a card and flowers and found myself photographing him in exactly the same place and pose as my grandmother ( his mother) did some 30 years ago.I still have the poleroid of her somewhere in a box and the similarity between her and Bert is striking.

Bert and his wife Margaret are two of the oldest surviving members of the Gray family ( Judy being the other), and he is the middle son of three boys with my father being older and Tom being the baby.Strange to think that I remember my mother saying that she and Bert went to see King Kong together (THE ORIGINAL!!) in Prestatyn Scala.....so many years ago!

The weather has been bitterly cold today and some of the older hens like Robina have not even left the warmth of the coops. To keep my hands warm, there is nothing better than wrapping them around a newly laid egg-an organic hotwaterbottle! We have had snow, blusterly winds and rain, and the hills near Caerwys (5 miles away) and Denbigh (8 miles or so) are dusted with snow this evening, as is the field (see pic)

My bean closhes have been whisked away by the winds this morning. Pippa (The Doctor's wife) brought back one from the vicarage gardens, but the other two have dissapeared
With the weather so bad, I have spent a gay old day shopping,and rearranging the kitchen. The dogs have had their usual run on the beach with Janet's Ruby, but I think I will limit Meg's participation as Ruby bullies her terribly. Taking William to a dog training class on monday with Janet and an overactive Ruby which should be fun.

5.45am storm

This blog will still show on yesterday's date ( why is that? are we on American time?) but it is ,in fact 5.45 am! Gale force winds and rain woke me first thing, so muttering like an old psychi patient I donned a pair of tracksuit bottoms and an old jumper and dragged the dogs out into the storm for poos and pees.

The weather IS awful!

A quick trot down the lane and we are all soaked to the skin, at least the hens seemed to be ok, as I can just hear Duncan crowing against the howl of the wind.

I am now tucked up in bed with a coffee and blog ( I cannot believe I am blogging at this time!)

hey ho

Teaching

I went into work today ( Yes it IS my day off) to give a teaching session to the intensive care staff about the moving and handling of acute spinal injury patients. Not many people turned up for the session but the ones that did participate seemed to have really enjoyed and benefited from the experience. It was nice for me also,as they all gave me great feedback and it is sad that through one reason and another, teaching on the unit has been sparse and not seen as a priority.

I am not fickle ( well not that fickle!) enough to be upset the behaviour of colleagues, but I did notice wryly that not one of the three senior nurses on duty today, thanked me for a) organising the teaching session without being asked to. b) coming in to run it in my own time. and I think that this sums up the morale issues I personally feel have invaded some clinical areas of the nhs.

Going home today, I was happy I had made the effort to do something I know I am good at, but more importantly, the whole experience reinforced that my recent application for another job OUT of nursing has been the right move.

I will blog details of this as and when.......................................

7.00 pm peace

Chris is away again tonight, (somewhere in South Wales) so it's a quiet evening in with the dogs. I don't mind that much as with him away I can relax and listen to the 7.00pm Archers without chatty interruptions. Chris and I have been together since the year 2000, I have been an avid fan of the Archers since the mid 1990's AND STILL, Chris insists on initiating conversations at the very moment Brian Aldridge is embarking on one of his affairs or Pat Archer is worrying about her organic cheese. !!!!!!

So tonight it was lovely to concentrate on a simply effective dialogue between two middle class, slightly world weary matrons of Ambridge. Jennifer Aldridge (Angela Piper ) and her ditsy sister Lilian Bellamy (Sunny Ormonde pic) were discussing Lillian's catastrophic love life with philanderer Matt "tiger" Crawford. The very ordinary conversation of fears,,hopes and regrets mixed together with the mundane (getting coffee,laughing about a family joke) reminds me of just why this soap has lasted since the 1950's. Performances, like the refreshing zip and depth Sunny Ormonde gives to her slightly tragic Lillian, make the show what it is.................classic

Amélie Poulain-Sur le fil

Listened to this piano version when I was gardening today, it is such a sad piece!
Music for the funeral I think....

The field is ready...(almost)

Another duck egg today, so hoping another will be banged out tomorrow I have amended the sale sign in the cottage window-I know it is a case of counting my duck eggs before they are laid but the girls seem to be on a roll.
Below is a photo of William in his favourite position in the passenger seat of the Belingo. I may sound like a modern parent/pet owner, but I try to give each of the dogs some individual time and attention. For George and Maddie, it is sitting in the lounge in an evening.For Meg it is coming to bed with me after her early morning walk and for William it is sitting in the passenger seat with me, when I go shopping or when I get petrol.
Watching william excitedly getting into "his position" next to me in the car today, I found incredibly moving. Dogs love adhering to their routines, and they adore simple "treats" like a trip to the shops. It is a simple thing to make happen
and one that gives such reciprocal pleasure.to me.

I know the news that I have finally dug over all my old and new vegetable patches today, may not excite anyone but me, but I don't care as it gives me a huge sense of achievement
I plan to have a large potato veg patch on the sight of the bonfire (below left). The main vegetable plot ( below right) is flanked by the first of my smaller flower growing areas. And the final soft fruit plot (not shown) is completed and ready further down the field.The weather closed in at 1pm (AGAIN!!!) but most of the work had been done and dusted by then.




















David Cameron has withdrawn the Tory whip from Derek Conway after the MP was reprimanded over the amount he paid his son for working as his researcher I heard today! Big deal! The MP should be sacked for manipulating the system and paying his son 13 thousand pounds to do nothing ( and also "employing" his elder son in another researcher post. Fellow MP ( and former blue collar Northern Union rep) John Mann, who brought the complaint to light, was eloquent in his arguments why all M.P business should indeed be transparent, but he did concede (rather worryingly) that many many MPs should and would be looking over their shoulders at the moment as a "signified number" of them "employ" relatives in junior support positions.
So much for the whiter then white public servants

Whats this all about????