The argument for being a bit of an anorak

The conversation over dinner on Saturday covered many topics but we did have one debate on the importance of being "passionate" about something.in your life. Having a passionate hobby is often thought to be synonymous with being a bit of an anorak , but as the wine flowed, we all were in general agreement that this was not a bad thing to be. Ann and Janet have always had an arty streak in them, and Ann's talents have been recently directed into building up a Victorian dolls house. Her group of like minded make over fans is exhibiting small versions of their skills and we had a glimpse of Ann's production.
I must admit, on paper all this would leave me rather cold, but I was quite enchanted with the skill,imagination and thought put into Ann's conservatory. The dog (based on Finlay), had half buried his bone amongst the carrot bed, and scattered "dirt" had been carefully placed on his paws and even on the window ledges of the greenhouse.
Inside, she had even placed vine tomatoes (all ripe), next to casually dropped wellington boots, and plant pots and flowers set on shelves looked like something from Homes & Gardens.
I actually think I may go to the exhibition!
another first for me





prepare for the worst


The weather has not closed in as yet, but we are promised an arrival of "THE STORM" ,( as the BBC is calling it) overnight. I have been working all day, so Chris has weighted down the coops and removed all light weight equipment from the allotment.
We went to Ann & Tim's last night and had a great Jamie Oliver meal, Janet was getting nicely squiffy when we had to go home to sort the dogs out so we were sorry to leave! A nice night.

Southern Belles

Rushed blog as I have not had a minute to complete anything today, well anything "on line"
Osborne House was lovely last night, ( I had the liver), and today I have constructed the new hen house (below) and went to Flint to buy a couple of handsome Excelsior Leghorns for 20 quid EACH!
Caught Stanley and chucked him in with the newly named Scarlett and Melanie ( anyone seen Gone with the Wind????) Off to Ann and Tims for dinner then off to watch Andrew in the reforming of his 1970's band The Resistance
Not enough hours in the day and working all day tomorrow






scum


I can understand the easy come/easy go mentality of some spongers in society, but the whole selfish attitude of thieves, benefit fraudsters and con artists literally makes me feel sick.Taking the road of least resistance is I guess a human failing, but when you hurt and damage other peoples' lives, then can the ends justify the means?
To many amoral people it obviously does! a case in point is a phone call I received this morning. Lisa a young mum in her early twenties is single handedly running an organic poultry farm and small holding in Cheshire. I have bought most of my hens from her and was due to go over tomorrow to pick a few new girls for Stanley's new enclosure. She rang me this morning near tears, to tell me not to bother coming tomorrow as all her hens (2,500 quids worth of birds) had been stolen in the night. Lisa and her husband have worked all day every day to build her business to what it is, and it angers me terribly to think that good, honest people like them can be preyed upon by no mark scum.
The whole thing is just very,very sad.
Worked hard in the allotment for most of the day, am just on the way to the beach to walk the dogs with Janet and Jess, then off to Llandudno to meet Chris for supper in Osborns which is a nice treat.

Guilty Pleasures

Now I love disaster films.........the bigger the better is my motto; so those old fashioned pot boilers of the 1970's are my yardstick for a successful romp. Towering Inferno & Poseidon Adventure, you remember them, frilly tuxedos, every man in a bow tie and every woman in a tissue paper evening gown or hot pants, battling physical special effects, fire and water and explosions by the bucketful. They were the kings to those second generation disaster flicks of recent times such as The Day After Tomorrow and Cloverfield so it seemed inevitable that the Brits would get on the American bandwagon and produce their own disaster flick. Flood (2007) is the worst disaster film I have ever seen (well just marginally worse than Airport 75) yet I actually found myself enjoying tiny parts of it, albeit rather guiltily!

Based loosely on The Day After Tomorrow we find a group of English c Lister's battling a London storm surge ( and some terrible special effects)
Skeletal Robert Carlyle is estranged from his professor father Tom Courtenay, both are experts on the Thames barrier and flooding! (like you do) A huge storm hits Britain and the two have to work together ( with Carlyle's ex wife Jessalyn Gilsig another flood expert) to save the millions of Londoners.....As thousands die in the streets, we find Carlyle,Gilsig, 2 heroic underground workers an unnamed woman,and father and daughter trapped at a flooded Charring Cross station( This bit was quite well done), but all tension of their escape from the dark was overshadowed by some awful "Americanization" of the rescue centre, with the Prime minister and his advisers all sat at darkened computer monitors, watching the disaster unfold "on line"......
The film's saving grace was fag hag police commissioner Patricia Nash (played a touch tongue in cheek by Joanne Whalley, power suited, lips quivering..........she kicked some military ass to save Londoners without wavering, even though her daughters were caught up in the flood in the west end!.....If only she existed in real life.........
Even though the whole thing was shit on a stick.....I kind of enjoyed watching it.

"Connie--well actually its Jess",haystacks and a new hen house

Janet called this afternoon when I was clearing the hen runs; a new dog had just been delivered to the pet rescue centre and she wanted me to see it with her. The dog turned out to be a small terrier cross bitch around 10 months old, and I thought she was quite charming. She was friendly with William (who had come along for the ride), fairly placid with the cats in the cattery and walked easily on her lead. I thought she was sweet and I wasn't surprised when Janet drove home with her calmly sat in the back seat.Her kennel name was fudge but I kind of thought she looked like a Connie.............I think the name might actually stick.

I finally got hold of the lady who owns the substantial hen house on the gop and after a bit of negotiation I knocked her down from 50£ to 30£, which I think was a bargain. The coop is worth at least 75£ so I was pretty pleased. When the new hen house/chicken house comes tomorrow I shall have 6 poultry coops up and running. A hen monopoly!

Cleared out the large coop this morning and fully disinfected it against red mite, which is the most disgusting of jobs on earth. I have raked all the dead grass from the enclosure too (the hens remove all the unwanted grass and straw from the pasture) and I couldn't believe how much stuff they can shift

Chris is in Swansea all day today, so won't be back until late, Connie now is called Jess, which sounds just right

Fame


Susan, "our" dog breeder sent this picture of the dogs to "Dog world Newspaper" and they have printed it!

fame at last

http://www.dogworld.co.uk/My-breeds

George walks!

In an effort to balance the blog stories (oh no not another tale of doggy-life) I wanted to put a friend's adorable boy pic on line as it were. Love the t shirt George Bevan