RIP Ripley

The duckling did not hatch yesterday, so with a heavy heart I re candled the egg and then opened it up. Inside was a perfectly formed but very dead duckling. I am not sure what caused its death,perhaps the humidity of the incubator was not just right, or perhaps I had not cleaned the porous egg well enough? who knows. I have been reading everything I can on duck hatching, so hopefully will be a little more prepared when I try with my ducks again after the 10th of April (that is when my e bay runner ducks are due to hatch)

Off to Manchester later to see Nige and we are off to The Cornerhouse Cinema which should be great

rainbow - since you been gone....a trip down a teenage lane

Now I had to ring the owner of the field to access the hen house this afternoon. Being a small world its owner was Sue, an old teenage friend of mine pre CB days! Sue as it turns out has not changed in 25 years (even to her waist measurement) and I got to thinking of all those teenage parties we used to have at her Bohemian home in 1978. With a kitchen full of cheesey whatsits, litre bottles of cider, party fours and the odd bottle of concord sweet wine, 30 spotty-ish sub adults, shouted and laughed and danced and sang along with the hits of the time. Rainbow always got the party going, with some skinny scruff bag in a dirty black t shirt, performing air guitar centre stage we all thought we could remember all the words!

Wimbledon colours

Painted the new coop today, very lawn tennis! no luck with the duck egg today......bit worried we may have another casualty.......

Nurse Marimbirie

Adapted by Richard Curtis and the late Anthony Minghella from Alexander McCall Smith's bestselling novel and filmed on location in Botswana, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is feelgood television drenched in warmth and colour. After the death of her father, the “fat and fabulous” Precious Ramotswe (Jill Scott) sets up a Ladies Detective Agency . Investigating such gentle and humourous investigations such as the "the case of the dubious daddy!" Mme Ramotswe and her uptight secretary Grace Matuska (the excellent Anika Noni Rose) are big , bold characters who overflow with good humour, taking you to an innocent, sun-soaked world that like St Mary Meade and Cranford, probably never existed.

In anyone else's hands, this production could have turned into a somewhat patronising "Sunday evening tv look" at "African " culture, but Minghella develops McCall's obvious affection and respect for his characters to great effect and although frothy and at times wholesome the whole thing was I thought, quite charming.

I have mentioned this before in my blog , but I have many warm memories of working with Southern African nurses in Sheffield.and a particular favourite of mine was Zimbabwe midwife Edith Marimbirie. Watching Jill Scott's warm performance as Mma Ramotswe, it was the precise and lyrical nature of her dialogue that prompted the memories of Nurse Edith.who would light up a room with her wit and laughter.The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency captured that sing song,careful and polite way of speaking, the African people posses quite perfectly.and although lighter than a Walt Disney movie, the whole thing was great Sunday evening viewing.

no duckling as yet

a watched egg doesn't hatch....................no news as yet

Easter Sunday

We spent a lazy afternoon at Roger's Jones auction house in Colwyn Bay, then had a walk on the Promenade at Rhos on Sea before having welsh rarebit at Fortes' then home to cook dinner for Janet and Ned. Chris cooked and made a very passable meal of lamb (with minted peas,mash and carrots) and a bakewell tart (all homemade) for pud.
Jess ran riot with William for hours and over fed and watered we are now dozing in front of Indiana Jones and the temple of Doom...........................

Shout at the tv time!!!!!

I have never liked to see cruelty on tv , in fact I have never liked watching it anywhere in fact, and I was a little surprised just how much the BBC dished it out with huge relish on this evening's I'd Do Anything, tv show.
As some two dozen girls belted out "when 'e needs meeeee" during one audition, favourite tv Queen John Barrowman stalked around touching various Nancys on the shoulder to force their elimination, one after another from the competition.
The smiling Barrowman contrasted sharply with some of the sobbing girls many of who looked physically sick as they waited for the "axe to fall".
Distasteful tv

Hen village grows

This afternoon Chris, Ned, Ned's Brother (also called Chris) and I went to collect the latest poultry house in my bird empire. For 30 quid, the large hen coop was a real bargain, the only problem with it, was the fact it was originally located half way up a hillside, across yards of scrub land and behind two barb wire fences.
The ever so practical Parry brothers were pretty good in dismantling the fences and between us all, we managed to drag the whole structure (like something out of the construction of Stonehenge.) to the waiting trailer and my field just as the snow started to fall..
Being unused for so long, the hen house is in remarkable nick, however it was rather dirty inside, with old poultry poo,a ton of spiders, a dead magpie and several large and small wasp nests to remove.
We went to B & Q and bought some wood preservatives and face masks and I got stuck in. The new house will house ( and I am not counting my birds BEFORE they hatch) my new runner ducks and hopefully a couple of geese.I "candled" the new ebay batch of runner duck eggs today and it looks like several are indeed fertile. The last "survivor" of my first batch is due to hatch tomorrow....if successful I am going to name the little blighter Ripley (after Sigourney Weaver's character in Aliens) quite apt I thought..