Happy Underdog

George is the happiest underdog I have ever met.
In the pecking order (and we must include Joan the cat,Janet's Jess and Carol's (dog babysitter) Celt and Samson in this), George always remains firmly last.When William and Meg demand attention and cuddles, he has to relinquish his place on the couch and on your knee so that they can fulfill their own needs.
But even though he can be at bullied,the little chap remains steadfastly upbeat with everyone he meets and with everything he does.He has spent most of the morning watching the hens, with a love lorn type intensity and when loose on his walk, will always be the first to race up to a walker or dog to say hello.
Like William, George is turning into a delightful dog.
Late evening is "George time", William is safely asleep in his crate in the kitchen, Meg and Maddie are snoring on the couch and George can climb (almost guiltily) onto my knee for a tummy rub

Happy Owner

The allotment is starting to look the part in the sun early this morning. And I have let the birds out later today, to protect them from Mr Fox, who is sniffing around. It is cubing season, so the vixens are hungry and bolder than usual.
With a slightly heavy heart I decided to float Blanche's 8 eggs in a bowl of warmed water to see if any are alive ( the eggs should bob and move with the ducklings' reactions to the change of temperature).
Although Blanche has stuck fast onto the eggs, she has had two hiccups when she had been separated from them on two of the coldest days of the year.
Anyhow, popping the eggs into the bowl, I was overjoyed to see 5 of the little buggers bouncing around with gay abandon, I couldn't quite believe it! If I could have kissed Blanche on the beak I honestly would have done....and quickly allowed her to growl her way back onto the nest.
I have been grinning to everyone since, (including two gravediggers in the graveyard, who seemed a bit baffled by my excitement.
I just hope they hatch on or around the 5th May

I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue

R.I.P Humph
you will be missed

Life .......resembling.........art

Blanche now resembles her namesake in Tenko. She is practically skin and bone and again did not eat yesterday, Stubbornly fixed on her eggs,eyes fixed straight ahead , she refuses to so any of the basic activities of daily living. I am told that this can happen, so this morning I decided to become slightly more "firm" with her.

She growled at me as per, when I picked her up off the nest, and continued to "chunner" when I put her in the run with food and water. This time however, I treated her like a hysterical women an some Barbara Stanwick film and threw a small bit of water into her face.

It seemed to do the trick somewhat, as she stood there open mouthed at the indignity for a moment, then bent down and took a big gobfull of sunflower seeds. Ok Ok she didn't drink or poo anything, but it was a start. Only a week or so before the eggs are due to hatch. I will candle them again this afternoon and then float them in a bowl of warm water to see if the little bugger s are alive.

I am working later in the week so want to cram a lot in my remaining time off. Have to post the old incubator off this morning( I sold it on e bay!), and no doubt have a long chat with postmistress Jenny about the village gossip. More peas and cabbage has to be planted too, and I still have a ton of weeding to catch up on.

Tomorrow we are off to the pictures and Wednesday I am catching up with Katherine for a night in Dronfield. (long long overdue) then to Sheffield on Thursday for a catch up with some old work people for lunch, a mooch around Coles and then a supportive few pints with Jane and Mike, Mike is still having a rough time with a very poorly mum, and soldiers on in a benign and cheerful manner but looks as though he is feeling the strain. A few pints and a chat maybe what the doctor ordered.

Chris and I are off to new Italian in Prestatyn on Saturday ( Three nice eating places?.....! the town has gone all cosmopolitan) as it is his Birthday...then work.....That's the only down side of the week. I found meeting Chris' colleague yesterday, quite interesting, she is obviously a workaholic and totally focused in her goals and achievements.....and she just could not understand that work means nothing to me whatsoever......she just didn't get it......tee hee.

Ynys Môn

I never knew that actress Naomi Watts lived on Anglesey.....strange what you find out on Wikipedia isn't it? Anyhow we drove over to the Island this afternoon to have lunch with Chris' Professor colleague Jane and partner Peter. They live on a 17th Farmhouse on the East Coast of the Island a stone's throw from the sea, so you can imagine lunch consisted of lovely local seafood- prawns,scallops and lashings of pasta.

I can't quite make my mind up about Anglesey. The beaches are quite breathtaking, indeed they are famous for being so, but I always feel that the countryside inland is a little too severe for my liking. Anyhow we don't get over there very often. so I guess it doesn't matter.

Got back to see Keisha being kicked out of I'd Do Anything and Sir Andrew having a so called hissy-fit about it all........Foxes seen around the coops this morning, so all the electric fencing has been recharged in readiness.

Dara O'Briain

There is something very likable about comedian Dara Ó Briain. We are used to seeing him on TV comparing Mock the Week and Have I got News For You, but the the cuddly Irishman, although very Sharpe and quick in comedy show banter, I don't think has ever been seen at his true muscle flexing improvisation best. Tonight at Manchester's Lowery Theatre he performed his one man show quite brilliantly. See-sawing between rehearsed stand up and lightening quick audience involved improvised comedy, that became more complicated and funnier as the two hour show shot by, he seemed to genuinely enjoy himself as people in the stalls threw up diverse and sometimes bizarre ideas for discussion and exploration.

It has been a while since I have smiled so much at one performance

Clearing out the house

Radio 4 does have some little gems amid its middle aged and middle class programming. Today was a case in point, Clearing Out The House,was a moving half hour of interviews with the adult children of the recently deceased. It covered the trials and tribulations encountered when children have to sort through parents' belongings at a time of mourning, and most of the stories recounted, I could relate to.
Sorting out a lifetime of memories is often a rather sad experience, yet I cannot remember being that melancholy when I had to empty my mother's home. I never lived in her small town house in Prestatyn, so I guess that fact gave me some emotional distance from the task in hand, but I do remember finding simple every day objects that brought some sweet childhood memories flooding back.
A well used dairy cookery book, some vintage cake tins and and a large enamel jam pan, all reminded me of cooking days in the sixties, a time when mums didn't all go out to work, and "pinnies" were worn when you did the baking. Cakes and pies were banged out as routine, and it suddenly dawned on me , just why my memories were so positive.I was not just remembering my Mother, but I was refreshing old snapshots of my Grandmother, who always helped out with the chores when we were growing up.
Food, cooking and baking was as necessary to Gran as breathing.She used food to reinforce her affection for people.You were loved and you were fed......it is a simple and very effective way of behaving and it gives children a life long love of food and eating.
I still have AND USE these kitchenalia items and with the one addition of a decorative wall plate, they were the only things I kept from my parents' home.
Funny what you find important.........

Picture ( New tulips in the front garden.......funny I don't remember planting them)

Tilly Screams

Found a hilarious blog site today, the very very bitchy and very funny Tilly Screams blog site http://tillyscreams.blogspot.com/
if you have a minute and want a giggle, check it out