Heinz Deli Mayo 'Mum'

AM I really missing something? 200 complaints stated that this advert is in bad taste, and Heinz, terrified at not upsetting anyone has pulled it from its tv slots............

how sad.........

What ever happened to Baby Jane?

An application for planning permission has gone in again on the old garden of our cottage. The land is owned by the previous owners and planning has been denied a couple of times for the construction of a bungalow due to access problems. This time I suspect a revised access plan has been submitted, so planning could well be granted,and although the building of a bungalow would be inconvenient and would take away a lovely old orchard and our washing line, we would not be overlooked. What would upset me the most with loosing the old garden, would be the destruction of another "piece of green". and I know that we as well as two of the three adjoining neighbours will be submitting a complaint. Lets hope that the application will be rejected again.

The wild flower border has started to bloom again on the borders of the vegetable patch, and bright patches of colour have lifted the deep greens of the vegetables. The seeds were 99p from diskos.

The weather has been lovely today so I have caught up with all those jobs I have neglected when Nige was over. I have strimmed all around the enclosures and cleaned out all the coops ( no sign of red mite) The ducklings are now big enough to be let loose in the big yellow run, so their little chicken wire enclosure has been moved to surround Colleen Nolan still sat firm on her 7 eggs in the rabbit hutch.

When I opened up the hen houses this morning I was stunned to see Baby Jane running around the enclosure with a large and very dead mole in her beak. I have never seen this behaviour before, sure the hens have eaten small baby frogs and insects found when scavenging, but a mole? The rodent was fought over by several of the hens and eventually most of it was dispatched by the flock...........the hens looked more like dinosaurs from Jurassic Park....weird.and just a touch unsettling

Round Robin

I loved having Nige over as we could yak on about films all day long if allowed. Strange that I was talking about round robin e mails with him last night and hey presto I recieved one such e mail from another friend tonight.
Had a relaxing few minutes filling it all in:-

1Q:Do you ever go to the cinema on your own?
A. Yes, actually I prefer to watch a film alone if I can, but usually only for afternoon showings. I love being in a cinema totally alone

2Q: what was the first film do you remember going to see in the cinema?
A: “The sound of Music” in the scala, Prestatyn. With Janet (twin) and mother. I think my Aunt Greta was there too. I was bored but liked the nuns (how gay was that even then?>>>)

3Q: Have you ever “made out” with a girl on the back row?
A: strange as this may seem, I have………tee hee…….It was a long long time ago and I must have hated the film in question (It was The Cassandra Crossing). No I don’t remember her name.

4Q: Tub of ice cream or popcorn?
A: oh Ice cream every time

5Q: What is the film that MOST disappointed you?
A: As a teenager it was Airport 79-The Concord and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure….(truly awful disaster films) Recently Elizabeth- the golden age was a major let down.

6Q: Subtitles? Can you do them and what foreign films do you rate?
A: I love world cinema…….too many films to mention really but lets see: A very long Engagement, Amelie, Central Station, La vie en Rose, The Orphanage, The Chorus, Ne la,dis a personne, talk to her, All About My Mother, Pans labyrinth,

7Q: What film did you last cry at?
A: I had a sniff at the end of The Savages, when Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman ( as brother and sister) fall asleep together after the death of their father…..( a beautiful and subtle scene)

8Q: Have you ever walked out of a film?
A: Many many times………I just won’t put up with a terrible movie. The last film I walked out of was with Hazel….I don’t remember the title of it…it was that bad!

9Q: What 1940’s films have you loved?
A……another easy question, , Mrs Miniver, Key Largo, I remember Mama, Went the day well, Mildred Pierce, to name but a few

10Q: Have you seen a porn film in a cinema?
A: no fraid not………..I get dreadfully embarrassed if there is a graphic sex scene in a general film. Having said this I did see a dvd called “Banged up-Male prisoners on the loose” once……no Oscars for excellent acting there……nuff said

11Q: Which film star/ film character do you find sexy?
A: hummmm……..Russell Crowe in Gladiator would be number one (of course), Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain would be a close second ( I know he’s too young for me); runner ups would be Peter Sarsgaard in Kinsey, Damien Lewis ( even if he is a ginger) in Band of Brothers and Robert Mitchum in anything …

12.Q: Which star surprised you by being sexy on screen?
A; What a strange question? Erm probably Peter Dinklage in The Station Agent.

13.Q Who is your favourite child actor?
A: Easy…..Joseph Mazzello in Shadowlands…….I cried buckets at his scenes with the sobbing Anthony Hopkins

14.Q: How often would you like to go to the movies
A: Every day………

Golden Grove and Gwaenynog

The National Garden scheme (NGS) http://www.ngs.org.uk/gen/default.aspx is a brilliant National scheme which allows the general public to visit private gardens for a charitable donation. I love it, you get a chance to poke around someone else's home, enjoy and learn from usually inspired planting and have a home made cake and cup of tea....not bad for 3 quid.
Today the village of Llanasa opened six of its best gardens,the best being the stunning Golden Grove Manor House which overlooks the Gop only a mile or so from our village. I absolutely fell in love with the Elizabethan house and gardens and strange as it seems I almost felt as though I had come "home" (I wish!!!!!!!!!!!)
We ambled through the village to the quaint village hall to have too many cakes and cups of strong tea ( Nigel was in heaven)
We dropped Nige off at the station for his trip back to Stockport, then drove up to Denbigh to see another open garden at Gwaenynog, which was the inspiration for Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit garden. Mr McGregor's potting shed (pic) is quite sweet.
I think we would have enjoyed the garden more if the weather had been a little better. 60 mile-an-hour winds have ripped branches from trees and caused havoc on the roads. Two trees in Trelawnyd Church yard have been toppled and all my runner bean canes have been tossed around like matchsticks.

Chester and a new poultry convert?

We took Nige over to Chester today so he could have a trip down the memory lane of his childhood visits. We had an amble over the 1924 footbridge,a rather damp ice cream on the river and a mooch around the shops.
By accident we fell upon a summer festival parade near the town hall, and was impressed by some of the European looking "pagan "puppets and symbols on show.

We got back around 5, just enough time to walk the dogs and sort out the hens and ducklings.Geoff the friendly chap from the other side of the village who had come to see the poultry runs with his family earlier in the week, called in and seems to have been bitten by the poultry keeping bug. He is hoping to make his own hen house soon so I have enjoyed showing off my extensive(!?) hen knowledge.It is nice to have another potential hen convert locally.

Brittle

Brief blog today. Just getting things sorted before going to work, and of course Nige is visiting later.
Had a phone call last night from a friend. It was a sad call, their partner had just admitted to having feelings for someone else. It was a sudden, out- of -the- blue- revelation, and my friend's devastation was total,profound and terrible to hear.
I guess all of us rely on other people for our meandering journey in everyday life, and the shock of realising that the bedrock of what you hold close and dear is no longer there (or more importantly wants to be there) must be catastrophic.
Sometimes life seems so very fickle doesn't it?

First Crops

Some of the radish I picked this morning are the size of small turnips! And the potatoes look pretty good, even though the crop is smaller than last years' due to the dry spell we had earlier in the year. I have 8 full rows to dig up and sell, but the first of the spuds I will be taking to work tomorrow.

The ducklings have turned the corner from babies to adolescents and I have opened up their small run now and they have full access to the larger electrified run. I saw the lady from the farm in Axton (just on the other side of the village) this morning and she warned me about a local fox which has so far taken 12 of her hens this week.

The electric fences are on all day now