Thoughts on having children

Linda, a bouncy Irish Staff nurse from work called up to the allotment this morning with her son James in tow. I know she wanted to buy a sack of potatoes and some eggs, but I suspect the real reason for her visit was to let James have a play with the hens and for him to have a chance to collect warm eggs from under a clucking pile of feathers.
Now as readers to this blog may remember, I don't really do kids. I love well adjusted, polite children, like Mike and Bev's Maisie, but I'll admit that after an hour or so, it is time for them to be given back quick sticks.
But I must say, James was quite delightful to show around. Bouncy, fascinated in each bird he came across, he soaked up the experience in a way that was quite touching to watch, and long after they had gone I found myself thinking what it would be like to actually HAVE a child.

Fantasy or not:-I know I could not cope with the constant "pull" a child would exert on our life, 63 feathered and furry surrogate kids fit my needs just fine and can exist quite healthily without your unwavering attention 24/7.
I guess the Buff chicks, a bald headed duck and a set of sweet. natured dogs amongst other "babies" tick my paternal box quite nicely in my needy middle age and I know that I am a little too selfish for the work a child would and does entail.

I called into the post office to post our complaint to the council at the proposed bungalow build this morning to be faced with a rather glum postmistress. The day before Jenny had planted out the set of rather battered window boxes of the shop, with flowers and plants from her garden. In a matter of hours some scummy kid had vandalised her work by ripping out daisies and geraniums, and I thought that this mindless but all-too-common destruction was such a sad sign of the times. I popped up to Jacksons and bought a couple of cheap boxes of bedding plants to supplement the damage, hoping that a bit of neighbourly support was the order of the day.


Nell and Maude have been moved to join the almost full grown ducklings ( the hysteria soared to an all time high for a hour or so) Their old triangular ark has been set up with the old duckling run all ready for the 5 buff chicks to be transferred into next week. The Prestatyn Horticultural society Will be visiting the allotment in the week of the 3rd of August, so at least I have some time to make the place presentable. Friends will be conscripted in preparing cakes for the big evening.

Chris has been working in London all day today and will be working away tomorrow I am working all day Saturday and all day Sunday, so this week has been a bit of a bust.....hey ho at least I have strimmed the whole field again today and planted more beetroot,salad crops, lavender and cut flowers

The last day of school

Have you ever had one of those days that felt as though you were back at school on the last day of term?

Well I experienced such a day today. Night shift last night and one hours sleep this morning, didn't give me much chance to get back into my routine, so the busy stream of visitors to the allotment (friends, customers and Horticultural society trip organisers) was a welcomed alternative to jobs that needed to be completed and gave me a chance to relax and chat in the sun.

Affable Scouser Geoff called round with a new "pool" for the teenage ducklings,(as usual it caused much hysteria and flapping of webbed feet) He and his wife have easy, laid back personalities and chatting about nothing in particular made me feel as though I was bunking off lessons in a guilty sort of way.
He will be coming down to the allotment from time to time to learn about hen husbandry, which should be great fun and good company for me (as well as a chance to be able to show off a little).
Frank Cook, the retired policeman from Prestatyn's horticultural society called around to organise the "open evening" visit to the allotment at the same time.He has already planned a visit to Janet's garden ( with the admission charges going to the Trelogan Animal centre were Jess was adopted from),so it was nice to continue the family "tradition" a little.
I like Frank, he has a twinkle in his eye and a spring in his step which is infectious He seems genuinely interested in the allotment and my efforts to develop it, so a visit by a set of more "professional" gardening experts will be so useful.
Last night I sold 12 quids worth of spuds and today sold a further 5£ to three of the older ladies of the village ( the gossip of my cheap spuds is obviously being circulated) so I have spent another hour or so chatting to them before filling the new retro purple pool in the duck run.
This morning I bumped into the vicar of Meliden when out walking the dogs and caught up with his retirement news as well as letting him know our Trelawnyd life. He is such a stereotypical vicar in the Miss Marple vein, gentle, precise who would not look out of place appearing in Mrs Miniver.I was quite touched that he remembers Chris and I so well. He promised to pop in for a cup of tea next time he is passing.
Have I got time for work? me thinks not.
Chris is away In Broadstairs tonight and is working in London in the morning, he will be sorry he missed the vicar.

final photo

forgot to post this photo, sort of sums up the end of a rather "jolly" evening........
hummmm don't feel like work tonight

Prestatyn Flower Show plans

The Prestatyn Flower schedule is out and already the gloves are off as we the competitors vie for the best ideas and entries.I have taken a score of the programmes into the post office last week and already I am hearing that in the absence of our own show this year, many of the villagers are entering Ann's Show.
Auntie Gladys at ninety, walked down to us yesterday with a batch of her famous scones (she drops them off "in payment" for the few eggs I leave for her) I suggested that I enter her baking into the Prestatyn show and she was excited as a kipper at the prospect of giving it a go.

The weather has been dreadful today, and I got soaked to the skin with the dogs when up the gop this morning (it did help to clear a rather muzzy head). The Buff chicks, safe and warm in the shed, have grown dramatically and now at three weeks old have started sprouting feathers.as well as exhibiting the proud stance of Buff Orphinton adults.

When these little chaps are robust enough, I will put them in the A frame ark with the duckling run attached, and will move them all into Stanley's enclosure soon.

I am working tonight, and already have received a couple of phone call orders for potatoes and cabbage from the allotment, it is a grotty job digging veg in the rain.

Ann's 60th

sister Ann has the Gucci shades on and we the siblings have the Woolworth 75p shades on......at least she loved her 60th Birthday gift...........from left to right...Brother in law Ned, Anns hubby Tim,Brother Andrew, Birthday Girl Ann, Andrew's wife Jayne,Jamet, Me and Chris

Ned.....has anyone noticed that his specs are on upside down?

Janet....

on the way home. We had a lovely meal in Osborns.......

The Mist

Last night I did something for the very first time.......I actually watched an entire film on YOUTUBE. I mentioned in an earlier blog that I was very much looking forward to see the film The Mist (2007),on paper the story of how a group of small town characters fight to stay alive from a mist shrouded hoard of monsters, ticks every box in my disaster film loving obsessional personality and although I was watching it on a screen a few inches square, I absolutely loved it.

Frank Darabont has taken the novella from Steven King and given it a darker, heavier twist, he has also learnt lessons from the classic but rather bland The Fog (1980) and has fashioned a tense motion picture that's ultimately more about paranoia, religious fanaticism, and the price of hopelessness than it is about monsters and gore.

America cinema abounds with stories of small town hysteria.The battle between good and evil, right and wrong, self and foreign is ingrained into the US Psyche, and parallels between how America views anything "external" from self are obvious in the way the survivors react to the monster threat on film.

I wont go down the spoiler route here, suffice to say that I loved how the film celebrated the unlikely hero. Lumpy Store manager Ollie ( the excellent Toby Jones) and feisty old bespectacled gal schoolteacher (Frances Sternhagen) are two ordinary characters that make good in the crisis, and I suspect they will have the typical movie audience cheering and clapping in their seats.(Well that is until the rather bleak and surprising ending)

I need to see this film on the big screen when it does eventually gets released in the UK, but I was satisfied with my mini view last night.

Pic Jeffrey DeMunn, Laurie Holden as Amanda Dumfries, Frances Sternhagen as Irene, Thomas Jane as David Drayton and Nathan Gamble as Billy

Dead Can Dance - The Host of Seraphim

A haunting and rather scary piece of music

Selling on

12 kilos of spuds,radish,cabbage,French parsley,eggs and broad beans have all been harvested,weighed and bagged up in preparation for selling on at work tomorrow. The day has been showery, so I have been soaked to the skin several times and look pretty much like an old tramp at the moment. (By the way a woman at work said that she thought I couldn't be gay because I was too scruffy!!)
Tomorrow we have a chance to dress up a bit, as we are going to Ann's big 60th birthday dinner in Llandudno. I have got something planned which may raise a laugh, but can't post just what it is, just yet.......
ps the application form for the Conwy Bee keeping course came through yesterday, Chris will be enrolling with me!