Local Colour

The one thing about selling eggs and potatoes is that local people have to come to you. Like any small community there always seems a surfeit of characters popping in and out of the cottage and field.
Most of the visitors are very Welsh and many elderly, so they always seem to have time for a chat about all sorts.
Today Mrs A popped in with a rather upsetting story of gum disease and tooth decay.( she always has a dozen eggs and 2 lbs of spuds ). Mrs Jones (almost totally deaf and the spit of Geraldine McEwan, from tv's Marple) tottered down for eggs, spuds and some thrown in lettuce. She is my favourite customer and is always eager and terribly interested in any news that we both may have. Auntie Gladys brought some more scones down to tie on the cottage door handle (with a small note reminding me to pick her entry up for the Prestatyn flower show next Friday) her excitement in entering a show other than the historic Trelawnyd show is almost palpable, and very infectious. After all this trouble I bloody hope she wins.
Pippa the doctors wife,dropped in with a huge bucket of alfalfa and lettuce for the ducks,we always have a jolly-hockysticks kind of chat over the garden wall, which always reminds me of middle aged wartime characters in Mrs Miniver.She being Lady Beldon and me definitely playing Mr. Ballard.
Geoff, my affable Liverpudlian apprentice called down at teatime with daughter Helen,to play with the hybrid chicks,and neighbours Mandy, John, Steve and Carole always seem around with a friendly conversation, wave and gossip about something in the village........
and I wonder that some days I never seem to get anything done

Mamma Mia Clip - The Winner Takes It All

okok last of the lazy blogging

another Streep belter

Full Dancing Queen Scene - Mamma Mia! The Movie

Can you believe that Streep will be 60 next year....

Mamma Mia

Mamma Mia! (2008) , I feel signals the return to Hollywood of the sweet,daft-as--brush, thin-as-a-piece-of-paper,feel good musical. My friend, film critic Jonney H summed it up , by saying Mamma Mia was the best, bad film he had seen in ages, and for once I actually agree with him.
Forget the dubious morals within the plot (promiscuity, unwed mother etc etc) ,the merging of the songs of ABBA, with a likable cast and beautiful settings was always going to be a surefire hit, just like the plastic yahoo trade stage musical had been.
What raises Mamma Mia above the norm is the cast. Meryl Streep has never been better. She looks absolutely fabulous in the leading role of Donna, a touch heavier and slightly hippy-ish than we are used to seeing her, she oozes mischief and fun, and obviously had a real blast making the movie.This is her best performance since Sophie's Choice and should bring her an academy award nomination. (the woman can actually sing too!)
Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth (what happened to colin's teeth by the way?) try their best in awkward singing and occasionally dancing roles; Christine Baranski and lumpy,likable Julie Walters satisfy the Sex and the city 40 somethings.with the comedy turns and the rest of the young, attractive cast bounce around like the kids from fame to songs that will never go out of favour.
I loved the tour de force Dancing Queen scene with Streep,Baranski and Walters leading a crowd of Greek villagers in synchronized singing and dancing on the harbour wall..............(.very Onna White's Oliver! ish choreography). and director Phyllida Lloyd made sure that all the Abba songs turned up in some guise or another, thus pleasing everyone.
The huge audience (for a 6pm showing) loved it all, and I must admit it was a joy to hear an audience clapping and laughing when the credits went up

The whole thing is rubbish of course, but wonderfully toe tapping escapist rubbish.......I loved it

Crow attack

This morning I made the mistake of letting the buff chicks out into their big uncovered outdoor run. They seemed happy enough in it, spending most of the time running around in stupid circles, but I forgot how vulnerable small hens can be to opportunists such as crows and magpies.

Minutes after I had let them out, I noticed Duncan running the length of the big enclosure with a couple of the more robust hens in pursuit, he was reacting to screeches from the buff chicks who were being attacked by two crows inside their run.It was incredibly lucky that he reacted the way he did, as I would never of noticed the commotion over the quacking of the runners. When I got down to the buff coop, four of the chicks had made it to the safety of the inside of the ark, leaving the little cockerel alone, squaring off to the bigger nastier crows. Judging by the small clumps of golden feathers lying around, the little guy had been pecked several times, but still was trying his best to stand up for himself.. I was incredibly moved by his show of bravery

This morning I covered the run with chicken wire, then finally weeded the allotment beds. Meg had her annual haircut this morning, so was quite hysterical by the time she got home (a product of sitting in a busy dog filled shop), which was bad for me as she pulled down my Kath Kitson apron from the kitchen door and trashed it.when she got home.

Ann and Tim are having a big bash for their 60th (a Hollywood themed fancy dress party,) so I will be surfing later to try and find some ideas for our costumes.I have seen janet's wig today which will compliment her costume.......no comment...................................

Caught up with Nuala this evening, which was long overdue. I hope to see her at the end of August........it was lovely to chat, I have missed her and through one thing and another, have not had the opportunity to touch base with her properly

The Memorial Hall , field work and open evening

The work on the village Memorial hall seems to be slowing down as it nears completion, and the whole building has started to blossom beneath the scaffolding. I took a walk at 8.00pm this evening to photograph the old building and had an opportunity to read the newsletter that had been pinned up on the village notice board, detailing work costs and the renovation news.
The Hall was donated to the people of Trelawnyd in 1909 by Mr Antonio Ralli, who was the Greek Consul in Liverpool. Ralli lived in Mia Hall (just outside the village) and funded the Memorial Hall as a means of alleviating the severe unemployment in the area .

Anyhow, I have worked all day in the field ( out at 8am and in at 6pm) and still I have not had time to start the vegetable patch weeding. The dreaded soddin red mite is back (albeit in tiny clumps) so every coop has been disinfected and fumigated. I have strimmed the field borders and fanny arsed around, filling water butts,and the like and now am absolutely bushed.

Chris is still away, so tonight the dogs will be all sleeping with me again upstairs. Funny when they are all our bed, they all have a lie in.

The Church council have given me the final OK to hold the allotment open evening in August..To keep them all sweet I have said that all proceeds will go to the Church,

Lars and the Real girl

Lars(Ryan Gosling) is the increasingly withdrawn autistic younger brother of Gus (Paul Schneider) and brother in law to the earth mother Karin (Emily Mortimer) in a small American mid west town during a snowbound winter. Watched by supportive townsfolk, Lars introduces a latex sex doll to all, and states that she is his new girlfriend.
Sounds dreadful doesn't it? but this indi movie homage to all those pseudo-psychiatric tales we have seen before (Harvey, Ordinary People, Marnie etc etc) is the sweetest of stories, and works on many gentle levels. The whole film is essentially a fairy tale, with benign psychiatrist ( Patricia Clarkson ,my favourite actress behind laura Linney), being wonderfully wise and daring; pragmatic church elder, Nancy Beatty being the "accepting" face of small town America that embraces Lars' needs for his delusions and all the other simple town folk are portrayed with a smiling warmth that only exists in Hollywood and Norman Rockwell paintings.
Lars and the Real Girl (2007) at Theatre Clwyd tonight, works well because of the ensemble cast.Gosling is believable ( and in one key scene when he dances awkwardly at a friend's party, terribly moving) as the unhappy Lars. Schneider and Mortimer act quite beautifully, as the loving relatives of someone who has lost his way, but it is Nancy Beatty's(pic) performance with that Country matter-of-factness, that lingers long in the mind.
I loved it

The Fence!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally my field has boundaries!!!!!!!!!!!!!. The fence I have been waiting for so long has been erected in an hour or so this morning, and bloody nice it looks too. Chris is in London today until Wednesday, so I have got on with pottering big style.

Broody Nolan and her chicks have been transferred into the A frame next to the buff chicks. She is turning into a lovely mother, even though a whole troupe of local kids have ambled through the gate to give them all the once over