YMCA Day

This morning at least 20 men in construction hats, manly jackets and steel capped boots descended on the lane next to the cottage. Ever since a hay wagon ripped the power lines down last year, the county council had promised to raise them all to a higher,safer level;I had no idea that today was the day scheduled for all the work to be completed.
As a group of the most butch looking workman shuffled past, I asked them if we were to loose our electricity supply for the day, and immediately received a rather defensive unanimous "YES". Chris made a run for his bike to get to work as he sensed that I was ready for a minor altercation as he knew we had the four new chicks under a 24 hour heat lamp in the shed. I explained that I had no knowledge of the power cut and we had the chicks welfare to worry about.Without heat, the day old chicks can chill and die very quickly.

There then followed a minor standoff, with one hairy-arsed workman stating loudly that he has pushed a leaflet detailing the proposed work through our letterbox last week and me stating that "obviously" I had not read it, as I must of thought it was "junk mail". We were getting no where until I had a stroke of genius. I opened up the shed and pulled out one of the tiny excelsior leghorn chicks, all black with sweet white spots,and thrust the little chap at the nearest workman
Immediately a score of men's men all sighed a collective "arrrrrrhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!" and I knew something constructive was to be done
well, within two minuted they had collected a small portable generator and had set the thing up in the garden. The chicks had power, I was happy and they all felt that they had done the "right thing".and had saved four fluffy babies from certain death.
I left them all a load of free range eggs as a thank you.

Going Gently

Last night was a case in life imitating blog, as I called into one of the medical wards at work before my night shift on duty.
I found Uncle Bert, deeply unconcious and fading after a major stroke earlier in the week

but he did look very peaceful and settled , and was surrounded by a doting family that clearly loved him.

Suddenly I was reminded of my favourite book that "inspired" the very title of this blog. Going Gently,by David Nobbs, is an affectionate and witty look at family ties, the choices we make, and the situations we're forced to accept as life marches on, and strangely enough centres upon a hospital patient. Kate Thomas, 99 years old, lies paralysed on her hospital bed. Unable to move, she decides to relive the momentous events of her life: four husbands, six marriages and an unexplained death. To solve the mystery she goes back to her childhood in Wales, her sweetheart who died at the Somme, the many men she has known and the four children she has borne, one of whom must be the killer

The strength of this book does not lie in the mystery within the story but with the power of the family relationships portrayed ,Being surrounded by people that love you at the very end of life is something we all kind of want, and need, David Nobbs captures all this so very well in Going Gently, and seeing the reality of Bert with family, Margaret, Karen and Ian was a weirdly strange deja vu sort of moment. It was lovely to see them all together.

There was nothing I could do to help last night, save for the odd platitude and some time and effort.but I was glad I called in to offer at least some support.. The night shift last night was dreadfully busy (when isn't it ?) and I didnt get home this morning until 9.30 am., which meant that I had no sleep again (well until I had a nap at 5pm this evening)- which has totally buggered up my body clock.

Nu rang with the sad news that her sister died today after a long illness. It has been a weird, terminal kind of 24 hours.

Lazy Sunday

Instead of a long walk we took the dogs around to Janet's for a gallop and play with Jess. George has teamed up nicely with her but Meg remains mistrusting and antsy.
The last of the chicks have hatched overnight, and we now have an extra 4 mouths to feed (2 white and 2 black excelsior leghorns). A local farmer has shown an interest in some of Broody Nolan's black chicks, and I intend to put an advertisement in the farm shop for most of the ducks this coming week, so perhaps it will be time to start the let the bird numbers dwindle down from a slightly exhaustive 72 individuals!
Working tonight.....

Treats,chicks and " Happy Birthday Mike"

Well it is long overdue for me to see Nuala in London, so today I managed to finally sit down and try and book myself a cheapo train ticket to the capital. Fat Chance............no cheap deals and an extended delay on the way home (rail works don't you know) would make a visit rather lacklustre, so I was delighted that Chris came up trumps and booked me a BA return flight from Manchester to the new terminal 5
The whole visit will now be a total treat! (except for the inbred train journey from Wales to the airport)- with a glass of wine in departures, a quick flight down, big chats with Nu, a theatre trip, a mooch around a museum, then a quick flight home.....bloody hell, all very cosmopolitan

Apologies for the quickly snatched pic of the first of Stanley's chicks, but I had to be quick so that the humidity in the incubator was not lost too much. You may be able to tell that at least three of the other white eggs are pipping away and almost free of their chicks, so we may have 6 or so out of the 8 eggs in there.The "nursery" is already set up in the shed with the heat lamp all switched on, so Boris and Grace who are still banged up in the big dog crate, will have a bit of company.

Finally I Just wanted to mention a quick "happy Birthday" to friend Mike.who is 41 today. We both must be growing up a bit, as for his birthday pressie (I always get him some sort of action big boys film on dvd...aka Spiderman or Hellboy ) He has asked for the adult Jonathan Creek box set...........

Have a good birthday matey.

An Emotional Romp

I have always enjoyed the opening ceremony of the Olympics; to be honest I love the self congratulatory, preening the host country always indulges in, in an effort to show themselves in the biggest and best light. It is always a showy, spectacular emotionally charged romp, and every year I always seem to have a lump in the throat and a tear in the eye.
In recent years I have two favourites game openings: Barcelona in 1992- with an opening breathtaking in a classy, arty and totally up market way (I loved the archer firing a flaming arrow to ignite the Olympic torch almost as much as Montserrat Caballé banging out "Barcelona" with the tiny Freddie Mercury hading behind her fifty foot dress)
My other favourite games had to be the 2000 romp fest that was Sydney. Two hundred drag queens dancing in front of Kylie (who was singing on top of a sixty foot flip flop) lent a certain warmness and self depreciating humour to the whole affair, which I always think was a kind of a first for the games.

You would have thought that the US with all its money and showmanship, would have produced some fantastic set pieces, but Atlanta and Lost Angeles, for me were the most disappointing games for all their excesses. China's opening today, was on the other hand, quite stunning; In fact the whole thing ticked most of my Olympic boxes. It was beautiful to look at, innovative ( The flame bearer "running" in mid air around the Bird's Nest stadium roof was a touch of genius) and not too cheesy.Oh yes we did have little snippets of pure emotion.......the 6 year old school boy hero of the recent earthquake walking hand in hand with the Chinese flag bearer left not a dry eye in the house, but generally the whole thing was wonderfully over-the-top. Best bit of the games for me.

Another mixed bag

I have picked the first of my garlic this morning and after a bit of fiddling have made a somewhat ropey looking garlic line. The kitchen which usually has the whiff of dog, now smells wonderfully of Italy.
Frank, from the Prestatyn horticultural society called in briefly to drop off some photos from the allotment open I must admit that the whole field has never looked better, even though it was the wettest day of the year

The eggs in the incubator (Stanley and the white hens are the parents) have started to pip in their shells. These will be the last chicks this year and the new females will be taking over egg production from the older poor laying hybrids.

Sad news today as Uncle Bert has been taken into Glan Clwyd Hospital after suffering a stroke. Things are looking rather bleak ( according to the family tom-toms) so what can you do? I called down and dropped in a card and some sweet peas from the allotment. A very small act of family solidarity.

Tim's 60th

Apologies for the crappy photo. We met up at Ann and Tim's for supper to celebrate Tim's big 60th. We have been debating what to wear at the fancy dress party on the 16th, and Chris and I have to start from scratch, in the search for new costumes as we received two of the most badly designed crappy "storm" trooper uniforms through the post today
Ann, Tim, Andrew and Jayne are all being rather secretive about their efforts so I had better get my finger out and get an alternative costume sorted.......
Had a few more late donations towards the open so final total is £ 271.00 ...........even the Parish Council Treasurer was impressed...but that's another story

Allotment open

From left to right Brother in law Tim,Sister Janet,Hazel,Mel and her mum,Polly (seated),Carole,Me,Chris, sister Ann,Arfon,Christine and Helen,Terry,Ann,John,Della and Mandy
Today I have been very touched by the kindness of people in general. Despite the torrential rain (which started exactly at 6pm, the second that the allotment opened!!!!!!!!) we had around seventy to eighty people turn up in drips and drabs to support our open evening.
Through the drizzle and dead on time, I was very moved to see the old ladies of the village slowly weave their way down the lane towards the field in slow ambling support of the evening.I said to Ann that the whole scene could have been taken directly from the film Whisky Galore! (1949). Auntie Glad ( below) at ninety braved the wet with a "spirit that won the war" mentality, and those that couldn't make it like Sylvia from the flower Show and old Mrs Jones sent a huge variety of cakes to sell and dish out.

Carole and Geoff made a ton of cakes too (William stole one half of a lemon cake from Carole's dining room table earlier this afternoon) and Geoff came into his own with constructing a gazebo and a make shift tarpaulin shelter as the rain really belted down.

Most of the visitors seemed to enjoy the experience. I had written brief histories of each set of birds from each enclosure and had placed them up on the fencing for people to read, and Janet and Chris manfully dolled out copious cups of tea and cake the large set of slightly damp and steaming villagers,horticultural society members, friends and family.

We sold out of eggs very quickly, and the veg I had dug up this morning seemed very popular

Polly (Hazel's daughter- second from left) took an active interest in selling raffle tickets and Frank from the Prestatyn horticultural society (right) as usual took a variety of candid shot of the event. Brother in law Tim is holding up Geoff's make shift shelter (I love this picture as Frank looks incredibly youthful and full of mischief

Beryl from the Village, another friendly face

The members of Ann's allotment group turned up in support too, Though I suspect that the England's ( above) veg knowledge is far superior to my own.

Michaela and Chris, nurses from ITU, called in which was lovely

Neighbours Terry and Ann and Mrs Jones' Son Arfon with girlfriend Della, caught in the best of the weather

Chris and Sisters Ann and Janet worked very hard, making the whole thing run very well and we are all delighted to have raised Over £232.00 for the Church funds. That's one in the eye for one of the more homophobic and un-Christian members of the village community that actively boycotted the whole event.Hummm you know who you are......

I had a lovely evening