Onions and Chris wears a bra

I am at risk of sounding like Kenneth Williams here, but get a look at the size of my onions. The wet weather has hindered some crops such as the peas, parsnips and the second crops of potatoes, but my root vegetables such as the turnips, shallots, garlic and onions had done very well indeed.

My cheapo digital camera is crap at close ups , so I guess you can't quite see just how cute the excelsior leghorn chicks actually are. Chris took this photo before sorting his fancy dress costume out for Ann and Tim's 60th Birthday party on Saturday. He is going as his heroine Miss Jane Marple ,complete with pleated tweed skirt (bought by Sylvia from the flowershow),and a particularly snug-fitting purple bra donated from Carole.................... the end result should be.....well rather interesting....watch this space

Calon Lân- A pure Heart

The poor chap that had committed suicide up the Gop last week, had his funeral service at the Church this afternoon and it was a typical large country service with the entire village seemingly turning up to be crammed into the too few pews or standing quietly on the path in the Churchyard.(pic)
I spent the afternoon settling the Turkeys into their new enclosure, but stopped to listen to the amazing congregational singing. Members of the male voice choir as well as a strong female

set of singers performed natural decants as they sang my favourite Welsh Hymn, Calon Lan, and the whole experience literally brought tears to my eyes.
Calon Lan, is a joyous hymn that all Welsh Children learn in school. The chorus can be really belted out with some gusto
"Calon lân yn llawn daioni,
Tecach yw na'r lili dlos:
Dim ond calon lân all ganu
Canu'r dydd a chanu'r nos"

The English translation is as follows,

A pure heart full of goodness
Is fairer than the pretty lily,
None but a pure heart can sing,
Sing in the day, sing in the night

....and sing they did
Boris and Grace seemed to settle into their outside run quite quickly, and I took advantage of the dry afternoon to set up the five buffs into the same enclosure. Turkeys can get bullied terribly by chickens, but the buffs are so good natured I am hoping that the seven of them will get on quite peacefully.

Now this DID make me laugh

compare this to previous post....v.v.v. funny

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.