Collecting Blackberries

Chris is not back until this evening, so with the sun shining and Jess merrily chomping through 4 of the 5 dog leads in the kitchen I have strimmed the field and planned for all the new chicks to join the field population as the hens got back to normal after their shock the other day. Still no sign of the marauding dog today, I will be out early tomorrow on sentry duty yet again but at least egg production is now back up to normal..
I also made an hour free, so I could collect blackberries for Jam making tomorrow. I must have collected berries as a child but for the life of me I can't remember doing so, so this afternoon, with bucket in hand and with fingers covered in purple juice I had an amble down a nostalgia lane that perhaps never really existed.for me.
It was fun

Man On Wire

I let the birds out slightly later this morning and sat there with a cup of coffee and a large stick, watching over them for a hour or so just in case the dog returned. Most of the hens looks back to their normal fairly stupid selves, with the exception of the buffs who remain nervous and quiet.
Chris is away working in London and staying in Broadstairs, so I have bought myself to tinned custard and ice cream for tea.......(oh the excitement of it all!) It's been a nice treat as William and Jess have been play fighting around the cottage for the past 4 hours without resting- Meg, Maddie and even George look fed up with their antics

Caught a matinee showing of the documentary Man on Wire (2008) earlier, and I was impressed by the amazing story of tightrope walker Philippe Petit and his illegal"wire stunt" between the World Trade Centre Towers in 1974. Director James Marsh wisely let the main protagonists of the event tell their own stories, and the interest of the piece for me lay with the relationships between the charismatic flim flam man Petit and the rest of his support team.rather than the amazing stunt itself. This driven Svengali, commanded an almost hypnotic attraction by his best friend Jean-Louis Blondeau and girlfriend Annie Allix and interestingly both of them had their relationships severed after the wire walk was finally completed. Marsh utilised home movies of the walk preparation,actor recreations of key scenes as well as gut wrenching original footage of the event and the total effect of it all is a fascinating,moving and slightly different type of documentary.

Silver Lining

Now every crap day has a silver lining, and mine turned out to be the TCM film Conspiracy of Hearts (1960) It has everything a middle aged sentimental gay man wants in a film:- a glamorous mother superior (Lilli Palmer- complete with false eye lashes), a handful of sweet nuns, 10 Jewish children escaping the dreadful Germans and a white knuckle firing squad scene with heroine novice (the beautiful Sylvia Syms) and cold nun with a heart (Yvonne Mitchell) facing the not-what-they-seem Italian soldiers.

I must say that I did expect that the more comic nuns (dumpy Megs Jenkins and Jenny Laird) would burst into song at one point, and I must admit I was slightly disappointed when they didn't, but for 120 minutes, I did forget the troubles of the day....

Dog Attack

Not everyday in village life can be a nice one, and today got off to a bad start. When I was feeding the chicks in the shed I heard a bit of a commotion in the field, first from the ducks and then from the chickens. Usually the birds kick off when a large black and white cat stalks across the field, but this time the noise was so loud I thought I had better check.As I opened the field gate I could see the hens all streaking for the cover of the hen houses, with Stanley shrieking at something in the grass. It was a small dog, a terrier similar to Jess and it was standing over one of the black hookers lying still on the ground. I shouted and flung the feed bucket at it and it bolted for the fence, bounced over it and ran up towards the Churchyard.. The whole thing lasted only a few seconds, but the damage had been done.
When I got to the black hooker she was still alive but obviously extremely injured. Nearby one of the hybrids, Suzannah lay dead. I quickly checked all the others who were crowded in and underneath the hen coops, all shocked and quiet.They seemed untouched except for Stanley who had lost most of his banner tail feathers and Baby Jane who had several wing feathers standing out at right angles to her body.
I ran up to the duck enclosure,and did a head count, luckily they were fine as were the tame buffs,Boris and Grace and the five chicks in the small A frame run. Only the hens were singled out for the attack. I walked up through the Churchyard and around the other side of the village, but couldn't see the dog at all. I asked around and no one seemed to know where it had come from, so I checked on the hens again and took the hooker to the vets.
The vet must of thought I am the worst pet owner out as it seems as though I have spent the whole of last week at the surgery, but as usual he was kind and only charged me another fiver to have the poor bird put down.
The girls have been fraught and upset all day. The photos show them crowded around the coops (the buffs have spent the whole day inside (you can just see Elizabeth hiding in the doorway) and I have had to feed them warmed mash to help them through the shock (which can kill an average hen) I was proud of Stanley though, who must have put himself in direct danger, when fending off the intruder.

I have spent most of the day on guard duty, only venturing out to walk the dogs and to get petrol.The bad day got worse when my card was rejected at the petrol station, and I had to leave the belingo there (with 5 dogs in the back) to sort it all out at the bank. Apparently I had been quadrupled charged for some aftershave for Chris when I was at Terminal 5, and the string of debits had made me overdrawn! So after sorting out the petrol, I have spent a wonderfully entertaining hour or so on the phone to the manager of duty Free at Heathrow complaining.Apparently this over charging had happened to scores of customers ("and that is supposed to make me feel better?") and I should be reimbursed in a day or so........swell.just swell.

Softly, softly?

Jess is having great fun on her holiday to Trelawnyd. This morning she was up howling merrily at 6am, and only settled after a wee and permission to climb into bed with me (Under the duvet!!!!!!!!!!)
She disappeared into the sand dunes on her walk on the beach this morning, only returning after half a hour of yelling, very pleased with herself indeed- Our dogs seem to look at her with total expressions of surprise and shock, as time and time again she breaks the house rules. When I open the back of the Belingo, they all line up patiently waiting for me to give the order to leave, whereas Jess, (looking as though she's on amphetamines) leaps out into the void with gay abandon. With me trying to catch her like an over the hill goal keeper. After dinner, when the four dogs usually collapse into untidy piles around the living room, now Jess spends a good two hours goading William then George into play fighting ALL over the cottage. Thank god Chris is working in London for a few days from tomorrow, his nerves and varicose veins couldn't quite cope with the hysteria of it all.

Pecking Orders,and vein trouble

Lordy,Lordy....we have had a break in the rainy weather, so I have returned to menagerie mode by working all day outside. With Duncan removed to pastures new, good old Stanley is now alpha male and a rather poorish show he is making of it all. The hens without the autocratic male have started to bicker more frequently over almost anything and where as any fight was stopped dead by Duncan, Stanley seems to be always late when separating any waring parties.
Janet and Ned have gone to Sitges for a week, and we have inherited their hyperactive patterdale, Jess. All this has been somewhat exhausting for Chris, who cannot quite cope with the constant play fighting and chaos. Like the confused hierarchical behaviour I have witnessed in the hen houses, the dogs have also reacted to the new girl on the block and have been over active and rather difficult at times.

Chris has also been troubled with varicose vein pain on and off all day,so what with him staggering around like a moaning extra from Les Miserables and the dogs galloping around with parts of Jess' anatomy constantly in their mouths, the house has been a complete madhouse.

I have enjoyed the quietness of the field.

Terminal 5

Now I am generally not a fan of modern architecture, (well apart from the typically art deco skyscrapers of New York) but I must admit that Heathrow's new terminal 5 is a stunning mass of glass,light and innovative design.
Cleverly the first glimpse of the concourse when you get off the train is from the 5th floor, where suddenly you are gazing down on the vast space which seems ten times the size of your average sports stadium. Now you expect to look up at this sort of cathedral sized structure when you enter it, but looking down on everything turns the whole airport thing literally onto its head.
I spent an interesting few hours experiencing all that terminal 5 had to offer, before a comfortable flight home.

Australia Trailer (2008)

I saw this trailer when in London yesterday, and must admit it looks smashing