It's Back!

Strictly Come dancing is back, bigger, (supposedly better) and on until Christmas. Tonight we sat down with cups of tea and the four less hysterical dogs (Jess has gone home) to watch the parade of the new contestants. Ok Strictly is the X Factor for the middle classes, but I don't care, It remains the campest and most entertaining thing on the box all year.Bring it on.

Out of the cannon fodder this year jolly hockey sticks Jodie Kidd and the delightful tongue-in cheek John Sergeant are stand outs

Lizzie Bennet where are you?

I think I would have liked the film The Duchess (2008) more if the wonderful Keira Knightley wasn't in it. That sounds rather odd, but every time there was a scene of her in period eighteen century dress in the Chatsworth House gardens, I was longing for her famously warm character 'Lizzie' Bennet to suddenly take over from the rather dour Georgiana, The Duchess of Devonshire .

The Duchess is a beautiful film to look at,and the story of the sexual politics and dual standards of the day is interesting enough, but the film generally has very little warmth and soul in it which is perhaps an unfair criticism as the story is indeed a very unhappy one.

The whole film would have been a whole lot better if Hayley Atwell (stunning as the "third" one in the Devonshire marriage -Bess Foster) would have been cast in the lead role..

Bring back Pride & Prejudice (2005)

Jam

Rogo and Linda with Stanley's chicks in the background

Broody Nolan's "Poseidon" chicks (Rogo,Susan,Belle,Linda and Nonnie) now have their own large enclosure, complete with electric fencing. They now live along side the four 5 week old chicks, housed into the old Buff ark, so hopefully the two little flocks will gel nicely in time. I sorted out the new enclosures at 6.45am, and it was interesting to watch 6 pheasants wander into the field to pick over the crumbs left by the runner ducks. The runners on seeing the game birds, slowly formed themselves into a tight flock and quietly (usually they scream and shout at any threat) followed the pheasants' every move, step for step. When the wild birds stopped, so did the ducks, when they ran a few steps, so did the ducks. I wish I had taken the camera out, as it was the funniest thing to watch.

After walking the dogs on the beach,delivering eggs and collecting the out-of-date veg from Prestatyn, I got stuck in to Jam making, and I surprised myself with actually achieving the "crinkle point" before ladling the mixture into jam pots.
I picked the rest of my onions from the allotment as well as the parsnips (which didn't do that well).

This evening we are off out for a meal in Prestatyn and tomorrow we are going to see The Duchess

Remembering

I can't believe it has been 7 years since 9/11. I will always remember that day.....Chris and I sat dumbfounded on our old Marks and Spencer's couch in Sheffield,unmoving for hours, watching the disaster unfold minute by minute and hour after hour. It was a pivotal memory for both of us................

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.