Albert saga continues and a masterclass in humour

William and Meg (above) have had an exhausting day getting acquainted with the poultry on the field.I have been taking the dogs over more regularly in an effort to get them used to the birds so that excited attacks may be brought to a more acceptable level. The Scotties now, can and do walk alongside the hens without battering an eye but the welsh cannot and probably will never be let off on their own.Both Meg and William literally shake with anticipation when any of the birds come into view and would I am sure happily maul anything that came within reach. Funny that the Scotties after one telling off, now will potter around next to the hysterical ducks without wanting to give chase.
Albert has still not been "discharged" from the vets. Although he is eating and drinking well, the vet nurse is still reporting "excitable and erratic behaviour" from him as he continues his efforts to get rid of his plaster cast.
Hopefully he will be able to come home tomorrow, mind you I have been given strict instructions he is to be nursed in a cage............the vet fears he will gallop around on his three good legs smashing into every wall if left free.......sigh......!
I cannot remember when I watched something on tv that made me literally cry with laughter. Last night I watched Mark Lawson's interview with the actress Maureen Lipman on BBC4 and amid an intelligent and measured discussion, the thoughtful Lipman told a story of how the obsessive film director Roman Polanski prepared his actors for a scene in the holocaust movie The Pianist (2002) Wanting actor Frank Finlay to look a little more shopworn, she wryly recounted how the director used sandpaper and (of all things) a large German sausage to give Finlay's face the "right" look. Lipman's comic timing even when she is telling a dinner party anecdote is right on the money, and I laughed till I almost wet myself.......cracking and thoroughly enjoyable tv
I caught up with Nu this afternoon on the phone. She seems numb and ever so flat after Una's death. The only thing that seems to be helping her is therapeutic trips to the cinema. She gave The Reader (2008) a 9/10.......I didn't ask her if she had seen Winslett's painful and dotty acceptance speech at the golden globe awards.
Tomorrow I hope to meet up with Hazel (it's been an age)....I think we are off to see Il y a longtemps que je t'aime (2008) (I have loved you so long) at theatre Clwyd..... it will be nice to get back to normal

Bach Double Concerto for Violins

Some pieces of music make you stop dead in your tracks.
I heard this on the car radio today and had to pull over to listen to it.
Quite amazing...........

Wintry day (Albert and the credit crunch)

Today has been a dull,wet,wintry day. I seem to have been outside for most of the daylight hours and now feel chilled and tired. Albert is not being discharged today. Reading between the lines, I think he is leading the staff at the vets a merry dance with his much hated plaster cast. Apparently he has been galloping around his cage desperate to get rid of the dammed thing, so much so that the staff feel that he may be in danger exacerbating his fracture. So although he is eating and drinking ok, he won't be discharged until tomorrow......I suspect a little Valium may be in orderThe only pub in the village The Crown has now unfortunately closed. High rents, dropping client numbers, the smoking ban, crap food.........I guess there are scores of reasons why small businesses fall by the wayside nowadays. It saddens me because the pub and restaurant was once someones dream of success, a hopeful new way of life, a new venture, a new challenge........
The place looked cold and unloved when I walked past with the dogs this afternoon. Although it had been renovated to cater for shall we say, more modern tastes, the two fireplaces were always lit and the fires were always welcoming and rather sweet.
I hope someone takes the business over, and I hope they return the old pub to something more old fashioned and traditional.Strangely enough The Crown has never felt central to the village life as the Memorial Hall obviously does ......................perhaps it is a sign of the village's slightly puritanical roots.

Albert & Charlie

Albert didn't come home today which was a little worrying!, I rang the vets at noon and at two, but due to pressures of work he had his plaster cast fitted late so was not well enough to be allowed home today. The "nurse" however said that he was stable and had been asked for me!.......nutter!
I do miss the little chap
Janet gave me this balaclava the other day to help me with this bitter weather. I have been instantly transported to my primary school childhood when I walked to school wearing my hand knitted gloves and orange ever-so-tight balaclava!!! (I honestly looked like a small Japanese soldier!)
It has been lovely to wear but I must admit I do look like a sad pervert in it!

This Morning I let the ducks out first as I wanted to herd them down to the main hen enclosure without interruption by the inquisitive hens. As they waddled down the field two foxes burst into view not 25 yards from us. The ducks formed their defensive "huddle" immediately but the foxes ran on , zig-zagging across the field, through the neighbouring fields and then back again!!!!! They were oblivious to us watching them, as I suspect they were a "courting" couple, but the proximity of two "charlies" is terribly worrying (Charlie is a local nick name for a fox apparently!). I have spent the day on and off the field with trusty George in tow, the electric fencing has been re installed around the expensive buffs and we have seen no repeat visitation!....perhaps my balaclava scared them off?

Defiance

We went to see the film Defiance (2008) this evening which was an ok way of passing the time. I guess I have had my fill of holocaust themed movies over the years so to be honest I was slightly bored by the amazing true story of how three Jewish brothers escape from Nazi-occupied Poland into the Belarussian forest.There they join Russian resistance fighters and endeavor to build a village in order to protect themselves and others in danger!
Daniel Craig and the odd looking Liev Schreiber were excellent as the two elder brothers, but I think I would have preferred seeing The Reader

.........another trip to the vets

I watched a late re run of the mini series "North and South" last night (see previous blog) partly because it was a welcomed trip down memory lane but also because Albert had not come home after an afternoons play and I was sort of waiting up for him. He still had not turned up by 1am, so I went out for a quick scout around but he was no where to be seen, so I went to bed.

As Chris went to work early this morning, he told me that Albert had come home and lifted him onto the bed for his usual lie in with the dogs. I thought he was tired after a night's gallivanting, but in actual fact the poor little chap was nursing a broken femur!

It was lunchtime when I realised he had not come down for his dinner, and soon after checking on him, we were racing to Caerwys and the trusty vets! It took them an absolute age to xray him, but at least they finally ruled out any pelvic injuries. The vet thought he had been hit by a car.

So we have another poorly animal to worry about! (as well as the obligatory huge bill) the vet has pumped him full of painkillers tonight, and he will have a leg cast put on tomorrow and then hopefully be home.......I am resolved to lock the cat flap at night now ...well at least until he is a little more road savvy.

As sod's law would have it, I ran out of petrol on the way home, which delayed my return a good while. This gave William an ideal opportunity to clamber up onto the kitchen table, where he dropped a dozen eggs onto the floor! Most of the mess had been eaten by the time I walked in!

North and South

I caught a re run of this "lavish" American mini series last night on Sky. Originally made in the early 1980s this "epic family story" set against the American civil war was a prime example of how artificial looking and plastic these mini series actually were.They always reminded me of history romps which Barbara Cartland would have written!
Having said this, I really enjoyed my trip down memory lane last night, what with Lesley Anne-Down getting her arse whipped by Southern baddie David Carradine...and the strapping James Reed being all homoerotic with best friend Patrick Swayze!(who sported a very disguesting mullet as I remembered!)
Bill Conti's lovely music deserved a feature film!!! and what a cast????

Boris and the funeral

Another day, another funeral! This morning the village Church was filled to overflowing with people paying their respects to old Mrs Lewis who died last week. Twenty or so of the congregation even had to stand outside the church , and I was slightly taken aback as I collected the eggs, when around a couple of hundred people walked to the burial spot in the graveyard when the service was over.
I suspect it was the huge collection of black overcoats that set Boris off. Perhaps they resembled a male turkey's plumage, but as the vicar led the congregation slowly through the new graveyard (to the right of the above photo) off Boris galloped, in full feathered display! As the somber crowd gathered, he "gobbled" "whistled" and "snorted" at the top of his voice so much that mourners started to turn and point to where the strange noises were coming from!
I thought I was standing at a respectful distance behind the buff hen houses, but I knew I couldn't leave him excitedly showing off literally feet from the Church fencing! Crouching low and looking somewhat like a middle aged scarecrow( dirty combats,wellies,dirty woolly hat!), I crossed the duck enclosure like a commando (with Albert bouncing along behind me) and roughly grabbed Boris who let out a massive squawk!
Nearly giving myself a hernia I carried him to the duck house and bundled him in, where he continued to "gobble" and kick the door loudly with his massive feet! At this time severel people we smiling and pointing The whole thing must have looked rather ridiculous.
I hid behind the duckhouse until most of the congregation had disappeared!

The 10 chicks have grown up nicely, but are far too delicate to be let out in this cold weather.The wyandotte bantam chicks (the grey and black and gray babies above) look rather like the black and white minstrels from 1960's tv and are incredibly cute. I would love to keep most of them, but I know I have to draw a line in the number of mouths we have to feed. Chris' colleague Jo is having three of the little ones.
The rest of the day I have been planning the spring planting for the allotment. Beryl from Rhodfa Arthur (Rhodfa is Welsh for avenue) called this afternoon to let me know that one of the ducks had escaped and was outside her house...as it turned up it was a old white female duck and wasn't one of my girls........if it still around tomorrow I told her I would try and catch her......yep another beak to feed.......