Starting the garden again and 13 happier ducks

Our cottage garden was a real picture last year (above pic), and typical of most herbaceous borders looks absolutely terrible in winter. In actual fact it looks rather like a small square of brown nothing at the moment,so I have braved the icy wind and have started the long process of clearing the weeds, dead wood and leaves.

The hysteria amid the runner ducks seems to have settled down somewhat. Five of the males are now gone (and are living quite happily with a poultry enthusiast in nearby Kinmel Bay.So the last two remaining drakes now have 11 females to mate with,,,,which by anyone's estimate is pretty good odds for any male.
Subsequently the females are not harassed by continual sexual advances and are more relaxed and settled than they have been of late! Of course If I wear different clothing than usual or put a hat on they haven't seen before we have to steel ourselves with the screaming add-dabs.


The night is cold and windy, so I am glad I have not gone out with Hazel. With the fire on, the cottage is cosy and warm, just right for a night in with every animal asleep ( pic: Albert nesting nicely with William) I caught up with friend Nige on the phone (only we can have a half hours conversation on the merits of the disaster film Deep Impact), will have a long bath with Patricia Cornwell's latest then will settle down with a good dvd!

some dogs you can train...

Both George and Maddie can now be safely left along side the hens. Every day they have mingled around the hybrids with only the occasional interested sniff and chase. Maddie being the older, more-stuck-in-her-ways terrier, has found it harder than the more playful George, but after two smacked bottoms (Maddie cannot cope with the smallest criticism from either Chris or myself), she has accepted that the birds are now "out of bounds"
Above is a photo of George and one of the black hookers

William and Meg will never be left unattended anywhere near a hen. The chicks in the shed are now getting more vocal, the more bored they are becoming with enclosed life. William cannot contain his excitement as they bicker and fight together, and will stand like this for an age, listening to the banter. Today he stood at the door for a good hour or so.

Quiet Chaos

It's been a long while since I have seen an Italian movie, so I was happy to catch Caos calmo (2008) (Quiet Chaos) at Theatre Clwyd this evening.
It is a strange but interesting portrayal of a grief reaction. Pietro ( the bassett hound faced Nanni Moretti) is widowed after is wife dies in a freak fall. Unable to face his emotions, he camps in front of his daughter's primary school every day, waiting for her to finish her studies. As he sits, he comes into contact with locals, family and work colleagues, all of whom seem to have huge problems of their own.
Quiet Chaos, unlike its Hollywood counterparts doesn't have the climatic catharsis of say Ordinary People, it just plods along until a sort of closure is obtained for a man whose relationship was not quite what it at first seemed. Moretti has a certain charm as the quietly anguished husband and Alessandro Gassman is equally impressive as his fey younger brother, but the film itself bounces a little too much from whimsey (the sweet relationship between father and daughter) and shock( a very uncomfortable and gratuitious sex scene between Moretti and a women he saves from drowning!) for my liking!
An ok 7/10

The Object of my Affection

The afternoon has been bright and warm, which has been lovely seeing that it had rained heavily all night.The view of the Church from the back garden has the feel of springtime, which has been a bonus as I have just spent a dirty couple of hours cleaning out drains and scrubbing the back patio free of dirt and leaves.
I got up early after Chris went to work, made a cup of tea and went back to bed as it was too dark to do anything outside. The dogs had clambered up onto the bed and were all fast asleep so in the peace and quiet I let Albert out of his cage for a walk around.
After a few minutes I heard him hopping slowly up the stairs and laboriously he climbed onto the bed to rub his face against the heads of each dog in turn thus reinforcing his pack bonds by scenting each animal.
I have always marvelled in the way that a simple pet can give you so much pleasure; watching a simple little cat make the effort to greet the dogs and I, almost brought me to tears and I had a sudden rush of affection for Albert and celebrated the "chutzpah" he has exhibited since his painful accident.
These sudden rushes of affection are the special moments you so often forget. They hit you out of the blue....William "smiling " when he is allowed to sit in the front seat of the car over the other dogs, Lilly the Buff hen sitting comfortably in you lap and Finlay kicking leaves into the air when on one of his autumn walks. In a similar vein, I do sometimes forget the pleasure of watching Chris enjoying a nice meal or the way he signs when he gets into a warm bed. It is those little moments that make things (like getting filthy when clearing out the drains!!) worthwhile!

The book The object of my affection has one of my favourite quotes, it goes as follows

"Often, what's most attractive about a person is that part they're trying hardest to conceal, that part they think is least likable. You find out about it and it becomes a secret bond between you, something you never talk about but hold close to your heart and are continually touched by"

The In-Laws

Today is father-in-law Richard's birthday, so many happy returns to him.
If you would have asked me 10 years ago if having in laws would be a normal part of having a relationship, I would have raised an eyebrow, but with a serious relationship in your thirties comes a ton of baggage,two sets of pans and the obligatory set of In -laws.
I am lucky, I actually get on with Chris' Mum and Dad. Sorrel is a youthful affable despot with a life busier than ours combined and Richard is an easy going Southern geezer not long starting his retirement. They are divorced, so we get the chance to see them individually throughout the year, (even though they live in Kent).
Today I got to wondering how Chris would have got on with my parents if they had lived.
My opinionated, aggressive and sometimes terribly behaved mother would , I think have enjoyed Chris' company. I am sure they would have sparred continually and fought occasionally but I am pretty sure they would have got on famously.
I am still am not too sure of how my father would have reacted to me coming out.......certainly my mother would have reacted like any theatrical Jewish Momma would have done ( in screaming self blame I suspect), but in retrospect,I am sure she would ultimately have been rather gay-friendly to her son in law.
I am not so sure of my father's reaction......having a gay son, I suspect would have been somewhat of a terrible ordeal for him, but I would like of think he would have come round to the idea in time.....I think that he would have been at least friendly with Chris, enjoying Chris' abilities to small talk with ease, but I suspect they would never have become friends.
Who knows? the middle class attitudes of the 1980s seem such an age away now.....

A bored sick cat.and spring lists

We were busy last night with eight patients on ITU including a somewhat irate and potentially violent felon who was being "overseen" by a succession of slightly world weary police officers. We all got though the shift without any blood shed and I even managed to get a hour of dog draped sleep when I got home
Albert has been going slightly stir crazy in his cage, so when the dogs were out at the beach I let him out to sit in the sun on the bedroom window seat.The little chap is still dreadfully stiff and has not eaten very much today ( I did get his antibiotics down him hidden in a bit of tuna), so a bit of R and R sunbathing whilst mentally stalking the hens over in the field, I thought would lift his spirits!

Over several cups of coffee (Italian blend), I felt I needed to plan my working week...

so...this until Sunday, I will:-

..pick up the first early potatoes ready for spring chitting,

..Clear the remained of the vegetable beds and compost the allotment,

..Put up the advertisement in the post office regarding spring planting plugs (my idea is to swap seedlings for eggs if the local horticulturalists can be tempted)

..plan the crop rotation beds and purchase vegetable seedlings

..Clear the garden of deadwood and weeds before the herbaceous plants start to come through

..re paint the duck house,

..scrub the patio and start to re stock the planters,

..paint the garden furniture,

..take 5 of the runner ducks to pastures new,

..set the 10 chicks up in their nursery run,

..clean out the shed and set up the incubator with new fertilised eggs,

..spring clean the coops and dettol every internal surface

I love pottering

Paradise Road -

Lazy Blog day today......I have just re read the book Women beyond the wire by Lavinia Warner. It is an amazing and non nonsense account of the imprisionment of British and Australian women by the Japanese in World War 2 and brought to life the quiet bravery of many ordinary women that were later translated into the cast characters of the 1980's tv series "Tenko" and the film "Paradise Road".
The book is out of print now, which is a shame, it is a cracking and moving read.
This clip is from Paradise Road, which Warner worked upon int the 1990s .It is the story of how the prisioners formed a choir to keep up prisioner morale........You might just get a glimpse of Pauline Collins (in round glasses) who played one of the most remarkable real life characters (Margaret Dryburgh- a big hearted Christian Missionary who before her death in the camps wrote the famous "captives Hymm" )

Working later tonight....hence lazy blog!

Good Day

I have just clambered out of a welcomed hot bath ( reading my trusty Empire film magazine) after a fruitful and busy day. We were dragged around the beach by the dogs, did the weekly shop, bought a new digital tv (15 inches is the biggest we would ever have!) and then as Chris pottered around the house I enjoyed the spring like afternoon and cleared the field of all the detritus accumulated over the past year.
It seemed as though the entire village was out and about , so every job was interrupted time and time again by neighbours seeking to buy eggs or wanting a chat.
Even Auntie Gladys, (sporting her new spring coat) called in with a bag full of home made scones.
It felt so warm that I worked until dusk digging out the potato bed with a large group of earthworm eating chicken helpers in tow. As I was turning the soil I tried to keep a jam jar full of worms aside as a treat for the ducks. Strangely enough it is of no use offering these titbits to the Buffs (looking remarkably golden in the sun-above pic) They will gather around an earthworm wriggling on the ground with a look of mild disgust on their faces- it is almost as though you have offered them a large piece of sh*t to eat! I have never seen them eat one worm since they were placed into their runs!
This evening we are just about to sit down to watch a dvd of Hot Fuzz (2007) starring the amusing and very sexy Simon Pegg

Note to self........... I am getting old!