Albert chalks up another life & hard work

Albert is now down to 7 lives! As I was washing the pots this morning, he found my laptop and deftly chewed through the power cable! I was non the wiser until there was a sharp "BANG!" followed by a black streak of Albert bolting upstairs like a ferret up a drainpipe!
He seemed unhurt, just frightened by the whole affair..........I am now left without a functioning computer! Thank god Chris has one................The uprights for the pig fencing has all been set up nicely. Overseen by Foreman Steve (left) Cheerful Gary (right) and I hand hammered 20 poles into the bottom field in record time. I felt rather proud of our work when local farmer Ralph, called down and gave the project his thumbs up! Tomorrow the wire fence arrives and hopefully we will be able to shift the duck house all the way down the field to set up before the girls arrive.

My arm and shoulders are aching a little tonight......I need a long hot bath....mind you I will have to give the tub a good scrub, both scotties have been soaking in there after a particularly dirty afternoon shadowing me in the mud

Tau ming chong (2007)

There wasn't much on offer from the Asian epic Tau ming chong (2007) (aka The Warlords) tonight at Theatre Clwyd.....The "moving" story of three blood brother soldiers during the late 19th Century Chinese rebellion reminded me of such hollow epics as Pearl Harbor and the dreadful Armageddon as it was all flash , bang,wallop and no substance...
However It did have one thing going for it, and that was the very tasty actor Takeshi Kaneshiro (pic) in one of the leading roles....he , alone was worth the price of the ticket!

Post number 1184!

Ok, not the most exciting subject for my 1184th blog, but the new duck house made me smile just a little. I picked it up this morning and put some heavy duty hinges on the broken door, before setting it up next to the big duck house.

As usual the hysterical runners went totally ape, when they spied something new in their enclosure and spent an age flapping around like idiots ( I could quite happily slap them when they start). Two of the females went this morning so I am down to 11 ducks........much more manageable than the original 22 from last year!!

I hope to breed from the three full coloured females this spring.....Stamford (the black female),Lucy (the grey) and Connie (the pure white)......the photo at the top is broody Blanche with Connie, days after my first duck hatch last spring

I am off to the cinema this evening, but should be completing paper work for the general hospital bank and the hospice (where I have been accepted to do extra shifts).......I will do the paperwork early tomorrow, before we can get stuck in with pig fence building

Australia

It was only a couple of weeks ago when I found myself waxing lyrical about the movie Australia (2008) . This week, I have been watching with horror, the devastation caused to the rural communities of Victoria State in South Eastern Oz.

There is something terribly chilling about civilians being caught up in a firestorm of this size. The visuals of a young teenager's body covered in a tarpaulin yards from his motorbike which he hoped would help him escape the flames, brought forth the reality of ordinary people being overwhelmed by sudden disaster.

It was all truly horrifying

Testosterone city

The fence posts for the pig enclosure were delivered this afternoon by the fat faced and slightly asthmatic farmer. The field seemed rather crowded as Steve and the cheerful Gary have continued to cut down the old overgrown western hedge and another local farmer dropped down to loan us some hedge cutters and to huff and puff about the size of the posts ( too thick apparently!)

Another Garry (who oversees the neighbouring village of Trelogan's duck pond) drove up to so we could negotiate the transfer of two of my female runners to augment his flock so I felt a little overwhelmed by the surrounding practical country life masculinity!

The general consensus is that the whole triangular corner of the field will be filled with pig enclosure, various ideas for storage and even a stile have been discussed at length......... my lot is not to reason why in all this......I am still just going with the flow.......

The wire fencing is being dropped off tomorrow

Pig Tuesday----- Betsy and Daisy

I drove up to Whitford this morning to measure up the pigs......it may be a little tight, but I am sure that both will fit into the duck house, albeit somewhat snugly!
Both girls are full grown, food orientated and somewhat shy with strangers, but seem terribly cute and bright as buttons.

The family that presently own them will be moving to the states soon, and are genuinely upset at the prospect of them leaving....I have promised that the family's daughter can visit them anytime and have agreed to keep their original (and slightly saccharine) names!

No news Monday

It has been another dark and dismal day here in Trelawnyd. Misty and damp, the Sky remained a constant grey but at least the snowdrops have blossomed around the borders of the field.

No real news to report. I have been given a second hand hen house which will serve the ducks once the pigs arrive, tomorrow I will pick it up then I will go to Whitford to give the pigs the once over (I need to measure them to make sure they actually fit through the duck house door)

Doubt,Bantams and the like

I enjoyed the film Doubt. An austere version of director John Patrick Shanley's stage play about potential child abuse in Bronx Catholic school in the 1960s, this movie has the benefit of an abundance of ambiguity within the storyline and the characterisations thus leaving all the hard work to be done by the audience. Our sympathies see saw constantly between the emotionally warm Priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman , who may be responsible for inappropriate relations with an isolated black 12 year old pupil), and the fierce, pig eyed witch of a head nun ( Meryl Streep), who makes it her mission to prove his guilt.
Shanley leaves proclamations of blame to the audience and by doing so, lets his actors enjoy the nuances and depths of their characters without being too explicit and transparent.
Streep is absolutely stunning as the nun with more hissing anger than an average rattlesnake, whilst Hoffman sparks wonderfully off her as her slightly weaker but more passively aggressive foe.
I loved the scenes where priest and Nun spar and parry together, it's a pity there is only three or so electric encounters to "enjoy" in the film.
You leave, with more questions than you have answers about motivations, themes and character traits......I feel I need a big chat about the whole thing with Nu, who saw it yesterday!
I let the 6 bantams and the four fat buff chicks out of their shed this afternoon. They are now 8 weeks old and ready for the field once all the snow and frost has gone, unfortunately their confidence is pretty low to be able to face the cold slightly grubby world of the back patio, so I sat there with them for a half hour or so, coxing them out to sit on my knee.

This evening Judy came over for supper.....fish pie..........sherry trifle......and dog attention was the order of the evening......she doesn't seem to mind