Dydd Dewi Sant Hapus

March 1st is Saint David's day. Today Children still wear a daffodil (or small leek) to school as way of celebration...and it is nice to see that the Empire State is decked out in the Welsh colours in honour.
Not many of my friends will be marking the day...but I know that Nia Haf, over in Australia , will be....lots of love to you today
xxx

Flora Robson hands

I usually work on Sunday night and because of the slightly better weather we have been having recently, I usually spend the day with my hands, elbow deep in mud, manure and dirty sawdust. Subsequently, when I am at work, my hands (although as sterile as I can make them!) do resemble those owned by Sister Philippa (Flora Robson) in Black Narcissus.
You may recall the scene, when the wise horse faced Robson is banging away with her hoe on the terraced vegetable plots, trying to divert herself from her crisis of faith? She looks down at her hands which are raw, gnarled and blistered and then painfully carries on with her work......well picture those hands with a ton of ingrained dirt rubbed into the thumbs and you have mine!
Allotment work and ITU don't quite go together...for 20 minutes or so before shift, you can always find me at the sink scrubbing away at the callouses on my fingers, at hands that despite the recommended three minute hibiscrub wash, never really look clean.
I think I get away with it, only because I usually wear gloves all the time.........resembling Al Jolson in the Jazz singer.......

The Curious case of Benjamin Bum-ache

It has been a week of cinema. Tonight we went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). I wasn't too bothered about seeing it, after all I remembered that it was three hours long and starred Brad Pitt! But I must admit I rather liked this overlong tale of melancholic whimsy.
I bet that director David Fincher loved one of my favourite films Un long dimanche de fiançailles (A very Long Engagement), as Benjamin Button has all the visual magic and cinematic style of the French fantasy film. Indeed the cinematography is the best bit of the movie, and every shot is framed and planned within an inch of its life.
The film is literally an exploration of kismet and fate. The acting is all pretty average (despite the Oscar nominations), but I must admit I did like the all too brief appearance by Tilda Swinton as a sad English diplomat's wife!
All in all I gave it an 8/10

I have been a bit fed up today as the car has had a cracked windscreen, our electricity bill standing order has doubled and the Albert's vet bill is due to be paid!.......too many bills in Febuary I feel....especially as the car is due its MOT and the dogs are due their inoculations.
Chris has been a sweetie and has calmed me down nicely.

Chris' friend from his work has called down this afternoon and has taken three of the buff chicks to augment her hen house which was nice. Rogo and Stanley somehow both escaped their enclosures at the same time soon after and have been fighting terribly. I managed to separate them , but both were battered and bloody when they stalked back to their own houses.
....boys will be boys.......

Learning difficulties

Well, it is unanimous! Apparently I have let myself "go".......this seems to be the consensus of most of my friends and family! Jo, Chris' colleague from work had a look at the blog the other day and thought I looked like someone with "learning difficulties!!" Tonight I picked Chris up from the station and as I got out of the car to get our tea from the chip shop, I caught him laughing at my state of dress!
I was wearing my allotment clothes- old combat pants, dirty jumper, trouser legs tucked into socks (I had taken my wellies off to drive) and had a half chewed pair of crocs on! My hair was uncombed ( as it has been all week) and I am sure there was a bit of uneaten breakfast still in my beard...
"You look like a retard!" Chris cheerfully told me.
Anyhow, I have hoed the four vegetable plots today, which has been a backbreaking job, and everything is ready now for the spring planting. My potatoes are set up in the shed for chitting (below pic). and most of the seeds are ready for the off.
You can just see William in the far left of the photo. He spent the day with me, but unlike the Scotties he had to be tied up at all times. The poor lad exhausted himself totally, just watching an ambling hen or the pigs in the distance

A surreal moment

Oh I almost forgot....I went to the hospice today to sign some paperwork before being able to start bank shifts there.....as I was waiting at reception I was joined by a lady who was a patient. We struck up conversation about animals ( I was in wellies and looking pretty farmer-ish)

Anyhow after telling her about the hens and the turkeys and the pigs...she suddenly turned to me and asked if I would like a tortoise!........

This caught me unawares so I simply said yes...........!....she now has our telephone number.....

Indulgence, real politicians and field visitors

Chris isn't home tonight. He is at some conference or other in Scotland, so I have the cottage to myself, and have had an indulgent afternoon and evening. Indulging myself is easy and simple. I have cleaned the cottage from top to bottom and am relaxing in the neatness, stillness and order only afforded by Chris being away!
I have eaten a large plate of sausages in front of "Cops" (Chris hates cheap American "trailer trash" tv and does not let me watch it on an evening but I do love the occasional "Video Justice", "Judge Judy" and "World's Most Amazing Videos"), I have had a long bath,caught up with phone calls (Nu) ,drank a load of diet coke and am now writing my blog half watching "House Doctor"......I am so easily pleased

Today I wanted to write something about the sad death of David Cameron's son Ivan. Yesterday I listened to LBC as I was chopping down the remainder of the far hedge, and the soundbites of support for the Cameron family from MPs from all political parties, I found quite moving and ever so slightly surprising.

I am healthily cynical about politicians, I always have been, but the measured,genuine and eloquent statements from the likes of Gordon Brown,William Hague and especially Vince Cable did literally made me stop what I was doing. It was a refreshing change to realise that a more human aspect of Westminster does exist!

The pigs previous ower called in today to give me and them the once over! She also brought me over the outstanding paperwork, which I need to send off as soon as possible. Gladys and Nora were galloping around after their football when she arrived which satisfied me ( and tickled her). They look very happy in their new enclosure she said....

As we were pig watching another lady arrived to pick up one of the adolescent Buff cockerels. She is a new-ish hen owner and couldn't quite believe how pretty the golden buffs actually are. I have only one cockerel to find a home for now. I am so pleased the two boys have gone to good homes.

Gran Torino

I bet that Clint Eastwood loved the John Wayne swansong movie True Grit (1969) and in many ways his character in Gran Torino (the sonofabitch racist Walt Kowalski) does resemble Wayne's Marshall Reuben J. 'Rooster' Cogburn. Both men are way past their sell by dates, both have trouble relating to the rapidly changing worlds they now inhabit, and both have a deep routed sense of morality and tradition.
And like Wayne's likable rogue, Eastwood dominates the screen as the bad tempered bigot with a heart of , well if not gold, a slightly tarnished silver.
The story is not rocket science. Korean vet Kowalski reluctantly becomes involved with his neighbours ( a Hmong family) who defies a local Asian gang. Unable to deal with his own demons and his faulty relationships with his own grown up sons, the old man redeems himself by acting as a surrogate father to the teenage Thao (Bee Vang) and his sassy sister Sue (the excellent Ahney Her) and in a homage to his old Harry Callahan days, acts as the family's vigilante protector.
Eastwood is wonderful as the growling old git, and his performance is a fitting , possible Oscar worthy end to his long career ( Eastwood is 78 after all!!), but the film itself is let down a little by a rather flat performance of Bee Vang as the son he never really had. The boy actor just doesn't have the sufficient range to mirror Eastwood's barnstorming acting!
I must also add that Christopher Carley also gave a cracking performance as the young family priest, who is convinced ( wrongly) that Kowalski has a terribly dark and sordid past!
7/10

Football Crazy

The cottage is a madhouse! I am typing this as I wait for the little man to read our electricity meter. The Welsh terriers and Albert ( who is now almost walking without his usual limp) are watching a slightly hysterical Maddie and George fighting energetically over a football. The Scotties have been racing around like this for the past hour or so, after neighbour Joanne called around with a present of two balls for the pigs!!

Joanne was sure she had read that pigs like balls, and very kindly had swiped her son's "excess" footballs to drop off for Gladys and Nora.

I took one of the balls to the pig enclosure earlier, but the girls left it well alone as they seemed more interested in the pig food scattered in the grass. Mind you when I was looking out of the bedroom widow a bit later, I caught Nora angrily chasing around after it on stubby fat trotters! Even the farmer who had been racing up and down the lane in the muck spreader all morning stopped to watch her!

The day has been incredibly cold. I have repaired the rest of the hen enclosure netting, and cleared the field borders of debris and branches, but it has been too chilly to do anything else. The bantams are doing ok, and their numbers seem all present and correct. Rogo has accepted the whole 10 of them and seems to be watching over them all very well. The ducks have started to lay eggs again too!. I am starting to collect them to fill the incubator again

Off to see Gran Torino (2008) tonight