Evening

The Honeysuckle by the front door has started to bloom. This evening I was going to meet up with friend Geoff but he has had a bad day ( and a bad back) and is need of an early night, so I sat for a while in the front garden with the dogs and a large gin and tonic. The sounds of dusk and the smell of the honeysuckle were lovely

Detective work, More course members and a new broody box

This morning I did some real detective work in Rhyl library!...with pencil stuck dramatically behind my ear, I trolled through a score of back copies of the old Prestatyn Journal from the 1970s and managed to pick out several pieces detailing the embryonic stages of the Trelawnyd Flower Show! Using a microfiche for the first time, made me feel as though I was starring in some Hollywood thriller (even though I was in Rhyl)
It was fascinating work, not only for details of the show itself, but I found reading the local news of summer droughts,minor burglaries and normal small town gossip strangely nostalgic and ever so slightly melancholic. It was the Prestatyn of my childhood! -Bad haircuts, drunk driving, steak dinners with black forest gateaux, a well attended and much loved carnival, Towering Inferno at the Scala and the usual plethera of summer weddings....
As I walked back to the car I caught sight of Auntie Gladys battling with three large bags of shopping, She never ceases to amaze me; at 90 years old, she still takes the bus 5 miles to Rhyl to do all her own shopping, then will schlep it all back without help of any sort!.
As it tuned out Gladys was very grateful for the lift, and I absolutely loved the opportunity to listen to her stories of her early life in the village on our way home. There is nothing more entertaining and poignant than oral histories from someone that has really LIVED their lives.
I could have listened to her all day.
This evening I received two phone calls from more prospective chicken course members. That makes a potential 9 students! (be still my beating heart!) One conversation proved to be very useful as I was offered a new and unused broody box by a lady from the next village......I have seized the day and have already set Blanche and Haleh up in it

Fireflies in the Garden

American Indie films about middle class family dysfunction seem to be ten-a-penny in recent years, and I must say I was slightly disappointed by this starry first feature by Dennis Lee-
Fireflies in the Garden (2008) has Ryan Reynolds as novelist Michael Taylor, who reluctantly returns home for a family celebration. However, when he arrives at the family home he finds the scene of a car accident that has just killed his mother, Lisa (Julia Roberts), and devastated his emotionally domineering father, Charlie (Willem Dafoe).As Michael struggles to reconnect with his grieving father, he rediscovers his friendship with his kindly aunt Jane (Emily Watson), while flashbacks show the pair as children (played very well by Cayden Boyd and Hayden Panettiere) growing up under Charlie's ultra-strict rules. Meanwhile, Michael uncovers some shocking secrets about Lisa and things are further complicated by the unexpected arrival of Michael's recently estranged wife, Kelly (Carrie-Ann Moss).
Have you got all that? yeap not a real bag of laughs but some of the themes explored ( for example;- how unhappiness and abuse colours all of your memories, even the good ones) will resonate with most of the film's audience I am sure.
The problem with Fireflies in the Garden is not the performances (which are fine), it is the film's lack of dramatic power and the glossing over of more interesting stories (such as the slightly odd relationship between Michael and his young aunt) which let the whole thing down just a little.
Having said that Ryan Reynolds plays wide and loose as the grieving son and Emily Watson is in typical strong form as the big hearted aunt.

I took Janet to the scala, and she quite enjoyed the film, although some of the film's family dysfunctional themes did make her feel just a little "uncomfortable".
7/10

Haleh update,Fencing the field,John "Bach" and Flower Show Research

Little Haleh seems to be thriving with individual support from the doting Blanche, the above picture illistrates my point for just right of shot is Albert , sitting patiently, watching the little duckling's every move. Blanche stood there protecting Haleh for the duration of Albert's visit.

I finished weeding the largest of the vegetable patches this morning and have planted a load of donated runner beans and meadow flowers this afternoon. I have also measured the wooden fencing between my field and the Churchyard, so that I can work out just how much chicken wire to buy. I want to ensure that the Chickens are kept out of the graveyard as much as is humanly possible.

Neighbour Trevor called around this afternoon for a computer chat. He is 85 and has just purchased his first laptop, so everything "internet" is presently still a little confusing for him. Chris has been giving informal computer lessons over the past few weeks, which have been gratefully received, but I think he has yet to master google!

Trevor always refers to me as "John Bach" which literally means "Little John" in Welsh.....though the translation actually means "young John"......this tickles me...47 and called young! great news!!!

Tonight I am sifting through the information donated to me relating to the history of the Flower Show. I have received various photos and news clippings and will need to collate everything clearly and precisely.

I aim to outline some of the history of the show in poster form, give a tribute to some of the previous (and existing) long term committee members and to chronicle all of the good causes (within the village and beyond) the show has financially supported over the years.

I think it is time that the Flower Show blows its own trumpet and receives some positive publicity.

Lists

The Dove Cott at Gop Farm above the village

With Chris away, I was up extra early with the dogs- we had a cold walk up the Gop which was lovely in the dawn.It is too early to sort the hens out yet ( I try and let them out at 8am to try and miss the last hunting times of nocturnal foxes), so I am enjoying my birthday coffee with my blog. In addition to the usual coop cleaning,latrine emptying,feeding and watering,I have loads to do this week:-

All the vegetable plots need weeding and clearing

The borders of the allotment need strimming Geoff and I am going to construct an extra broody box/hen house for the extra 3 broody buffs

I need to design an informative poster for the flower show regarding the show's history

The back garden has to be thinned of weeds and the borders shaped.

French beans,broad beans and the remainder of the corn need planting.

I need to construct another wire run for the group of teenage hens in the shed too,( they are going to take over from Blanche and Haleh in their big coop )

and I want to fit in the cinema at least once!

I mentioned previously that I have three broody buffs! With Blanche and now Blanche's sister Beatrice hit with the broody bug too that makes 5 birds!

I have only one nesting box in the buff coop and it is pretty comical to see three fluffy bums crammed into the one box. It reminds me of a game of musical chairs, with three fat old ladies trying to sit on one tiny chair! This morning I have made up another nesting box and set two of the girls ,Lily and Violet on their own nests with just three eggs apiece

Underwear embarrassment

Chris got up early this morning as he is working in London this week and will be spending quality time with his family in Broadstairs until Sunday. So there was much hurried packing and huffing and puffing before I had to take him to the station, so whist still half asleep I dressed, fed and watered the field then drove to the feed wholesalers to buy corn and chick crumbs.
On the way back I stopped at the spar garage to buy some cheap cat food (to build Blanche up) and as I was standing in line I could feel a single unnoticed sock slipping slowly down the inside of my leg!
I don't know if this happens to other blog readers, but sometimes after dressing in a hurry, I occasionally find a previously worn sock hidden away in a pant leg, generally you notice it straight away and can have a delve and drag the smelly article out.....this morning I must have been so sleepy that I did not notice anything, so I was mildly surprised when I felt a sock "plop" gently down my leg and onto the floor of the spar shop!
How wrong I was .....for it wasn't a sock that I saw lying on the floor.....it was in fact a screwed up pair of grungy work underpants!

Before I could pick them up I heard a woman's voice behind me say "I think you've dropped something".........and for a few seconds I wanted the earth to swallow me up whole!
At least the woman behind me was the only person in line. and without gazing at her directly and looking like a beetroot, I pick up my underpants explaining lamely " I have just got up!"
She snorted as did the woman behind the till and I had to stand there, pants rolled up in hand , for an age until I could make a run for it....
message to self.....throw old pants in the laundry basket as soon as you remove them!

Dawn French' funny girls

It was late this evening when I caught a documentary by Dawn French which centred about what makes female comics....well funny.
Perhaps 50 comics were interviewed and the one that made we laugh until I cried was the all too brief interview with Helen Lederer.
Helen recalled a story when she and a group of her 10 year old schoolgirl friends decided to "hate" the golfers who used the golf course behind her house. (why?)
To register their displeasure at the sporting activity, the girls would stand together and sing aggressively "Nellie the elephant packed her trunk and said goodbye to the circus!!"
It does not sound funny as I write it, but I literally howled till I cried at her delivery!!!

Aching for quiet

The scream of the fukuda monitors during a 12 hour shift literally do my head in now. The constant banal chatter of colleagues detailing who did what to who also makes my head spin, so I couldn't wait to finish work and walk down the lane in the dusk, VERY, VERY, QUIETLY!!! with all four dogs padding behind me.

Albert has done Chris' head in today, as one after another he has deposited a steady stream of bird and mouse bodies on the back patio.

"The place resembles a morgue" he complained when I walked in.

Chris is a bit squeamish when it comes to bodies so it was up to me to remove the carnage