Health and Safety

Well, I think I should thank the anonymous caller who contacted the local Council regarding the Allotment Open on Sunday, after all their "worries" about certain safety aspects of the field did precipitate a nice afternoon's visit for the council's environmental officer and gave me some valuable vindication for my detailed "risk assessment" I had completed a while ago!
In my previous life, when I was a ward manager the dreaded risk assessment was a normal daily occurrance! No one could literally fart without the risk of harm could be assessed in triplicate and signed off by a score of managers! So planning for an afternoon's tea, scones and public visit was, I admit a piece of cake

Anyhow, the envirmonmental officer was very complimentary about the field in general and open allotment set up in particular.She coo cooed over Blanche and Haleh, enjoyed watching the suncream drenched pigs and appreciated the ammount of strimming I had done only yesterday, of course she gave me the official thumbs up for the day
I hope she comes on Sunday!

Missing Humph

Yesterday I listened to the first episode of the new series of Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue....of course it was the first time since the early 70s that the king of the deadpan yet waspish put down Humphrey Littleton was not at the helm.
Like millions of pre Archer fans, I grew up with this dirty,bawdy, English as muffins radio quiz and the world weary Littleton epitomised the best of British humour to me,.
Wisely the BBC have "filled" Humph's slippers with Jack Dee, the underrated Rob Brydon and the ever dependable Stephen Fry, but although I enjoyed Fry's banter with the contestants I found myself missing Humph's breathless and seemingly vague but wonderfully cutting commentary.
I wonder if the BBC should have let the show die, when Humph did....?
we shall see....

Ann's Birthday

It was Ann's (left in pic) Birthday today and as usual she put on a grand spread for the family to celebrate the big day. My nephews Pete (with his eternally cheerful newish baby Louis in tow) and Chris were there as were the usual close and extended family members infact.....the "family do" always reminds me of watching a superior indie film, with relaxed easy banter and a multi layering of relationships and histories to observe from the sidelines. I could be watching an episode of "Brothers & Sisters" every time we meet up!
It's a pity we had to leave at just before ten.....I think we could have made a session out of it but hens and turkeys need locking up!.

Chris' partner the photogenic Rebecca, showing off a photo of her first tomato crop......(it's a long story!!!)

Chris and a half view of Ann being "animated" for the camera
They were happier than this pic would suggest!

Sod's Law

Chris has gone shopping to Manchester with my sister Janet for accessories for their glittery ball at St George's Hall, Liverpool , so that leaves me weeding and doing household jobs until later, when I have agreed to do an overtime shift at work (for my sins)
Do you ever have one of those days that just does not go quite right? yeap today is my day for the fickle finger of fate to stick two finger up at my best laid plans!
Firstly I squashed a rather bloated dead mouse on the kitchen floor (with BARE FEET!!!!) it was fairly smelly (God knows why Albert had dragged it in?) and even the dogs would not touch it.
I scraped what remained of it from my heel without retching, then decided to collect some pig feed from the feed wholesalers.
I put the dogs in the car parceled up a dozen eggs for delivery and drove to Lloc to buy the pig nuts. Helen the shop owner is great fun and I can call her a friend now, so we chatted for a while as her tame sheep peered through the Berlingo's windows at the near hysterical dogs.
I shouldn't have left my keys in the ignition as in their frenzy the dogs had turned on the central locking, much to Helen's amusement!
We tried every trick to open up the windows without success, so there was nothing for it but to borrow Helen's 4 x 4 and drive back to Trelawnyd in the hope that I could find Chris' keys.
Before I could search for the keys I had to break into the cottage, so had to rope in the next door neighbour's good will and extendable ladder to climb into the bedroom window (not a simple feat with my vertigo I can tell you)
Anyhow after a few fraught telephone calls and manic searching, I found the keys and hurried back to find the dogs content and dozing amid the wreckage of egg shells and yoke stains.! typical!
They were fairly lethargic on their walk up the Gop afterwards

Speaking of eggs, earlier I took a stick and a thick pair of pants to the nettle and brambles on the field borders....in several hidden clutches I uncovered a couple of dozen hen and duck eggs! which is a real bummer....mind you one fellow blogger has just undertaken a similar search and unearthed 77 eggs!!!!! (see http://fromlondontolandgirl.blogspot.com/2009/05/mystery-of-disappearing-eggs.html)

Back to normal

A day ago I was sipping a vodka Martini over looking the panorama of London, today I am covered in hen shit and parasites as I disinfect the largest of the coops from the dreaded infestation of red mite.
The promised thunderstorms have not arrived and several of the black hookers have infiltrated my smallest veg plot and have eaten all of the everlasting spinach! To cap all this, the big buffs have now smashed ALL of their eggs with their hefty clumsiness, and I have had to be given some more to sit on...They need some day old chicks and fast.
Clover seems to be hanging on, but looks weak and poorly. He has taken some dog food from my hand this morning, but very little. I will try him with more life saving pasta later on.

The good news of the day has been the flowering of the field poppies. I planted them last year from a cheapo American seed packet and they have thrived in the dry soil of the plots. The field should be thick with them by next weekend

Raise Your Voice - Sister Act

Julia Sutton is on the piano....gives you a general taste of what it was all about......subtle it is NOT

Nuala and Me

Nuala and I up in the Hilton cocktail lounge...forgive my hair AND my big red forehead!

Touching base with Nuala is as necessary to me as breathing.There is always a certain something missing in my life when I have not seen her for a long time. We met up yesterday at the National Portrait Gallery at 11am and talked non stop (with a break for Sister Act of course) until 11pm.
During the day, we also had lunch at Covent Garden,a cocktail at the top of the Hilton Hotel in Paddington (with fantastic views over London), and a wonderful Indonesian meal on the way back to West Ealing.
Nuala always has the unfailing ability to make every visit special and enjoyable. I had a lovely, lovely time!

My favourite painting at the BP portrait exhibition "Georgie" by Mary Jane AnsellThis morning I mooched around the South Bank, National film Theatre and the obligatory John Lewis.........I managed to change my train home, good job too, there were delays on several routes north

Sister Act

You couldn't help liking Sister Act.............wisecracking Nuns, a sardonic Mother Superior and a plot line that wouldn't tax a five year old; this " new" musical fashioned from the 1990s film is the froth on top of a milkshake.....it is pure rubbish of course and slightly disappointingly different from the movie, which seemed to concentrate more on the "journey" made by the dreadfully dull Los Angeles inner city choir than the huge, glittery habit shimmering group numbers we now have on stage.
I must admit I did prefer the more uptempo hymns of the film rather than the Disney-esque libretto of the musical but there was plenty else to enjoy on the way.
Patina Miller stands her own against Whoopie Goldberg's original Deloris Van Cartier- the lounge singer who is hidden by the police in an inner city convent and is a true star in the making, but it is the mischievous performance by an aging Julia Sutton (who plays the Mary Wicks role from the film) that almost steals the show.
At the end the audience was standing and cheering for the wonderfully exciting and innovative staging spectacle and when when the Pope rises slowly from the orchestra pit to salute the singing nuns the place went wild...........it is at that stage there is only one thing to do, and that is to sit back laugh and enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!