Another casualty

Clover took himself off to the hedge border this morning and quietly died away from the hum drum of the field. It was sad but inevitable as he had been poorly for over a week now and even Susan's miracle cure of pasta had not got him to eat!
(pic Clover and Boris when they were little)

When a job's worth doing

Sometimes a local hero needs a bit of a "big up" and today's blog was going to concentrate on such a person (before being slightly eclipsed by the environmental health lady!)
For the past couple of years local character Steve (not his real name....but we Non Welsh speakers call him that cos be have a little pronunciation issue with his real Welsh name!) has been transforming the new part of the Village Graveyard.Over the months it has been changed from an unloved and uncared for bog standard utility piece of land.into a manicured, almost military crisp cemetery with straight, wheelchair friendly paths and grass a bowling green owner would be proud of.
Singlehandedly and in all weathers, Steve has toiled without pay to develop the site, and only now after two years are the fruits of his long endeavours are being seen.
Completing a project for the sheer satisfaction of a "job well done"rather than for some financial gain seems a rarity nowadays. Tonight I have been weeding and watering, humping and carrying and true I have been sweating buckets over jobs but they have been MY jobs, my goal, my hens and my vegetables.
Steve has been completing a true act of altruism here, ok he must have his own agenda and goal for the work completed but all in all the whole village community will benefit from his long, long hours of unpaid work.
I wonder if the anonymous person that rang the council on me, would have something negative to say about Steve's efforts????
who knows......?

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