Pug falling asleep - very funny!!

I know we have four dogs but I have had a fantasy today about our next pooch.......I would love a pug....
In the same vein as Jaws...."we need a bigger boat"!!! I mean cottage!

Condolences

Yesterday the village could hardly be seen from the West as the heat haze obscured much of the countryside and the Gop. Today the rain and mist has drawn in, and the miserable weather (typically arriving a day before the open day) has mirrored the mood of the village as two of the most well known village characters have suddenly died only yesterday.
One lady was the daughter and sister from a family I have got to know fairly well, and I think it is expected for people in small old fashioned communities like Trelawnyd to be "proactive" in their support in times like these.
Death seems to initiate paralysis in many people, especially I think in more recent times, whereas people born a generation or two ago seem to put in place a more face to face, "can I be of help?-I am very sorry for your loss" approach.
I think I fall in between two stools, I want to offer support but I don't want to intrude. Finally I bought a couple of cards, cut bunches of flowers from the garden and allotment and went round personally with my condolences..
What else could you do?

I am not a man.......I am Cant-on-a!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looking for Eric works on so many levels that I dare anyone not to love every feelgood, heart warming and clever minute of it. It is a surprisingly original yet ever so old fashioned study of the mechanisms of coping and centres around a mental breakdown of an inner city middle aged postman Eric,(Steve Evets.)
Battling deep feelings for his first wife , two teenage stepsons who are going off the rails and his own mental health demons, Eric is helped along the way by his motley group of work colleagues and a recurring hallucination of his hero, the former Manchester United footballer Eric Cantona.
It doesn't sound compelling viewing, but under the benign wing of director Ken Loach, the whole film is a celebration of the power of ordinary people to overcome adversity and is incredibly powerful and moving viewing.
As in all of Loach's films good casting is the key to Looking for Eric's success. Evets makes for a moving and unlikely hero, comedy actor John Henshaw is energetically sympathetic as his brusque but loving best friend and Eric Cantona literally oozes power and charisma in a wonderfully tongue in cheek parody of himself.
I could see Cantona stealing a BAFDA for best supporting actor as he totally commands the audience's attention in every scene he is in. When he gives Evets a long stare during one of their "conversations" he states with typical Gallic intensity "I am NOT a man...I am Cant-on-a!!!!"----YOU BLOODY WELL BELIEVE HIM! In short he is totally mesmerising, strangely moving and is sexy as hell to boot. He actually makes the film.
Mind you there is plenty else to enjoy along the way, the northern working class banter is achingly funny, a tentative love affair is genuinely sweet and the sight of 50 postmen coming to the rescue dressed as Eric Cantona is bizarrely exciting. Loach also has time to lament the solidarity and support offered to/ by men on the football terraces and it is nice to see the more positive side of a much maligned sporting pastime
I loved it
9.5 out of 10
Go see it!

Preparation day

This morning I have turned into Laura Ingalls, I have collected Elder flowers to make cordial (Neighbour Della dropping in the recipe earlier) and I have just finished the first cake baking wave in preparation for Sunday!
Friends, family and a score of neighbours have all volunteered to bake for Sunday and Carole from down the lane is actually making ice cream to sale too! (I do hope the predicted rain will hold off!) People are so very kind.
I hope the character that tried to sabotage the day by anonymously contacting the council, will realise just how much good will and community spirit the "Open allotment" has generated. I wonder if they realise that only the Church and no one else will benefit financially from the day . People like my family, friends and all of my neighbours who have donated to it, actually will be the ones slightly out of pocket....to a man they are saddened by one person's efforts to scupper the day
Anyhow I am refusing to give the person another thought, but I do hope that they may be slightly shamed when they read this blog and understand just how their actions are perceived by the locals.
This afternoon I will completed the main weeding of the beds, do some more baking and hopefully will meet up with Hazel. We are hoping to go and see Looking for Eric

Shimmering heat

The heat has been phenomenal this afternoon and despite Chris' cowboy hat and gallons of diet coke, I think I have had just a little too much sun. The pigs have been sprayed with water, fed cheap white bread and have holed themselves up in their house, and the birds have all secreted themselves away underneath the coops. It has been too hot for the dogs as well, who performed a sit down protest on their morning walk, and now are all fast asleep under the car with the trusty Albert and a couple of the younger pullets in tow.
I swapped some lettuce seedlings with a guy in the village , planted them, delivered a score of flyers for the open day to houses in the village and then painted a large sign for the "allotment open" to be placed on the main road.
I then made another visit to the nurseries to pick up some netting to cover my now non existent everlasting spinach which has been decimated by an overly plucky raiding party of black hookers and after watering all of the vegetable plots the whole day was almost over.
Chris is away again.......so I haven't bothered changing my T shirt (I haven't had a bath either!)!.....I am such a slut!

Hell's teeth

I need a sit down!!!!! As I was just getting ready for a 6 hour shift on overtime (YES AGAIN!!!) our genial postman delivered a package! It was a late birthday gift from my friend Mike (a 4 CD set of the Alan Bennett diaries!) and accompanying the pressie was a full A4 hand written letter!
I was chuffed to bits! as Mike himself confessed it was his first self penned letter in over 30! (yes THREE O!!! years!)
Thanks Mike..I really appreciate the effort and the thought

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......?