Village life

Viv and Mike, my neighbours who kindly opened up their garden to support my "Open allotment" day work tirelessly to improve the country look of the village. They have tended and cared for the flowerbeds next to the Church, and with the burst of wet weather we experienced last week, the whole border has flourished and blossomed.
The village has been entered into this year's best kept village competition , an honour it won in 2006, and by the look of the Church border and the flower beds in the centre of the village, it might just win again, I do hope so. Trelawnyd may not be the most chocolate box type of village, in the vein of perhaps the picturesque Llanasa obviously is, but it does have its own amount of charm.

Bill and Leslie (the affable despots from the Prestatyn Horticultural society) called today with a whole selection of rabbit hutches for me. They are volunteers at a local animal rescue centre and thought that they may be of use to me!

I could almost hear the neighbours groaning at the prospect of rabbits on the field in addition to 80 existing animals, but they need not worry as the hutches actually will house the broody buffs when eventually they hatch out their own eggs. It was very kind of Bill and Leslie to think of me.

The rest of the day has been filled with collecting broad beans and cauliflowers and delousing the poultry which is the most disgusting of jobs that need to be completed on a regular basis.

The few hens which have been grossly feather pecked by bullies, such as the moth eaten Mildred Pierce (above) also needed bathing in a mild antiseptic (and tea tree-thanks to Rural Rose for that one!). I then sprayed their raw "pecked" areas with a blue antiseptic which may stop the "attacks".....and getting the scrawny little girl on her own gave me the opportunity to feed her up with extra pasta and corn. It took me two hours to treat all the buffs , Mildred and Maureen one of the new fox attack survivors from Lloc.

When you are completing a repetitive job (such as washing a chicken!) your mind gets to wander somewhat!...today I got to thinking how funny life is, and how cyclical it can be. At the weekend I was talking to Rowenna, a lady that has lived in the village all of her life. She recalled going to a relatives wedding many years ago, and I thought it amazing that the wedding was actually that of my Mother's Brother Jim!

Quite by chance I have found out that I may related to a whole bunch of the villagers including Steve who is renovating the Churchyard.......weird or what?

In some ways it feels that I was always destined to live here!

Allotment total,Food parcels, Maureen & Patty and a funeral

This morning I banked the money from the allotment open
The final totals were:

Gate £246.00 (which means at least 246 people attended!)
Raffle £53.00
Cake & produce sale £58.00

Therefore we had a grand total of £ 357.00 which wasn't too bad given the facts that we actually dropped the admission fee from last years £1.50 to a credit crunching £1.00 and that owing to another event the Prestatyn horticultural Society members did not attend. I guess the sad news from the village last week also meant that numbers were down a little, but I still think that £357.00 quid was a reasonable amount to donate.
I dropped in a cheque to the Parish Secretary and then came home to move the poultry fencing so that the grave diggers could access the graveyard for the first of this weeks village funerals. Joanne, one of the women from the village, had tied a parcel of pasta and bananas onto my gate (the pasta a gift to the still occasionally wan Susan, and the bananas for the pigs)
Apparently her teenage son had questioned his mother about these food parcels and had commented just how inappropriate they were! After some questioning, Joanne realised that he thought she was leaving the food for me and not for one of my hens!!! Oh the shame! I can't believe that her son thought that we needed food charity!
I picked up the last two girls from Helen this morning. A sweet natured red rock and a delicate looking araucana with a pompom head ! (centre) Araucana hens incidentally lay delicate blue eggs!
The new girls will be called Maureen and Patty.

I didn't attend the funeral today, but made a point of standing within view when the funeral group entered the Churchyard. I made sure that Boris was standing behind me as he has a habit of challenging anyone at the gravesides with noisy calls. Subsequently he was quiet and well behaved. I am glad I could show my respects in this simple way, and old Mrs Jones (it was her daughter's funeral) waved at me as she passed. I cannot imagine just how difficult it must be burying your own child...I respect her resilience and fortitude.

Flammen & Citronen

On the surface Flammen & Citronen (2008) has all the ingredients of a cracking wartime thriller. Based on a true story (aren’t they all?) this Danish film chronicles the brief murderous exploits of two members of the Holger danske WW II resistance movement, codenamed Flame and Citron, who come up against the gestapo in their attempts to undermine the Nazis.
The manipulation of these two idealists by the Germans, their own resistance bosses and indeed foreign forces are the most fascinating part of this rather soulless film, and I must admit I felt just a little bored by the two leads- the emotionless Flame, Thure Lindhardt and the emotional wreck Citronen Mads Mikkelsen. The two characters have absolutely no chemistry between them, and to me no chemistry means no interest!
True, the whole production is undeniably glossy and suitable tense, but for me, no interest in the characters means no real interest in the narrative...
5/10

7/7

I listened with interest to the Memorial speeches made by Tessa Jowell and Prince Charles at the unveiling of the 52 steel columned sculpture in Hyde Park today. The nameless pillars represent the 52 killed by the terrorist bombing of the tube and bus in the summer of 2005 and I found the whole ceremony to be a profoundly moving and well judged affair . I must also add that Charles' speech was particularly well balanced and appropriate , he obviously deliberated long and hard over his words and unlike the more flowery and Hollywood phrases spoken by Jowell, his speech was simple and personal

Peas, peas and more peas

All the hard work on the allotment is now literally baring fruit as most meals are being harvested directly from our land. This afternoon I have made a cauliflower cheese with my own cauli and the three pea trellises are literally heaving under the weight of pea pods.
Tomorrow I will dig and sack up the rest of my potatoes and I will prepare cabbage and the rest of my peas for the freezer
There are just not enough hours in the day

Helen's Fox attack survivors

Helen from the feed shop now has only five laying hens left. Persistent fox attacks (often in broad daylight) has meant that most of her 30 odd girls have been taken.

I have never (so far!) lost a hen to a fox, but I have lost 2 after a dog attack last year, so I understand how disheartened she feels.Today I have agreed to take her survivors onto my field and the first three were transported over to their new hen house this afternoon.

I will pick the remaining two that eluded our efforts to catch them tomorrow

The new girls are called Shiela,Jenny and Faye (don't ask)

Bizet - L'Arlesienne Suite No.2

Although you cannot get up a true lick of speed in the old Berlingo, I did feel as though I was flying along when listening to Bizet's L'Ariesienne. this morning
It's a lovely piece of music!

Summer

The first of the allotment sweet peas have just come into flower today, which is my marker that summer has in fact arrived.
We have had torrential rain showers today, and I have been soaked several times as I have moved the young hens from the rickety hen coop next to the buffs into the more substantial coop with the older hens' enclosure.
These hens are far too young to mix properly with the veterans so I have added an outdoor run to the coop door. In this way the older hens can see and interact with the teenagers but cannot bully or kill them (yeap it indeed does happen!)
Hopefully in a few weeks when I finally mix the flocks,a friendlier and more relaxed introduction will be made.
Each one of the small hens had to be checked over health wise and then treated for infestations with panomec, worm treatment I then added to their feed. Out of the 12 of them all looked fit and at least three look like cockerels.....perhaps my fellow henkeeper Bill from Llanasa can dispatch these three boys for me when they are sexed properly
This morning I have returned various cake tins and containers to their rightful owners and then delivered the raffle prizes that Ann had kindly donated yesterday. I dropped a thank you card in to Auntie Glad then came home to complete indoor chores,as the bad weather has closed in for the duration