Prestatyn

I know I big up Trelawnyd all of the time but I still have an awful lot of affection for Prestatyn, the town where I was born and bred (Until I left aged 18)
Prestatyn is 2 miles from our village.......and it was nice to find this positive video about it on u tube....
I would love to find something similar for my "other" favourite home town of Hillsborough in Sheffield...

Manchester

Off to Manchester today......art house film (at the corner house near Oxford Road), a few wines and lots of chat is the order of the day with old friend Nige....a simple but very welcomed night out.....great stuff!

Flower show entries and animal ties

This afternoon I have organised some of my entries for my sister's Flower Show, which opens on Friday morning. It is a little too early to be cutting vegetables but as I am off to Manchester to see Nige tomorrow, it is the only time I can prepare things.

Halleh (Centre with Rogo watching on)

I have written before about how some of the animals constantly seem to have the ability to amaze and move me; and today I witnessed another little "gem" of an interaction.

Halleh now has been officially abandoned by his adoptive mother Blanche which is pretty normal behaviour for a broody hen. For days he has been following the dog attack survivor flock which is led by the red cockerel Rogo, in an effort to obtain security and company, and today I realised just how effective his stalking behaviour has been.

I made some rice for Chris' tea this afternoon and took the leftovers over to the field .As I called the hens to come forward, Halleh as usual joined in with the rush for food but unfortunately got one of his feet trapped in the fencing. He panicked, as ducks have a want to do, and fell flat on his face calling out with a loud hysterical call . Immediately Rogo was at his side dancing in a typical male defence pose, and I had to drive the cockerel off before I could free Halleh from the fence. It would now seem that the duck is firmly part of Rogo's small flock

This evening we are holding the last of the Trelawnyd Flower Show committee meetings before the big day in August There seems a great deal to do but generally I think that most things are in hand. I am also pleased that we received an official invite for two members of the committee to attend the grand opening of the newly refurbished memorial hall on the 18th of September. I think it was a nice gesture that we were included in the celebrations and I am sure it is a reflection of how much the Flower Show has supported the Memorial hall with sizable donations over many years.

After discussion the committee agreed that Carol Royles and I would be attending, which is fun

Anything for her (Pour Elle)

Hazel managed to get a babysitter ( for 5 quid an hour!!! -I have told her I would do it ANYTIME!) anyway, we joined the usual smattering of schoolteachers (and the former owner of Prestatyn's only bookshop) for another subtitled film at the Scala. Pour elle (2008) is a solid, old fashioned and enjoyable thriller in the will-they?/won't they school of film narrative.
The story is pacy. A French school teacher's life is totally turned upside down when his wife is unjustly imprisoned for murder. With no legal avenues available to him for her release, he hatches an elaborate plan to save her.
Yes, it sounds good and for the most part , it is good, although I do feel that director Fred Cavayé could have played with the audience some more by stressing the ambiguity of the wife's guilt rather than give the facts of the murder away a half hour into the movie.
Vincent Lindon, gives a tortured performance as the ordinary man pushed to extraordinary lengths by circumstances out of his control and the beautiful Diane Kruger is quietly effective as his broken wife, both actors are eminently watchable and it is down to their talents that by the end of the movie the audience is rooting for both to escape into the sunset!
8/10

Banana frenzy

Joanne from the village dropped off a whole big bunch of over ripe bananas this morning and I never tire of watching the pigs' absolute delight at receiving these small treats.
Gladys (above) is especially partial to the fruit and stamps her feet in piggy excitement as soon as you pull one from your pocket.

Deva Memories

It is amazing what you can find on the Internet when you are mooching around trying to keep awake! I remember this corridor very well from my student nurse days way, way back in 1983! The corridor linked several of the "back" wards to the main hospital, and was one of a whole spider's web of enclosed tunnels that made up the old Deva asylum just outside of Chester.
When I was a student the hospital was in its death throes. The push for total community care was just beginning to come into vogue, and the psychiatric care of the aging long stay patients although certainly old fashioned was I remember, always very professional yet based in tradition and habit.
I always thought, however, that no matter how much your tried to look at it, the hospital always looked Gothic,foreboding and at times totally terrifying!....

Nuns on the run

No sleep today- not even a quick 30 minute nap after nights-! next door is demolishing a wall or something so the noise is pretty constant, I can't complain though for as neighbours go they are the best
So I am a bit overtired to be thinking of blogging today, but this story in the paper did make me chuckle somewhat!! I just love nuns............

Three nuns who hurried towards Pope Benedict XVI's holiday home after learning that he had suffered a minor accident were stopped by police for speeding at 120mph. Sister Tavoletta, 56, was at the wheel of the Ford Fiesta, and two other unnamed nuns, aged 65 and 78, were passengers when police pulled them over.
When stunned officers asked why they were speeding, Sister Tavoletta said: "We had heard how the Pope had fallen over and we were on our way to make sure he was OK."The nuns were stopped while an hour's drive from Pope Benedict's summer holiday chalet at Les Combes. Earlier, the pontiff had slipped in the bathroom and fractured his wrist – new which caused great consternation at the nuns' Salesian convent. The trio immediately jumped in a car to try and visit him.
A spokesman for Turin's police, said: "Hopefully Sister Tavoletta will be making sure she confesses her bad driving the next she goes to confession. But in the meantime, she will have to pay the Euros 375 fine (£325)."

The sound of silence?

It is 11.20am. Chris has gone to St Michael's and the Church bell has just finished its 10 minute solitary call to worship. I have finished the morning jobs on the field and the dogs are all sleeping after their two staggered walks around the village and country lanes a half hour ago.
The cottage is silent.
Usually on a Sunday I will be listening to Radio 4 whilst pottering around the house. I always listen to LBC talk radio as I feed and water the birds early in the morning, but right now, as I jot down a few notes for my chicken course, tucked carefully away at my desk in the bedroom, I am enjoying the silence.
Of course, there really is no silence , even when you are alone.
There is the dull whirl from the washing machine in the kitchen as it battles yet another heavy load of dirty, animal stained work clothes............
Even through double glazing I can hear the "QUARK! QUAAARRRK!" from a trio of runners as they squabble over something minor by the lane gate and beyond them the deep baying of Scotty the last remaining buff cockerel drowns out the lighter crowing of Rogo and Roger........
There is the intermittent patter of rain on the windows behind my head, the occasional sleepy sigh from Meg curled up on the bed nearby........and far in the distance (although they are only 50 yards away) the thoroughbreds from the riding stables are thundering around their paddocks rather too playfully and with very heavy feet.

Even though I spend 80% of my time at home, I think I don' t spent enough time with just the above sounds for company, I don't think that many of us do. The radio is often my constant companion, and although It stimulates thought and ideas, those thoughts and ideas are mainly of external things.
Just now, It is nice to zone away from the bigger stories of the day, and think of other things.......so I am thinking of my introductions to my chicken teaching course!, I have planned to re organise my vegetable plots in my mind and have daydreamed of perhaps obtaining a new plot of land (there is a small plot potentially free nearby which would be away from the crop destroying chickens)
I have planned to do an extra shift that would pay for the car being serviced and I am looking forward to catch up with old friend Nigel in Manchester on Thursday evening.
Other mental lists get added to, in these quiet moments......I need to chase up my volunteer job at the Scala cinema on Tuesday (The Burma VJ documentary that I missed a week ago is showing there too!!!), The Trelawnyd Flower Show committee meeting is on Wednesday, the last one before August's show, and we always have mountains of jobs to complete before the big day and to cap it all my sister's Prestatyn Flower Show takes place towards the end of next week and I have not even organised my entries for that as yet.......
I need to get some antibiotic powder for Susan who still looks a little wan and the back garden looks a mess and needs clearing and weeding........................................
sigh.......perhaps I shouldn't be thinking too much..................there are just too many things to be done....