and finally.....

I want to end up like this...........
(not far from it...I can hear some people whisper...)

Ventures

Now I have absolutely NO idea of how to hang onions, but tonight I gave it a go with a length of raffia , no sense of style and a bit of old fashioned swearing. The effort was good enough to be praised by Chris when he got home from Ballroom dancing.....only another 50 of the buggers to hang tomorrow.
I have spent some of the day delivering posters for my next "chicken course" to various feed wholesalers,libraries, pet and livestock dealers and a chicken breeder. The chicken breeder is probably the best in the area, and while I will publicise his pure breed hens he will give my course a plug, which seems like a good swap.
I already have had two people enrolled so far.....and that is since I put the posters out this morning!
This afternoon another contact through my friend Helen at the feed shop, deposited some unwanted hens on me. I have not photographed them yet as all three are young, slightly stressed pullets which needed to be housed in a dark hen house, but I must say, they were a real bargain! two pretty pheasant buffs and a white pure breed hen.....to keep with the "Archers" theme I have named them Jill, Ruth and Lilian.....they have been housed with the other two new girls Shula and Peggy.
Old Mrs Jones called round before dusk with a little box of tomatoes for me all wrapped up neatly and with care, I had left her some duck eggs on her doorstep the other day and she wanted to repay the gesture. She is a small, vital woman with an eager eye and an infectious smile, I do have a soft spot for her.
The weather has closed in tonight, so I have caught up with friend Nige by phone. He is a good source of sanity sometimes especially as I have been worried a little over a close family member who has experienced some health problems recently. We chewed the fat for a while then had a frivolous conversation about films for an age...........the type of conversation only old friends can have
As I was talking the dogs collapsed around me in untidy heaps
Meg needs a haircut, me thinks

Beach

Height of summer and we were the ONLY people on the beach

I am 47 ....you wouldn't guess

Us in 1960 catalogue pose

Mixed Bag Thursday

Blanche hasn't moved from her nest, so it is fortunate that her tiny chick has been able to venture down the coop ramp to eat his first meal of chick crumbs. I have removed all the excess shells, so hopefully his mother will get off her arse tomorrow and show him round his little pen

I picked one of my best pumpkins today and in a fit of culinary excitement I banged out a pumpkin pie! I caught up with Nuala this afternoon which was great as we haven't chatted for an age....she couldn't quite believe that I had been baking for most of the afternoon!

The two new skinny hybrids are inseparable and extremely shy. I have an awful feeling that the scrawny black rock may be a cockerel but I guess time will eventually tell. I have named them Shula and Peggy.

I picked Chris up from the station in Prestatyn at 6pm, two days ago, one of the coastal trains (the one he usually catches) caught fire at Prestatyn station (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_east/8221386.stm)..

Given the fact that trailer trash often seem the frequent these trains I suspect that a stray fag had been pushed down the side of a seat somewhere! anyhow on the way home I managed to snap a photo of the new "community art" instillation which has been erected on Prestatyn Hillside recently. (It is a half buried Roman centurion's helmet which reflects the Roman settlement in the historic Prestatyn)

Now some people would think that this type of sculpture is a waste of money, but I honestly don't!..I love seeing this sort of "art" next to the average semi detached or playground.

Mind you a new sculpture on the beach has been cordoned off from the public because of health and safety reasons.......apparently some woman tripped on a very visual step!

Modern Britain eh!

sigh

400 blows

It seems an age since I had the opportunity to "analyse" the naturalistic narrative of François Truffaut's famous 1959 movie, and it was all the better for not having 150 disinterested 18 year olds muttering in the audience around me as I did at the Sheffield Showroom days during film studies.

We sat back and really enjoyed 400 Blows, not because of the famous "Mise-en-scène" but because of the wonderful central performance by Jean-Pierre Léaud as the deadpan pre teen anti hero. His haphazard journey from an unloved family homelife to correctional school is heartbreaking and compelling, and looks as fresh today as it did 50 years ago.
8/10

George

See, I can "do" kids! Nia sent me this photo this morning...thank god little George is more photogenic than I am.

The weather has taken a turn for the worse, so after a particularly wet dog walk I have baked bread,tied up my allotment onions for drying, made a cottage pie, cleaned the cottage and fanny-arsed around tidying drawers and cupboards.
I have cleaned out the shed too in a hopeful readiness for potential turkey chicks which are now due in three weeks time. My friend Eirlys has two young turkeys and hopefully we could do a swap of stags or hens if either of us are short.
I am off out to see Les quatre cents coups (400 Blows) tonight with Hazel. I remember studying this 1959 French New Wave film when I started my Film Studies degree in Sheffield, and found it a little hard going even then.......well I am a little older and wiser now, so perhaps I will understand it a little more...who knows?

.......and finally

....and finally....I had to smile this evening as I helped my sister Ann move a load of tables from my brother's house to Prestatyn's vicarage. The large gates of the vicarage were closed when we drove up. so Ann got on her mobile to ask the vicar to open them...

I was so amused, when the huge wooden gates opened "automatically"......and with not a vicar's hand in sight!...I thought it rather funny that a vicarage would have installed expensive electric gates!

I couldn't resist shouting out "it's a miracle"!!!

Dusk thoughts

There is a stillness around dusk that I really like . I think it all has to do with calm routine, hierarchy and an order that birds seem to possess in droves and I never tire watching their behaviours when the light suddenly changes from day to dusk.
Tonight, almost as one, the hens slowly make their way towards their own respective hen houses The cockerels stand tall around around the doorways, standing sentry, and they growl periodically as the shadows of barn owls whip silently above the gravestones

As each cockerel growls, his own group of hens stand erect and still (below) as they ready themselves for danger, then slowly,as they realise that they are safe, they stalk sedately, in single file to their coop sleeping positions.

Kate Winslett, the buff mother(top pic), clucks tiredly and leads her 6 chicks into their broody box where they bicker and cheep over the best positions for the night, and from the neighbouring single coop, Blanche gives me a reassuring snipe as she sits tight on her remaining egg and tiny yellow chick.

In the far hen house Scotty, waits for his five hens to come in from the field, and with him waits Halleh, who has adopted the big buff cockerel's house as his new home. After the massive buff tip toes his way through the door, the duck meekly follows, and all settle down on their bed of sawdust, in one large warm tangle of wings and beaks.

They are the last animals to settle. The pigs have been asleep for over an hour already (they had a huge feed from the grieving family who visited them earlier, and the ducks and turkeys, (both groups still chattering quietly amongst themselves) had been put to bed earlier before the light changed.

I love the time that follows the shutting of the last coop door. With only the wild eyed Albert for company I stand in the cool of the evening and smell the grass and scents of the hedges and last vestiges of honeysuckle and rose as he chases unseen mice and moths.

The animals are settled and safe, and the field is still and dark.
I slowly return to the cottage to walk the dogs