Cowpats & Mad Mary

Mad Mary the Bantam (those eyes....illegal substances???)

The usual wind and rain has buffeted the cottage all morning, so I took the dogs down the sheltered Gypsy Lane for their walk. The lane is a bridlepath situated between two fields and therefore is almost covered with Oak and Hawthorn. so it remains sheltered in the most inclement of weather.

During a particularly heavy downpour an already soaked Meg came across a huge, smelly cowpat and immediately swallow dived into the centre of it. She was absolutely covered in Tish (inside AND out), and resembled a small walking turd when I got her home!

I left her outside the back door when I went upstairs to run her a bath when the wind (which has been gusting over 50 miles an hour) blew open the kitchen door!

When I finally came downstairs, Meg had merrily bounced all over the living room, and with typical terrier gay abandon had rubbed herself over every piece of carpet with every other dog in tow....the place looked and smelt like a midden!

So for most of the morning I have been shampooing carpets and scrubbing skirtingboards whilst breathing through my mouth, Meg has been dunked in a warm bath TWICE......and I have a ton of unmentionable material lodged firmly under my fingernails.....

This afternoon I have cleaned more shi*e out of the coops and pig run, and took a few fragrant minutes watching the power struggles work themselves out in the new hen enclosure. With five new hens now incorporated with the lame Bunny, Bantam Cockerel Roger and wyandotte bantam Mary, I was surprised to see the normally placid and quiet Mary assuming alpha female status. Suddenly this tiny hen is running the coop on almost military lines, dominating the new hens which are twice her size with a rather tough, assertive flourish.

Even the the "teenage" chicks in their run (below) have been put firmly in their places albeit through some stout chicken wire; ;funny how the pecking order changes with the sudden appearence of a few new faces.

Tonight Chris and Janet have hired a local village hall in which to practice their "ballroom moves"....after I lock up the hens I am off to the pub with Geoff for a pint....

Why I hate Catcher in The Rye

The rain has lashed down consistently today, so much so, that I became so sick of getting wet, I had a fit of peak and spent a dry afternoon watching a film at theatre Clwyd! Hummmm, Awaydays (2009) was not the best choice I could have made, but it it was the only film on offer

Now I have never got on with teenage angst! Even when I was a teenager in the 1970s, I couldn't quite identify with the morose Holden Caufield in the dire and dark The Catcher in the Rye,(a novel we were forced to read in 5th form English)

The reason for this was simply that I was not an unhappy angst ridden youth! Sure I was a bit of a geek and certainly I was lonely from time to time, but I always preferred living in a sunny fantasy world of film where I was always on hand to help Carol Lynley climb up the 18 foot ornamental Christmas Tree in the Poseidon Adventure or indeed tie myself down to the Promenade Room railings alongside Fred Astaire in the Towering Inferno!.......................when I wasn't watching and re watching Movies I was playing with my tropical fish......There was no time for teenage navel gazing...not if you were as interesting as I was !!!

So Awaydays proved to be a big disappointment for me! as it did echo those dismal,monochrome days of JD Salinger's novel. The film is an uneven account of the difficulties of growing up in Birkenhead in 1979. Working class lad, Carty wants to be dead hard. He gets into football violence, head buts gay shop assistants, and craves to be a part of the local youth gang. His best mate, Elvis does lots of drugs and is secretly gay. He fancies Carty and is deeply jealous of any women in his life. But as Carty moves forward in his life, Elvis starts to flounder.
Director Pat Holden obviously has a limited budget to film this rites of passage piece, and as the dirge of Joy Division belts out, the football violence scenes show this fact rather too depressingly. Sadly the whole film is a bit of a mess to be honest, but it is almost saved by the complex, magnetic core character of Elvis played with confidence and skill by Liam Boyle, he and he alone is worth the price of the cinema ticket. 4/10

The rain belted down as I drove back to Trelawnyd, and to be honest I wished I had watched something more frothy as the whole afternoon depressed me!
It was nice to get back home to some warmth, and a huge noisy doggy welcome

Rainy day kindness

My sweetcorn is the only thing that seems to be enjoying the dreadful rain we have been experiencing, in fact my corn plot resembles something that Cary Grant would gallop through in North by Northwest , and I am extremely proud of the whole shebang.
Anyhow enough of this self congratulatory mood, I have spent most of the day keeping out of the rain and making myself useful. clearing the kitchen cabinets of unwanted rubbish (5 bags worth!!) is not the most glamorous of jobs, but it needs to be done and like any physical exercise there is a sense of small achievement when it is all completed.
A lady from the other side of the village called around to kindly offer me some sort of small greenhouse she has spare. I think she had a slight American accent but couldn't be sure as she spoke so fast...I have arranged to go and see it tomorrow.
Another little act of kindness came from the red faced Welsh Farmer, who dropped off three huge bags of shavings for me in the driving rain. In his seventies, he remains robust,vital , brusque and is always willing to lend me a hand with items I need , somehow a few dozen eggs never seem enough payment for his many kindnesses.
The village can be full of little nice gestures ;sometimes these present themselves simply, such as a warm "hello", like the ones I received today from neighbours- Mandy on her way home from delivering the papers or Ian , when out jogging.

Auntie Glad, gave me another sweet gesture of her own when I bumped into her when walking the dogs....., looking like an earnest and white haired Woody Allen, she complemented me on our work with the Flower Show......"You work very hard for this village" she said sweetly......
I could not have received a better compliment

Come On

Come on you Americans.... make 1000 hits !!!!

The Little Black Dress

Coco avant Chanel (2009) is one of those ever-so-slightly dull biopic movies that is saved by one towering central performance. The dark eyed, mysterious Audrey Tautou dominates the film, and she gives Coco Chanel the touch of strength, a brittleness and a natural "class" which seems to underpin her character.
Unfortunately the camera loves Tautou so much, that the audience does not get as detailed characterisations from the two men in Coco's early life....an aging aristocrat who wants her as a hidden companion ( Benoît Poelvoorde) and English Playboy Arthur Capel (Alessandro Nivola), who is already engaged but proves to be the love of her life. I would have liked a little more performance from these two men, as their motivations within their relationships with the manipulative Coco, would have made the film a little more interesting.
However, having said this, the film is glorious to look at, Tautou, as usual is stunningly beautiful and although I am the absolute antithesis of style...I even recognised her little black dress!!!
8/10

Bank Holiday

Chris and I don't "do" the typical British Bank Holiday. We hate getting in the car to join the throngs of people stuck on the A55, and any local theme days such as "fun in the sun" leave us cold. So I donned my scruffs and started to strim the field and Chris had breakfast in bed, then retired to his study to work.
The guinea fowl disappeared last night into the next door field and this morning only the male could be heard chattering away like a deafening machine gun. Neither bird has returned to my field to eat, and I was not surprised when neighbour Ann passed by on her horse this afternoon with news that she had seen a fox in the stable's menage this morning and nearby was a huge pile of white feathers, we all thought that the white female had copped it!.
The news of a fox around is very worrying, and this morning I have reinforced several of the hen houses with chicken wire and metal catches. A snatch attack in the daytime I think may be unlikely as I am usually around and the graveyard always seems to have someone pottering around in it, so danger time, I think may be after the girls retire to bed....
The buffs, with their gentle inquisitive natures, spend much of their time watching passing traffic and walkers from the field gate. Little Pirrie can just be seen with them, posturing like a good 'un, and many passing cars stop dead on the corner to give them a second look
As Chris relaxed with his knitting (my first jumper is almost finished!) I cleaned out the pig enclosure. Nora watched my every move with interest and nibbled my wellies as I worked. She is less shy now and seems to enjoy the company of others, even though food may not always be involved. I am seriously thinking of having piglets next year...........

Typical of the British Bank Holiday, the rain started at 4pm, so I retired to the cottage for a bath and a relax. Steve has kindly agreed to lock the birds up for me later, Chris and I are off to see Coco avant Chanel (2009) Coco before Chanel,

Above one of my young cockerels, a fine looking black rock cross, of course I am not going to cull him

No news Sunday

After returning home after an all day shift I was ready for a home cooked meal and no big jobs....I did lock up the birds (the two guinea fowl have gone walkabout tonight, but they DID wake me up at 5.30am with their amazingly loud calling and trilling!) and then walked the dogs, but by 10pm all I wanted to do was to veg on the couch with a cracking black and white movie.

After trolling through hundreds of the sky channels, could I find a classic film..? could I cocoa!

I felt like an old Bette romp, such as Jezebel (1938) or In This Our Life (1942), but just where are they when you need them? Not on Sky or TCM that's for sure.

I had to finally settle down with a passionate Barbara Stanwickj in Clash by Night

Guinea Fowl and other new girls

I was given a pair of guinea fowl this morning, and flighty, nervous little things they are too. I agreed to take them as they are supposed to be an excellent early warning system against foxes and the like as they will shrilly call out when a predator is seen.
After feeding and watering these two, I let them out of the nursery run, and they promptly legged it into the hawthorn hedge that borders the field. Time will tell if they decide to stay or not

The young pullets I was given yesterday are still going through their initiation with the other more benign hens in their run, and minor skirmishes are the order of the day. Jill and Ruth (above) have spent most of the day hiding, and the pretty Lillian (below) only seems to come out when I am around to "protect" her. It will take a few more days for the new flock of 7 to gel properly

I am working tomorrow on a long day, so the rest of the afternoon I have cleaned out Kate Winslet and her chicks' run and and sorted out Blanche's broody box while Chris has made a HUGE show of cleaning the kitchen.......why is it dear reader ? ( and PLEASE SEND ME ANSWERS ON A POSTCARD PLEASE) when some men complete a job that their spouses are usually responsible for, do they need CONSTANT, AND NEVER ENDING PRAISE after it has been completed?

............perhaps it it one of those unanswerable questions that all relationships experience.

Apart form this hiccup..it's been a nice day