The last days of summer?

It has been a lovely warm, sunny day. You know the sort of day I mean if you think back to those hazy days in junior school, when you were walking home at 15.45 on hot dusty pavements.

I won't bore you with a long list of jobs completed today, I will just post a few photos to illustrate my point..........I have not spoke to anyone all day.........

(Above:- the last of the roses cut from the front garden) William watching the chicks leaving their run for the first time
Part of the allotment after I strimmed almost half an acre of grass and weeds! (Blanche and her tiny yellow chick can just be seen in their new run)

The little white chick, out of her run for the first time

Nonnie,Belle and Rogo keeping cool on the churchyard wall

One of the donated rabbit hutches perched up on the Church wall. I placed it here to encourage the hens to lay in it safely rather than hide their eggs away under hedges. So far it seems to be working

Hughie shadowing his hero Rogo through the shade

Errand day

The newly renovated Memorial Hall

It has been a day for running errands. After dropping Chris at the station at 7.30 (he woke me early after having the screaming abdabs when he found the body of a small mouse in his study), I made the most of the sunny early morning and collected a load of apples from my elderly neighbour's fruit trees. He buttonholed me yesterday when he asked me if I wanted some apples in return for me collecting his cat some medication from the vets. Of course I answered "yes",and he then asked me if I could pick the ones I wanted and at the same time pick some more for him and some other neighbours and friends!
The Wiley old character!.....Anyway,I didn't really mind at all, as he is a lovely old guy and , picking apples was rather relaxing in a repetitive kind of way.
I delivered some eggs, dropped off a old postcard of the memorial hall to the head of the renovation committee (the official opening of the hall is on the 18th, which I will be attending on behalf of the Flower Show- and I thought the postcard may be of some use for one of the presentations), then I went to Auntie Glad's to empty her garage of some unwanted junk before driving to the animal rescue centre in Trelogan to relieve them of their unwanted large hutches. (ideal for making small chicken coops!), after walking the dogs, re jigging the Flower Show presentation for the Hall opening and preparing dinner, it was well into the afternoon, and I had just enough time to strim the field borders before it was time to pick Chris up again.....
During good weather, the day seems to flit away without you actually noticing it.

ps Nige could you tell me the origin of the saying Screaming abdabs........please

Walt Disney films

Apologies for the poor quality photo but the light had suddenly changed to a gloomy, rain soaked dusk. If you look carefully you can just make out Hughie the Guinea fowl and Rogo the cockerel sharing a crust of bread.

Now I do make an effort NOT to be anthropomorphic when I describe my animals' antics but in the case of Hughie and Rogo's relationship it is pretty hard not to. At the crack of dawn,, as soon as Rogo appeared from his ark, there was a loud chatter from the trees and Hughie floated down to crash land on the grass, within seconds he had galloped over to Rogo and fell in line behind the cockerel as he walked to the duck bath for a drink.

All day the little fella has shadowed his hero, and has not left his side even for a minute.They have fed together, watered together and have sat in the shelter of the stone wall together, Hughie's devotion to another species of bird is interesting, amusing and I must say in a Walt Disney way, strangely moving.

I wrapped up well against the rain at dusk, to watch what would happen to the guinea fowl after Rogo led his 5 hens to roost in his ark, and it was rather heartbreaking to see Hughie literally panic hysterically when the cockerel finally disappeared.

I left Rogo's coop open in the hope that Hughie would find his way up the ladder, but the unfamiliarity of the house layout seemed to confuse him, and he wouldn't trust himself to negotiate the unknown. Just as I thought he would have to fly up into the trees to roost alone , the fat placid buffs saved the day. Hughie caught sight of the girls ambling late into their own hen house and literally fell into line with them, seconds later I had shut them all safely together.

JK Wedding Entrance Dance

There are numerous videos like these on youtube, but this one DID make me smile

Hughie's hero worship and District 9

Hughie, like some love struck schoolboy, seems to have developed a crush on Rogo the red cockerel. All day he has followed him everywhere he has roamed and with the good nature of a true leader Rogo has accepted this strange little bird follower with a great deal of alacrity. I had to smile to myself at teatime , as when Rogo had his afternoon wander around the gravestones in the Churchyard, there was Hughie tottering around behind him, with his now usual slightly bemused look, much to the amusement of some people placing flowers on a grave.
I have had a fruitful day, clearing the black garden of overgrown herbaceous plants. My stings have produced painful red welts and swelling over my chest and arms, and Chris is worried that I am heading for a full blown allergic reaction if I get stung again......
let's hope not

At the very start of District 9 (2009- at the Scala tonight), a character in this pseudo-documentary movie states that Aliens don't visit cities such as Johannesburg...they much rather dominate American cities such as New York and Washington, and with that cardinal rule in view, the audience is totally wrong footed by Neill Blomkamp's supposed allegorical look at the ghetto existence of the dispossessed.
The aliens or "prawns" as they are called by the local population are despised drone type beings trapped on earth; instead of being assimilated into earth's culture, they are dumped in an enclosed ghetto, where they are abused and used by South African big business firms, who are desperate to understand their weapon technology.
The parallels with the unpalatable aspects of human existence are clearly underlined but Blomkamp obviously has enjoyed making this B movie homage to all the alien films that has gone before and on one level has given his movie a sort of unintentional comical touch at times.
Impressive to watch at times, but generally rather too camp and strangely too bleak to be taken seriously, I found it all a little too much
7/10
ps. you can't take South Africans seriously when they swear!!!

Stung

Chris finally finished his first totally knitted garment, and slightly out of sorts, I agreed to model it,(albeit over an ill matching rugby shirt)
I have been wasp stung six times this afternoon (I was sledgehammering in new fence posts near the wasp nest) and am feeling much the worse for wear after it all.
Off to take a piriton

Gloria bounces back

With a nasty red welt around her neck and a few lost feathers Gloria looks a little battered and sorry for herself but has bounced back with a gentle "gobble" this morning.
I am pleased

What would you say?

You can tell it is early September. The clues are there; a slight chill to the evening air, a certain brownness to the grass and dusk can be seen marching forward to the late afternoons rather than at it's summer situation at supper time.
We also have those yearly 9/11 memorials on the documentary channels on tv to remind us that it is autumn, and time and time again I get moved to tears when those stories of ordinary people who experienced the extraordinary events of eight years ago are recalled.


One of the most moving of these documentaries has to be James Kent's 9/11 Phonecalls from the Towers. It chronicles the double edged legacy of mobile phone messages left for the loved ones of victims of 9/11. In their last few minutes on earth, the technology of the cell phone allowed them to leave everlasting messages of love and affection for their families and friends, and even though many didn't get the chance to "speak" personally, at least they had the opportunity to leave some sort of memorial of themselves to the people that really counted.

'It's me, I just wanted to let
you know I love you and I'm stuck in this building in New York. A plane hit the building& there's lots of smoke and I just wanted you to know I love you...'

Melissa
Harrington-Hughes, 31, 101st floor, North
Tower

if we are lucky, all of us should have someone we would turn to at times of catastrophe and more importantly have some means by which to share those things that for so many of us are never properly verbalised .
Those little objects of technology, chips and plastic , that can be so irritating in our loud, impersonal and intrusive modern world gave a few hundred people some solace and warmth in their left few seconds on earth. Their phones gave them that amazing opportunity to reach out and gave them a sense,one that we all need, that they were not alone.