When I am an old Woman, I shall wear purple

....at 47 I think I have now approached that time of my life when I can really appreciate Jenny Joseph's famous poem Warning.

Old (er) age does bring with it a liberation of sorts, but I do understand that things can be left to "drift" just that little too far, for decency's sake, that is.

So on reflection......there ARE a few things I need to address.

I must change my T shirts daily (and not every 3 to (oh the shame of it!!!)-6 days!)

I must shave every day....not every week!

The doggy smell that pervades the living room, and which is generally unnoticed by the two of us, needs sorting

I must not let Albert sniff, lick or walk on any food I am preparing on the kitchen worktops

I must clean all of the duck poo off each egg when I collect them

I must not wear my wellies when I go to sainsburys

Anyhow I think I am getting ever so forgetful too! Today I was sure I was on night shift but as it turned out I was in fact on a full day shift!....picked up the phone message from ITU at 11.00 am and had to go into work quicksticks!

Poor Chris has been on animal watch all day.....he is mega pissed off!

Lazy Arse

Bad hair day John

I just can't get going today.

The weather is glorious again, the sun is that azure blue, the colour you only see on holiday, and it is hot with a faint breeze.

Sure the main jobs have been completed, animals watered, a coop cleaned and disinfected, the "pond" (which is really a square mud hole) cleared out just a little more and of course the dogs have been walked, but despite all this all I really want to do, is to veg out in a deck chair.

So.....I thought.....bugger the digging and clearing away, I had planned for today.....I will have a sit and a think in the garden.

So here I am. Computer on lap, sat in the deck chair in the front garden, with only the blue sky and Meg (who is hanging out of the sitting room window) for company.

It is hay making time, and the steady drone of the farm machinery is a constant backdrop to the cackles and crows from the field poultry.

Not that I can get that much rest.....Mrs Jones called past and had a chin wag, then a retired poultry farmer from Lloc popped down for some eggs. He can keep me talking for hours on the vagaries of hen care which is always great fun..

Next weekend he has agreed to came round to show me how to dispatch my four extra cockerels. I must admit I am not relishing the killings but it has to be done......gulp!.

Coffee and News

During proper coffee time this morning I became interested in two stories on the BBC website. The first was a piece discussing the nominations for the 2013 British "city of culture" award...and I was delighted when I saw that Sheffield (below Sheffield Town hall) was just one of the nominations. Other possibilities for the title are Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Brighton & Hove, Carlisle, Chester, Chichester, Chorley, Bath, Cornwall, County Durham, Derby, Derry City, Gloucester & Cheltenham, Ipswich & Haven Gateway, Leicester, Manchester, Norwich, Oxford, Pennine Lancashire, Reading, 'The Countryside' and Urban South Hampshire.
Now call me a thick oik, but when were "Pennine Lancashire" and the ever so generic "countryside" defined as UK cities?........hummm I don't think so! And sneaking on the list, just under the radar is...............................and wait for this one.,......... Barnsley!!!!!!!!!!
Now for readers from other shores, I will try to describe Barnsley......think about all the bad you hate in a city centre---double it... then add a few hundred Essex girls (and boys), a score of Wetherspoon pubs (without ANY chairs), a liberal sprinkling of "pound" shops and not forgetting a good dose of racism.....and there you have it Barnsley...........Culture......NEVER! Never in a million years. The second story concerned a small piece, originally in the Telegraph where PM Gordon Brown said he is sorry for the "appalling" way World War II code-breaker Alan Turing (below) was treated for being gay.
In 1952 Turing was prosecuted for gross indecency after admitting a sexual relationship with a man. Two years later he killed himself after he was given experimental chemical castration as a "treatment" and his security privileges were removed, meaning he could not continue to work for the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).
Now I am not a fan of gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, but I do support his reply to Mr Brown's comments when he said a similar apology was also due to the estimated 100,000 British men who suffered similar treatment.
"Singling out Turing just because he is famous is wrong," he said.
However I guess it IS a start albeit 50 years too late.

Anyhow, the rest of the day I have been digging out a small pond....suffice to say I looked like a dirty old Irish Navvy when I finished (and smelt like and old sewer!)

Top picture the field at sunset

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)

I know this is an old video but I found it incredibly sweet......and rather moving

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