Maddie......,Evening stroll and new plans

Chris is working in London today, and won't be home until late, so seeing it was a nice night, Maddie and I took some cooked pizza and went for a walk. I always think that Maddie is often regarded as the poor relation of our dog pack. She is the eldest, the most moody and the least "cuddly" of our four. She is quick to bark at strangers, hates being stroked by ANYONE and is quite happy sitting on the periphery of any event, whist George, William and Meg bounce along happily in the centre of it. At seven the tell tale signs of late middle age have started to show, she has the faint rings of white hair around her eyes, she is always the last one out of the car on the way to our walks and is definitely the last dog to return breathless and panting afterwards. She is often heavy footed, grumbles when approached by anyone wanting her place on the couch and more often than not becomes constipated at the drop of a hat.
So, a walk with me, alone, is a rarity and a real treat for Maddie. We walked to the village Pond in the sunshine (below) and there shared our pizza by the fence overlooking the small green. Afterwards she sat at my feet, the position she usually adopts and gently touched my shoe with her chin,
There was no performance in her behaviour, no juvenile demanding as William would show, none of the comic howling that George would employ to gain attention...just the quiet old fashioned loyalty of an quiet old fashioned breed, and I know it may sound a bit foolish, but I was almost moved to tears by this tiny moment of closeness.

We ambled together around the village and bumped into a couple of people pottering about , after the usual hellos, the conversation centred onto the lacklustre performance from the Community council at last night's open meeting....news of the event seems to have spread!

As dusk approached we ambled home to set the animals up for bed. I have cleared a strip of land adjacent to the pig pen, and later this week I will start to set up the extra fence posts for a new pig enclosure. I have an idea to buy a couple of weaner piglets and fatten them up for the freezer, several people around the village are now doing so and the possible idea of sharing slaughter costs may be an excellent way of saving money.

Aunt Judy ,her sister and animal mad Niece and boyfriend called in earlier for a guided tour of the field.....I didn't bother telling them about my new pig plans! or perhaps I did.......gawd....I am more middled aged than Maddie me thinks

The Power of scrambled eggs and community council disappointment

The turkey poults haven' been eating as much as expected so a quick troll through the "turkey forum" website let me know that incubator babies sometimes don't have the knowledge to feed and drink adequately without a mother to show them how and where.

So....... I have spent a rather uncomfortable time lying on the floor of the shed with a healthy dollop of scrambled egg and chick crumbs in my hand.

With the other hand I have mimicked a sort of pecking motion at the egg mixture and within seconds the three sparky white poults had worked out what to do.

The shy bronze babies have not quite sorted their heads out but hopefully the actions of their brood mates will lead the way.Many turkey babies die within the first couple of days.

The postman went past as I was prostrate on the ground with my head in the cage and asked me what I was doing...."Teaching turkey chicks to eat scrambled egg" I explained....."whatever floats your boat!" he replied cheerfully.

This afternoon I made a large pan of cheapo spaghetti and took the ash grey mixture out on the field. I have been "treating" the whole field population with this favourite treat whenever I can, and use it as a means to call the ranging birds in from the churchyard and beyond.It will prove useful one day

Within seconds of "tutt tutting" and after waving a couple of fistfuls of pasta in all directions all of the hens, ducks and turkeys gallop from their hiding places to join in with an eating frenzy that has to be seen to be believed....

Tonight I am going to an open meeting of the village Community council....which should be interesting

ps. The meeting WAS interesting..........and was a bit of a bun fight actually.........not as well run as I expected, infact some of the answers to public questioning were slap dash to say the least...............

Clould watching with Lily

Muzzy headed Sunday mornings are the ideal time for a bit of cloud watching. Chris had gone to Church and after the dogs had been walked, I indulged myself with a good view of the autumn sky. Of course the obligatory visit by the ever friendly Lily, interrupted my view somewhat, but she sat there quite happily, squat and heavy on my stomach for ages. It was so quiet this morning I could hear the reedy singing of hymns from the Church

The hay making farm traffic has made way for the heavy grind and roar of the hedge cutters, and the countryside colours have been changed from green to that awful muddy brown. I caught up with one farmer yesterday, and for a tenner he has come and clipped the field hedge so that it now looks neat and tidy. The pigs, terrified of the huge cutting blades hid behind their hut when he started and would only come out when offered cheap white bread.

The turkey poults have survived their first night, and are quite fearless when approached unlike the hysterical behaviours I see with the ducklings.

I am working tonight.

Family

we are facing a bit of a family crisis..... there is no need for the gnashing of teeth,so there is not much to say but suffice to say that we are all pulling together! Tonight it was a group "yell" at the judging on Strictly Come Dancing

Poults

The kitchen is again filled with the chirps of babies. This time we now have five bouncy turkey poults. Wobbly and tall, already two have been transferred into the shed under the ever useful heat lamp.
The guinea fowl eggs go into the incubator tomorrow

Strictly Come Dancing 2009

Seeing Natalie totally squeezed into a pink piece of tissue paper made my day
go for it girl you're a winner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

100 Years of the Hall and Turkey pips

If you look closely at this photo you can clearly make out the Tower of the memorial Hall nestled to the centre left of the village. The official opening of the hall took place this afternoon with an invited audience of locals and "dignitaries", and everything seemed to go to plan.
The Children for the village school performed a lively montage of eclectic songs (I managed to get a shy wave from my friend Geoff's daughter Helen) and the usual collection of suits gave their praises and platitudes with practiced aplomb.

I was most interested in the speech given by a Mr Hobbs (below) who was the husband of a relation of the Hall's original builder Michael Antonio Ralli, a former Greek Consul of Liverpool. Ralli (or Ralli Back which means small Ralli in Welsh!!!) funded the Memorial hall back in 1909 as a means of alleviating the severe effects of unemployment in the area at that time, and seemed to have been a hugely colourful character within the local community. Having his descendants present at the Hall today, was a nice touch

Welsh Assembly Member Sandy Mewies officially opened the Hall, and the afternoon was neatly concluded by some Stirling singing by the Trelawnyd Male Voice Choir

There was a buffet finish and gift mugs celebrating the first 100 years of the Hall could be taken home as souvenirs; as these bun fights go....it was all done very well.

I know many of the local people thought that the "official" ceremony should have been opened to the whole village, and I guess there is some mileage in this thought,as then no one would have been "left out" and therefore "put out".; however, organizing an event like this that pleases everyone is nigh on impossible to sort out, so I will reserve judgement on this

All I will say, is that organising the work and obtaining the funding for such a huge undertaking as the Hall's renovation was a Herculaneum task, and if it wasn't for the obsession of a selected few on the Hall Charity committee, nothing would have been achieved at all.

I got home after four, only to find a robust turkey chick staggering around the incubator. Two more are pipping....... I wonder how many I will have by morning

Scrubbed up

I have had a bath and am wearing CLEAN clothes in honour of the Memorial Hall opening...it's all go....my turkey chicks have started to pip and are breaking through their shells....
fingers crossed