Someone in your corner

Tonight's blog is more of a life observation rather than the usual banal listing of daily occurrences at home and on field.
This morning I finished work at 8am, it was cold and dull and 13 hours in the company of some people who I have absolutely Nothing in common with had been a bit of a chore.
Couple this with the fact I was tired, grumpy and out of sorts.....the whole day was getting off to a very bad start.
When I got onto the old Berlingo, I did allow myself a small smile... for there on the dashboard was an odd looking blue tack dog.
Chris had fashioned it yesterday as a silly gift when I was lugging large bags of corn feed into the car from the feed wholesalers and without thinking I had plonked it down onto the dashboard before we shot up to my brother's.
This morning this daft little figure provided me with a small but important little boost....it simply said "There is someone standing in your corner!!!"

My Brother and his wife live in a converted Welsh farmhouse out in the sticks, and after an abortive attempt at viewing antiques for sale at a local auction house, we packed the dogs in the car and went out for a visit,
As we sat on the patio with tea and cake, the dogs ran riot in their garden, and as usual one (Meg) went flying into the pond. (which I would have filled before now with a score of runner ducks)

We would have stayed longer but as I will be working this evening I had to drag chris away from Andrew's phone games (below) so I could have a brief sleep!

Escaping hens,field update and Strictly......

The eastern side of the field has the formidable boundary of the old Church wall. Now most of it is intact and true but there is a crumbling gap of around three or feet next to my shed which needs repairing. I suspect it will never be touched as it is the responsibility of the Church to maintain it and dry stone wall repairs are prohibitively expensive.
Several of the hens have been using these collapsed stones as a staircase to enter the Graveyard and although they do no damage at all to the graves and floral tributes I am sure some visitors do no like the thought of skinny little feet and ever hungry beaks around for much of the day.(not to mention a loud slightly hysterical guinea fowl)
So I am now resolved to start the laborious job of fixing the gap but will need a bit of a mentor to show me how lay the stones properly......I am sure the ubiquitous Steve will be on hand to lend me a few pointers.......in the meantime, I will re cut the flight feathers of all 50 hens in an effort to keep their feet on the floor.It is another big job to add to building the new pig pen and setting up a new pig house.
Below some afternoon photos

Blanche and her ever growing single chick

Scratching Nora's ear after filling the pig house with autumn warming straw

Halleh, is now looking such a handsome duck

Tonight we enter the second night of middle class television bliss (am I right Nige????) With our individual cans of gin and tonic at the ready, we have settled down to watch the usual motley crew of "celebs" bounce around the dancefloor with egos at the ready!

This years pig-in-a-wig has to be Jo Wood......who I think, resembles a poor man's Ivana Trump without the brains.....god help her! and early favourites are Laila Rouass, chunky Natalie Cassidy ( with her Matt Lucas figure) and the slightly camp Chris Hollins (above wth Ola wearing a face flannel)

Local Characters and turkey lurve......

Trelawnyd from the North West

Strimming the field and clearing the vegetable beds has been the order of the day. Huge lumps of pig manure have been schlopped up from the midden to start the back breaking job of fertilizing the allotment beds and by midday I was hot sweaty and fairly knackered.

The red faced welsh farmer called round with several large sacks of sawdust and stopped for a chat. When I first met him, I found his loud brusque manner rather off putting but now I find him a genuinely interesting, forthright and decent character who will call a spade a f*cking spade and who will go out of his way to do you a favour. In his seventies, he has an interesting story about every local event and piece of history, and gives his take on things with a zest and irreverence which is wonderfully refreshing. I know it sounds a little weak but I am made up he now refers to me by my christian name..

I took the dogs over to the Marian for a walk (The marian is a collection of houses a mile or so out of the village) and took the opportunity to catch up with friend Eirlys and her two baby turkeys. Eirlys, is another straight talking and genuine farmer's wife who is as goggled eyed about her poults as I am about mine, so we now make a rather sad fan club of two. If my babies survive, I think we will do a bit of swapping so that both parties end up with a viable breeding "group".....I knew she couldn't resist the thought of my chicks, and I wasn't surprised that she called in later that day to coo coo over them....

Both of us will be a little nervous as Christmas is looming on the horizon....turkeys and Christmas don't mix, especially as our area always seems to have a few unprincipled poachers lurking around....at least Boris is a little too OLD and tough to be eaten with relish!!!

The Glass Menagerie

As it turned out Theatre Clwyd's Production of THE GLASS MENAGERIE was one of the best things I have seen on stage for a long time. As I recall from sixth form studies Tennessee Williams' character Amanda Wingfield was the mother from Hell who totally dominated her crippled daughter, Laura...but in this Kate Wasserberg production the lonely unfulfilled and tragically rejected characters of Mother and daughter aren't monsters and victim but are portrayed as sadly self centred and fragile people trapped in rather sad lonely lives,
Teresa Banham brings life to the role of Amanda and reins in her precise performance to make it feel totally real and surprisingly sympathetic and the elfin looking Lisa Diveney shows Laura to be crippled not just by physical disability but more by a debilitating shyness that is quite painful to watch.
It was a small but wonderfully moving production.
(pic Hywel John as Tom and Teresa Banham as Laura)

Geek alert

( Click to enlarge)
I have been planning the field for autumn.....how geeky is that!
key below

1. Feed Store
2. Duck Pool
3. Extra Hen House (empty)
4. New Hen enclosure
5. Spare Run for the new Turkey chicks
6. "A" frame ark (Rogo and his 5 hens)
7. Manure heap
8. Gate
9. duck pool in stream
10 herb bed
11.Chicken run for original hens (now retired) and the 8 new girls
12. Blanche and her chick's run
13. Kate Winslett and 6 older chicks
14. Hughie's resting place in trees

I am off to Theatre Clwyd tonight to see The Glass Menagerie...review later

Rant

I am due for a rant over something......and today I had a lovely hummdinger of a rant!!!...This morning we had two Welsh Terriers and two Scotties....this afternoon we have one Welsh terrier, two Scotties and a bloody shitzu!
Meg went for her usual trim and no one at the dog groomers told me that they had changed hands. Expecting her usual terrier cut, I was faced with a dog that's all head and no body! No beard, no eyebrows....and no soddin terrier!

The girl first tried to say that it was my fault I had not been clear enough at what I wanted, that is until I asked her to describe a standard Welsh terrier look..........then the owner then made a fairly big mistake by stating Meg had been cut like an Irish terrier! which I thought was laughable statement, and by the time the owner had rung me up later in the day to contest the issue further, I was ready for a somewhat flowery debate! which I gave her with hearty abandon!

Suffice to say none of the dogs will be returning......
(Thanks to neighbour Carole who corrected the damage done with her own clippers pic before she started!)

Danger Zone

My love affair with turkey chicks has continued. This morning they greeted me (well greeted the small bowl of chopped egg I had with me more like ) with a quiet "whooop, whooop" which is totally irresistible. Each one bolted down great mouthfuls of the yellow goo, whilst at the same time looking rather sombre...I think it is this slightly "depressed" look which I find so sweet
They were hatched on Saturday, so are four days old now, and hopefully are past those initial eating and drinking problems turkeys are so well known for.