Absent moment

As it turned out last night turned into a bit of a marathon of phone calls. By late evening I was all talked out and when Chris returned home going on midnight, we were both shattered,
I couldn't believe it this morning when I woke to the delightful strains of Maddie emptying her bowels merrily on the hall carpet, to find every hen out of their coop!
With all the talking last night, I had forgotten to lock up the 9 hen houses!!! The ducks and turkeys I had put away at the usual earlier time, but I had totally forgotten the hens!!!
A quick head count reassured me that all "bums were on seats", but I do realize that they were terribly lucky not to be killed by a passing fox.

Julia Fordham - Behind Closed Doors Live

It has been a funny old day. My brother has come out of hospital this evening and my sister in law Jayne has just called around to discuss the events of the day. Suffice to say that he and his family have some life challenges to deal with in the future but at least they are more informed and suported than they were 24 hours ago.
You feel helpless when people close to you are in distress, often all you have are platitudes and good intentions to offer, that too is the way of the world of families I guess.,...
Opened a mini gin and tonic and listened to Julia Fordham this evening by the fire
Time to be a little thoughtful
...Chris is working until very late....

2012 - Exclusive Scene

Hummmm....me thinks it is a case of MORE is potentially LESS......impressive to look at, but as usual it is the human story which is more important to a good narrative......... again where is Jewish Granny swimming champion Shelley Winters or Carol Lynley in her hot pants when you need them?

Spitfire & Streetcars

Apparently a few miles from the village is a veteran air enthusiast who actually owns a world war II Spitfire!....and hearing a deep growling in the sky I looked up and actually saw it skimming over the hills just across the valley.

I always think that there is something quite valiant about these tiny little planes and according to the every ready wikipedia there are only 44 left in "service" amazing!......

Hazel and I went to see a rerun of the 1951 classic A Streetcar Named Desire at Theatre Clwyd this evening, and I was so glad that we did.......on reflection I realised that Streetcar was one of those films that I had never seen, despite thinking that I had watched it years ago and I was thrilled and shocked by this steamy tale of madness,loneliness and sex.

Director Elia Kazan's production is electrifying on the big screen. Marlon Brando 's Stanley Kowalski, with his lightening flashes of violence scared the shit out of me, and the shopworn, fragile and truly talented Vivien Leigh breaks your heart as Blanche duBois, the southern Belle crashing terribly out of control under the strains of alcohol and mental illness.

It was one of the best things I have seen in a long time......next I would love to see
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

9/10

Thinking of Jayne and Andrew today..my brother is in hospital..much love x

Turkey & The Changeling update

I am snatching a couple of minutes to complete a fowl update..(if anyone is interested?) Chris is working away in Newquay later, so is pottering around and getting in my usual mornings routine way! Mind you he has just made me a bacon filled bagel, so I can live with the interruptions.

The turkey poults are just starting to develop those long necks of the adults and are looking so irresistible. I always make sure I spend some time handling and playing with the babies and I know they now recognise me when the shed door is opened, as they crane their necks and "peep" for England

The changeling is in fact a Leghorn cross (centre pic) and she has set up home in the buff house yesterday. Pirrie the bantam cockerel who oversees the buffs seems to be quite chuffed with a new member of his flock, the old hen is a wise old bird and so far I had witnessed no overt bullying. She is underfed and rather thin but shovels corn down her crop with a sickening gusto.....sigh...another useless beak to feed me thinks.........

I have called her Charlotte Vale.....(my friend Jonney H will understand why)

Changelings

As usual Nigel Posts interesting comments.....this time about changelings- a subject I know nothing about...
I found the information about Welsh changelings fascinating:-

"In Wales the changeling child (plentyn cael (sing.), plant cael (pl.)) initially resembles the human it substitutes, but gradually grows uglier in appearance and behaviour: ill-featured, malformed, ill-tempered, given to screaming and biting. It may be of less than usual intelligence, but again is identified by its more than childlike wisdom and cunning.
The common means employed to identify a changeling is to cook a family meal in an eggshell. The child will exclaim, "I have seen the acorn before the oak, but I never saw the likes of this," and vanish, only to be replaced by the original human child. Alternatively, or following this identification, it is supposedly necessary to mistreat the child by placing it in a hot oven, by holding it in a shovel over a hot fire, or by bathing it in a solution of foxglove."

New Girl

Yesterday I noticed that there was a white sussex in the churchyard. Nothing new in that fact, but it was BEFORE I let the hens out of their houses. Having a hen that does not go into her coop at night is rare, and usually a sign she has been sitting on eggs under a bush or in an old hedge, so last night I checked if all the whites had roosted on their perches and all had!
This morning, there she was again, sat on the Churchyard wall quite calmly and this time I carefully counted all of my white hens as they darted from the poop doors......all correct!
Hummmm.......so when dropped the feed out I gave her the once over....
yep....I wasn't too surprised to find that I have another dumped hen to look after. The new girl looks a little old but is healthy and bright eyed. Of course she is too shy to be caught, so I cannot check her for lice and ticks, but at least she is a hen and not another cockerel!
I left her some corn and she shared it with the benign Susan, before coming down to wander unnoticed amongst the buffs and ducks. I forgot to photograph her this morning
I will make her (and Susan) some pasta before I go to work today-I am a soddin late shift to help with staff sickness.......
Nearly 1000 hits from the US readers!.....oh the excitement! thanks people.....

PRISCILLA

Night in the warm and a good dvd...........
bliss....
one of the funniest scenes in film.....