"Get away from her you BITCH!!!"

At 6.30 am both of us were woken by the sound of shrill squawking! I ran to the window just in time to see the silhouette of a large fox scrabbling at the nearest of the hen houses, which happened to be the old rabbit hutch in which Blanche and her chick had been housed. It was Blanche that was making the noise and even from the cottage, I could make her out behind the chicken wire pecking frantically at the predator.

Even at the ripe old age of 47, I dragged on my clothes and wellies in seconds and was running to the rescue like Sigourney Weaver out of Aliens.....it is a pity I didn't have the obligatory flamethrower and space rifle, because if I had, I would have bloody used them....but as I got to the field the fox had wisely fled the scene!

All the hen houses were intact when I checked and strangely every cockerel remained silent for a good half hour afterwards.....it was as though every bird knew that danger was about!

This afternoon I have reinforced every one of the coops. New latches have been added to doors, chicken wire has been nailed into places of potential weakness and extra heavy rocks have been placed on hinged roofs. Tonight My trusty wind up torch and clothes will be laid to hand if mr fox shows up again and I have peed ( yes peed) around the perimeter of the enclosures with the dogs tonight (getting them to leave puddles as well) in an effort to discourage foxy noses! Poor Blanche , this evening she abandoned her chick and climbed up into Rogo's ark hen house rather than returning to her small broody hutch.... I carefully removed her and the hysterical chick and put them both into another separate hutch and locked them both in safely. Both settled eventually....I wonder if I will sleep tonight?

Anyhow on a brighter note 5 of the guinea fowl have hatched this afternoon. The two more robust little chaps that put in an appearance yesterday have already been set up under the heat lamp in the shed. They look just like hen chicks but are extremely nervy and jump hysterically when approached! I think they are going to be hard work!
Hazel asked me to go to theatre Clwyd this evening to see a "groundbreaking- 14 years in the making" documentary on the artist Louise Bourgeois (she of the famous spider sculptures!) Time Out stated the film was:- "An unexpectedly lyrical and poetic portrait of the now 98-year-old, feisty, French-American artist. *****"
Perhaps I am missing something..I thought it was a pretentious study of a self indulgent woman who never got over her father having an affair when she was a child! Boring!
..and I gave up having a pint with friend Geoff for this!....hey ho

Bloody Hell

Whilst planning the new turkey enclosure this afternoon I ventured a little too close to the now dying wasps nest and got stung four times, all on the left arm......
My arm now is extremely painful and puffy, despite being bathed in vinegar !
I now smell like a chip butty
In pain......
....and all of the guinea fowl chicks have started to hatch early and I haven't got a heat lamp as yet
Bollocks!!!

Observations

I am almost ready to start rebuilding the Church wall. There is still a load of small stones and dirt to remove before I can begin but I am confident that all the ground will be prepared by early next week. I need to catch handyman expert Steve to organise my first lesson in dry stone walling.

As I worked away this morning, I have enjoyed watching the goings on in the field. Supermom Blanche with her single chick has now left the confines of their run and Blanche's maternal instincts are so incredibly strong that I have no fear that the chick will be harmed by one of the other hens and cockerels.

Today a heron has been circling the field in order to get close to Carol's fishpond, and time and time again as the large unfamiliar shape of the heron has loomed into view the roosters' warning growls have rung out and the juvenile hens have galloped in from the field borders to hide safely under the trees. Even at her very early age, Blanche's chick innately understands the possible threat from the sky, and she too has darted quickly under her mother's outstretched wings when the alarm call has sounded!

Rogo (with Hughie in tow below), have watched my work with some interest, and the guinea fowl is slowly becoming tamer, the more he sees me.Unable to leave Rogo's side, he has been somewhat forced to be around me, but his anxieties have noticably reduced

The 7 young hens that hatched in the spring have turned into buxom pullets, but strangely have been copying Hughie in his roosting behaviour amid the trees just above where I am working to repair the wall. Hens are terrible copycats, and will take every opportunity to "out do" the antics of another in the flock. Last night I had to bounce a few of these new girls off the branches with the soft rake so that they would reluctantly saunter down to their usual hen house

Village news,& Red Cliff

I have been strimming and clearing weeds and small bushes all day. I should have moved another hundredweight of stone from the collapsed wall too, but never quite got round to the job. The weather has been glorious today, one of those clear bright day of autumn, and I think my brother had the right idea to make the most of the mild spell by booking a trip up Snowdon.

Chris took the car today,so I was effectively marooned in the village...... but to be honest I never mind this at all!!!

When I took the dogs out for their walk ( this has become a bit of a trial as Albert has now decided to follow us even though we walk on the main road- so I have to go through the rigmarole of trapping him in the kitchen and locking the cat flap with a spoon!) I bumped into Bob ( the guy that taught me to cull my roosters) and he informed me that there is to be another "open" community council meeting on Monday. Although it will be situated in the neighbouring village of Gwaenysgor, I think I will make the effort to attend......the bunfight at the last meeting was quite illuminating to say the least!.....the workings and factions within the committee had to seen to be believed Anyhow this evening I took myself to the cinema to see Chi bi (Red Cliff).

Now I have no trouble going to the pics alone if I need to, it is a habit Nu and I always got into two decades ago, and even now both of us will not hesitate in going to the cinema by ourselves as long as we phone or text a brief "marks out of ten" score to each other afterwards! Nu has been so supportive to me over the past few weeks, and rang today in between interviewing patients at work......she would have hated Red Cliff, where I in fact loved it!

Red Cliff is a modern day Chinese Spartacus....it has everything a good historical epic should have!---bags of action, a cast you actually care about, a million extras running amok with bows and arrows, a brief sweet natured romance and a snippet of homo erotic zither playing! (well whatever the Chinese version of a zither is called anyhow!)

It also has the very handsome Takeshi Kaneshiro (above) who is VERY easy on the eye...

I loved it 8.5 out of 10!!!

Everything but a black Lesbian in a wheelchair

I guess when a tv or film "formula" has been proved to be successful it is inevitable that it gets rehashed time and time and time AND TIME again.....
From the sixties and early seventies, when science fiction and disaster movies dovetailed neatly together, we have all enjoyed stories of motley groups of individuals facing disaster, peril and the unknown. Lost In Space and Land of the Giants, Made way for Space 1999 and Battlestar Galactica, then we loved the whole squeaky clean franchise of Star Trek and its lesser well known imitators, so I guess it was inevitable that in the modern, reality led 2009s, another square jawed, big boobed, squabbling group of humanity are thrust into worm holes for a bit of daring do!

I caught a bit of "SGU Stargate Universe" last night......where 80 odd Military staff, scientists and civilians, caught up in an alien attack on a bleak planet leapt to "safety" through a stargate (???) to end up marooned on an ancient spaceship a long way from home......hummm ring any bells??? I guess the whole thing was supposed to look rather dark, edgy and new.....but what I was really watching was a military version of Voyager.....and I must admit it was rather fun in a basic disaster film sort of way.
I so enjoyed picking over the characters, as the writers had worked sooooo hard not to leave ANY ONE minority group out..... so we had the maverick and obligatory English scientist/hero, an African American hero,and a Native American hunky soldier type, a couple of big boobed, but always assertive women, a fat geeky brightspark, and wait for this a Chinese American lesbian with attitude......
With Obama sorting out Gays in the military...I think it is only time before a mainstream all American series like this one will have a "Captain" with a boyfriend partner waiting for him at their duplex home on earth (...and probably wearing a nice round necked sweater).....but that perhaps will be in the next series.....

Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish.....I ENJOYED IT!

Job monday and turkey update

Prestatyn from the top of the Hill

Some days you feel your age... for most of the the time I have a 28 year old brain in a 47 year old's body...but the body has just been feeling like that of a 60 year old over the past day or so!
This morning I walked into Prestatyn to collect the Berlingo from the station, and slip-sliding down a 1 in 4 hill in a pair of sweaty wellingtons has buggered my knees and ankles big style.
By the time I reached the bottom of the hill I resembled Douglas Bader! and I must admit I did eye one old lady's disability scooter with some envy when I finally reached the High Street
It has been a jobby sort of day, with a supermarket shop, trip to a material warehouse to buy lining for some curtains and visit to B & Q to price up curtain rails. I was over awed by the material shop ( I know as much about fabric as I do about women's underwear) so I dragged my Aunt Judy with me for some technical support!

The turkey poults are now three weeks old and they seem to be developing that slightly "ugly" look of the adult birds. Like a lovestruck mother, I do not notice any defects in my babies, I think they are just perfect and rather beautiful!
.With the old weather approaching the five of them will have to stay under the heat lamp for another three weeks at least...which is worrying as the guinea fowl are due to hatch on Friday/Saturday. Brother in law ,Ned is on the case to see if any old mates of his has a spare lamp for me to hire!

Lilian, the chick I was given a couple of months ago has blossomed into a beautiful white buff lady. After feeding her and the others, and then changing the animals' water feeders, I was too knackered to do anything else.......off for a radox bath to sooth my aged bones.....I sure am getting old!

Another lie in

When you share your life (and bed) with someone else, the fact that they are not there occasionally will always mean that you don't settle or sleep as normally as you always do. So, with that fact in mind, I was wide awake at 6am, and after an extra early dog walk was comfortably tucked back into bed with coffee mug, LBC on the radio and the usual heap of dogs.

EVERYTHING was peaceful !

UNTIL.....

Albert appeared!

After a night's work culling the rodent population of the field, Albert wandered into the bedroom with the relaxed nonchalance of Cary Grant. He jumped onto the bed just as I was taking a gulp of coffee and in the darkness I didn't quite realise that he was sucking on the body of a large brown mouse.

Albert gently dropped the mouse in the centre of the eiderdown and obviously pleased with himself stepped back to watch our collective admiration for his gift.

The mouse squeaked loudly

And all hell let loose.

The dogs all reacted as though they had been electrocuted,

in a fraction of a second, dogs,coffee,duvet,netbook,Albert, digital radio,mouse and me went for a burton. The noise was deafening (I am yet to apologise to the neighbours!) as the scramble became more frantic, with the mouse diving under the bed.

As the growling and barking intensified, (I was yelling too as if that would help!) Maddie darted out and with a satisfying "crunch" finished off the poor mouse in one go.

The fight continued however, as each dog wanted the body, so after a brief struggle, I dragged the corpse free (I am naked and covered with hot coffee at this point) and ran into the bathroom still chased by all four dogs, to throw the mouse out of the open window....

so much for a lie in

Salad Days

Now the dogs don't "do" early mornings. They get up with the dawn to perform their "needs" on the lane, after which I sleepily scoop up their "items" with the obligatory plastic bag before they troupe back to bed for a lie in!
Presently we are all heaped together on and under the eiderdown, they farting happily in slumber, me on my blog (with proper coffee in hand!) It is too early to let the birds out and the cottage is silent
Now, last night I noticed that I had 111 "friends" on FACEBOOK ! A feat which I think is pretty amazing as I seldom log onto the site...However I did notice that an old colleague from 1986 had posted a somewhat obscure photo of me and herself on "my photos"
The photo was taken in a tiny bistro in York.....The hair styles were all very 80's and a very youthful and rather geeky me, can just be seen to the very right of the photo border. I was a newly qualified psychiatric nurse when the photo was taken, and seeing it again after so long got me to thinking about my salad days back in Yorkshire in the 1980's
Some aspects of your life, you can amazingly forget about when older, wiser and just that little fatter! I know I tend to wax lyrical about my happy "mid life" experiences in Sheffield, but I seldom recall those early nursing days in the beautiful city of York.

I qualified as a RMN (Registered Psychiatric Nurse) in 1886. None of our group of 8 students planned to staff in our training hospital in Chester, so it seemed perfectly reasonable to move to a city with similar sensibilities!.
I was lucky to get a job in York, I had no idea of what to expect, or indeed what my role would be, I just went for the interview as all the others did and got the job! My placement was at the prestigious Bootham Park Hospital (below), which was the showcase for the Health authority at the time. The hospital was small, comprising of only 6 wards as I recall, and I secured a job on ward 1 which was an acute admission ward for around 18 general patients and up to 6 mother and babies.
I was given fairly basic accommodation at the nurses residence at Clifton Hospital which was the old asylum two miles away.I was 24, but a young and gauche 24, so a new job in a new city,was pretty tough for me at first....but on reflection I had a blast of a time!
My allocation to the nurses home gave me contact with a huge group of new starters! 20 or so student nurses, all nervous of the challenges ahead provided me with a ready made group of friends and that coupled with a young and bright set of work colleagues which were also "on tap", meant that the 2 years I was a staff nurse was one big social experience!.

In York I had a steady stream of girlfriends (Gay realisation was sadly yet to dawn!!!), an introduction to other cultures and races (which never happened in Wales or indeed the very conservative Chester) and intellectual stimulation by open minded bright people. It was also where I started my Love affair with Yorkshire and the straight talking Yorkshire people, with their wonderful flat, warm way of talking and deadpan sense of humour.
On reflection I loved my time there and I learnt so much. Professionally, the ward was run sympathetically and with great thought. The ward manager (an obese jolly ex community nurse--who incidentally had been run over by her own car months before I started and therefore was transferred to the inpatient facility!) had, as I recall a big heart and a knack of developing her staff with time and care,On reflection I blossomed under her guidance.
I also teamed up with another staff nurse called Tracy Birkin ( I am on a memory roll now!!! ) who provided me with big sister-ish support. Fearless and insightful, she became my professional hero, and with a personality as big as a bus, helped me develop from shy Welsh geek into a more sociable more rounded friend. (she was also famous at being able to run 1000 yards in high heels to catch any absconding patient before they reached the hospital gates!)
So this morning I have had a memory "romp" about the people I used to know in that faraway part of my life....I wonder where they are now....Tracey married and moved to Goole I think, but the others such as Linda Mapplebeck, Cathy Audin (who looked like Dennis the menace) Sue Kirton, Mandy Moore, Jim Cooper, David Griffith, Pete Curry, Barry Ford,Boy next door-Martin Kirby ( who, on reflection I secretly fancied ) have all disappeared from view when I moved to Sheffield to start life in "spinal injuries "....
Two friends I do keep in touch with, Cheryl and Gill still write occasionally in Christmas cards and in brief e mails......I am not sad......on reflection........like I said.,......York was a blast!