Thought for the day

LIVE!!! FROM PARIS..........TO PRESTATYN

As it turned out the live ballet production from the National Opera House in Paris was four productions from the Diaghilev days of the Les Ballet Russes.
I very much enjoyed two of the four!
Le Tricorne (The Three Cornered hat-1919) is a lively and colourful ballet with a totally Spanish flavour and Le Spectre de la Rose (The Spector of the Rose 1911) a brief but quite beautiful duet between a girl and a rose "ghost", they were amazing to watch, but I didn't quite enjoy the controversial L'apres midi d'un faune (Afternoon of a Faun-1912) (humm a man dressed as a deer gets his sexual kicks by rubbing himself on a nymph's clothing!- not quite my cup of tea there I can tell you) and I found the famous Petrouchka (below), rather unsettling and uncomfortably racist
We had a gin and tonic in the interval as did the smattering of people in the audience.... sad there wasn't more people there

Jessop

I have been putting off dealing with the unnamed buff's prolapse all day, so when I spied a couple from the village out for a walk, I was galvanised into action. Asking them to hold the suture remover and the hypodermic needle with anti biotics in it. I took the buff out of the shed, gently cleaned around her vent and removed the sutures. (The couple seemed fascinated to be helping !) Then with a bit of difficulty I gave the antibiotics in the fleshy part of the bird between the wings and we all had a good squint at her bottom region to see if the prolapse did not rear its ugly head again, which was not the nicest of things to do given her condition

So far, so good.....so I replaced the hen into her cage where she stood uncomfortably in the corner, feeling very sorry for herself.

She hasn't been eating today, so I have put some cheap pasta on to cook, in order to tempt her.

If she survives, I will name her Jessop, after the gynecological Hospital for Women in Sheffield...(I experienced a very interesting placement at the labour ward there when I was on a High Dependency course )

Chris and I are off to the Scala later to see a live production of Les Ballets Russes from Paris...review later!

No Internet! hen's toilet parts and shopping

I am writing this blog entry on my netbook's notepad, as our Internet connection is down at the present time.......which is a bit of a worry.....can I cope without my daily blog "fix"?...perhaps not, which is more worrying, I think I am more addicted to my daily diary than I would ever admit
.....Yesterday was dominated by one of the buff Orphinton's gynaecological type of problems....by luck I noticed that she was a little quiet and on impulse as I walked past her I reached out and lifted her up. on inspection I saw that she had prolapsed her vent and was dragging a medium sized egg around with her. To explain this to any "non hen" owners. The immature hen had tried to lay her first egg and it had got suck in her"tuppence!", after straining, she had managed to expel the egg but had prolapsed her "bits" as it were with it!......are you still with me readers???? anyhow very gently I removed the egg and cleaned her bottom with antiseptic and tea tree oil. The prolapse was more than I could deal with at home ( I am baffled with any female nether regions) so I sat her carefully on the passenger seat of the Berlingo and took her up to the vets.Luckily hen expert Zoe was on duty and deftly she sewed the prolapse back in place (with me acting as scrub nurse) and then dusted the ripped membranes with antibiotic powder.She gave the poor girl an injection of antibiotic with instructions for me to give her a further 2 injections at home and then to remove the sutures in 24 hours. I placed her into the spare cage in the shed with the guinea fowl and left her to settle in the dark.Time will tell if she pulls through, but I suspect a peritonitis may claim her in the end.
Today everything is "stable", Chris was up at 6am, having a lively conversation with the BT internet technical team, as the broadband still was not working!, whilst I hid under the duvet with the dogs desperate for some more sleep. I took him to the station at 8am, returned home, checked all the phone plugs and hey presto! broadband working!!!!
I am so excited, I treated myself to a blog and an extra strong cup of coffee!
I think I may need the caffeine! Taking sutures out of a chicken's bum, is something I have never done before, and I think I may need some fortification. Please forgive me if I don't photograph the "operation" for the blog!
As for Christmas! I only have Chris' main gifts to get, which will be the job for tomorrow. Of course there are a couple of smaller gifts I have forgotten.....the "secret santa" gift at work; a small "thank you" pressie for the sister that has allowed me to come in work late on Christmas Night and a couple of others.
Today is cold and frosty.......it is starting to feel like Christmas

Jennifer Jones 1919-2009

It was with some sadness that I read today of the death of the actress Jennifer Jones at the age of 90.
A nervous and mentally fragile performer, she gave some memorable performances in films over four decades, but of course to me , she would always be best remembered as the widow that fell out of the scenic elevator in The Towering Inferno

Miss Pole steals the show

In film, I am driven with performance and the acting rather than the just the visual mise en scene. It is the dialogue and characterisation that interests me, so of course I knew I would enjoy the "one off" Cranford Christmas which aired this evening.

Who wouldn't enjoy the wonderful ensemble cast of British theatre Royalty...Judi Dench,Jonathan Pryce,Francesca Annis,Julia McKenzie,and Barbara Flynn, they all make this reworking of Elizabeth Gaskell's original novel highly entertaining, but I didn't quite enjoy this second visit to early Victorian Cheshire as much as I wanted to, as writer Heidi Thompson had literally over filled the whole thing with wall to wall characters, many of which we had never seen before...

Thank God for the brilliant Imelda Staunton who plays the vital and hilarious Miss Pole (above), with a face twitching with constant indignation under a succession of bonnets, her clever portrayal of a village gossip had me chuckling into my dressing gown!

Snow at Dawn

Dawn, was all cold and crisp and even this morning. Now we cannot compare our meagre precipitation with the downfalls experienced by North America overnight, but for me, it is quite enough to be coping with, thank you very much. Everyone in blogland are posting photos of snowy backyards...so not to be outdone, here goes

Halleh, slightly uneasy with snow which he has not really seen before. Tonight I will try and put him into the duckhouse with the other runners, with a bit of luck he will realise that trying to shag the hens is not a good idea.

Scotty, my most gentle of cockerels with his five hens (Sheila,Faye,Jennifer,Patty and Maureen), these five hens were the only surviving hens from a fox attack at my friend Helen's farm and seem to be very happy here in their new home.

Bill and one of my two buff hens from this year's brood....I have just realised that I have not named them yet

Yawn!

Not too much to report today.....a long busy shift looking after a seriously ill patient that actually looked like Father Christmas! made the whole day feel ever-so-slightly surreal!
Now I am curled up on my couch with Meg and Maddie.........Strictly Come Dancing final in on the tv, the Christmas lights are on and Chris is frantically dialling for Chris Hollings to win!
Christmas has been made just that little bit better, as work has allowed me to start work at 10pm rather than at 7.30pm.....it means I can now have an unrushed dinner with the family instead of darting off..... happy days !!!!!!!!!!!