Eat Your Heart Out Virginia McKenna

Those post Christmas jobs need doing today and even though I am working again tonight, the feed has to be bought, the pigs need a new bale of straw and the duck house needs a good scrub. I was up with the light and decided to sort out the "babies" of the field first thing.
The turkey poults, I gently lifted out of their house and with difficulty (their wings are pretty tough) clipped each one's flight feathers. Then to the strains of "Born Free" (I was humming not singing it) I let each one go into the "wilds" of the turkey enclosure.
Nothing much happened.....then again with turkeys....nothing much does happen, as the four new poults wandered around, circled gently by Boris in full "sail". I suspect they will all be ok together

The guinea fowl, I have placed into their own ramshackle run, to get them used to the field. As usual they have spent most of their time smacking their bodies against any hard surface in noisey hysteria, and two of the pretty blue/grey birds escaped to fly haphazardly over the Churchyard and hedgerows. By 9am, they had all returned together to be fed, so hopefully in a weeks time (escapes permitting) I will let them fend for themselves.

Jesus is still with us too, as no one has come to claim him. I Will contact the animal sanctuary next week to secure him a home. Now off to the feed shop, then I need to clean the patio of the carnage of dogs, snow and rubbish.......I need too to make a few lists out for the new Year.......Chris has kindly offered to buy me two new net fences in order to enclose the Churchyard loving hens.......soon the graveyard will be clear of poultry completely!

Thoughts of Ian Parry

Christmas is over! Today I will age will take down the cards and remove the fairy lights and the cottage will suddenly look bare and cold.
We have New Years Eve to negotiate at the end of the week, and although I am sure we will have a good time at my sister's house, New Year's Eve is not a "holiday" that I feel I have ever really celebrated.
Mind you many years ago, we used to do the fancy dress thing! where a large group of friends and family, dressed as clowns,celebrities and cartoon characters all crammed into a motley selection of cars, dashed back and forth between the hot and sweaty pubs of North Wales.
Hummm not very subtle, but all great fun!.

All this came to an end in 1989 when, just after Christmas a close friend of mine ( and of our family) died in a dreadful plane accident. His name was Ian Parry and he was only 24, when he died, but already in a brief but very successful career as a photojournalist, he had carved out a name for himself in the hard world of Fleet street.
As I recall he had blagged his way into Romania, to document the civil unrest, and had talked his way onto a Russian cargo plane in order to get his photographs home. The plane had been shot down (though this was not proved) and Ian's sister Ruth, had been left with the awful job to informing Ian's large, young group of friends who at that time had been untouched-by-death and grief, of his sudden death.

Since that time, I have never really "celebrated" New Year....oh we have had dinner parties right enough and have enjoyed them, but since 1989, I have never jumped into the party thing ever again. For many years after, I have chosen to work nights on New Year's Eve, anything to fill that slightly depressive void and melancholy that accompanied Ian's death over a time which used to signify humour and celebration.

I am not being a drama Queen here. The sense of not wanting to "party" was a very subtle and not an overly oppressive one; which seemed to creep into my life rather than to depressingly dominate it. Christmas has always held affection in my life, and after Ian's death, I personally and simply lost my interest in celebrating New Year, which was always the poor relation.

I don't think about Ian very much anymore. Of course I always swap Christmas Cards with his sister Ruth every year,and by most late Decembers, my mind wanders briefly to those salad days when Ian gave us so much vicarious pleasure and excitement when he recalled stories of his new dynamic London lifestyle. At that time, this 24 year old man seemed to carry many of the hopes and aspirations of a backwater small Welsh town......and his zest for life galvanised a whole number of people (including myself) to move forward to reach for what they wanted..Perhaps that is a better legacy than the Ian Parry Scholarship set up in his name

hey ho

(see The Ian Parry Scholarship at) http://www.europepress.com/ian_parry/ian_parry_scholarship.htm

A Christmas Orphan

The day after boxing day is usually a time for relaxation! Chris has embraced this idea with much gusto and has stagnated on the couch with the tv all day. At 4pm, he started to feel somewhat isolated and complained loudly that we "had not had any visitors all day", but then awful The Heroes of Telemark started on tv, and he returned to his sofa!
Last night after I had locked all of the birds up for the night, I was walking back to the cottage in the dark and spied Stanley, my white rooster running around in frightened circles under the street light way down the lane.
This threw me as the old rooster never leaves his enclosure, so I opened the field gate and called to him and he galloped over. Now all this was not interesting save for the fact that it turned out not to be Stanley! Standing in front of me was a young, buxom new cockerel. I reached down and picked the stranger up and squeezed him into my last remaining broody box for the night.
This morning I have walked around to two local houses (that have a few hens in their back gardens) and have left notes asking if the cockerel is theirs, but so far I have not had a reply....The only other explanation is a sad one.....for I am unhappy to think that on Boxing day of all days (by the way do you Americans reading HAVE Boxing day?),did a hen keeper sneak out from home to dump a spare cockerel in the road next to my field, in the hope I would adopt him?
Of course I cannot keep him, despite him being a handsome fellow...if he is not claimed in a few days I am sure the animal sanctuary in Greenfield will accept him in their new hen run. If I did keep him ( and I am not!) I would have called him Jesus!!!!
As Chris has been reclining, I have been busy cleaning coops and catching up with field jobs. As I took the dogs for their walk around the village, I noticed that the whole set of pensioner bungalows off High Street have had solar water heating panels erected on their roofs. I think it is a fascinating and forward thinking initiative by Flintshire Council to invest in such technology, and cost reductions to a significant proportion of the village population, is, I am sure, much welcomed.
I must say I was impressed!

Tonight, I am tired.... and will veg out in front of Cranford later

Late dinner

Aunt Judy came up for a late dinner tonight, and as usual it was lovely to catch up with her. Chris (above posing with Judy just before she left for home) made a very passable salmon supper and bless she put up with me even falling asleep after a couple of wines and only 2 hours sleep!.
Check out Judy's special elf video at:-
http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/Jk2KuQRyT5NZuGSL
enjoyxx

Christmas catch up

The above photo summed up yesterday's Christmas at my sister's house. Flashy, lively and fun. You can't quite tell from the action shot, but my brother-in-law is marching into the dining room with a flaming Christmas pudding in his hands!
The family all met up with good humour and a hundred weight of gifts, wrapping paper and good ideas. My two sisters and their husbands,my brother and his wife, Nephew Chris (below) and his partner Becca, Nephew Jon and his gran Pat and of course Chris and I made up the numbers, and of course the food, wine and company was enjoyed by all.

Below my brother Andrew ( the only musical one in the family) giving an impromptu guitar solo as some of the family (second photo below) massacred a Rolling Stone musical medley

Anyhow I had to make my apologies and leave the game playing to go to work at 9.pm ( as a family we never seem to succumb to TV watching over Christmas, as we prefer to play games and perform individualised "turns", This year a selection of quizzes. poems,magic tricks and an energetic dance game was the order of the day......)

Work was quiet, and to be honest I didn't really need to have gone in...but I showed my face and did the shift, though this morning I was shattered and just a little jaded.

This morning I moved the baby turkeys into Boris' enclosure to get them all used to each other and quite benignly the big guy ambled over to give the youngsters the once over.

Jessop- below pic- ( the hen with the prolapse!) has been put back into the field and although she is not eating too well and still has a rather grubby bum,she looks perky enough. I am guardedly hopeful that she may pull through.

Tonight My Aunt is coming around for supper, and I think we will then indulge in the typical "British" tradition of vegging out in front of the tv!

Merry Christmas

We have just done pressies ! I did very well (solar powered radio, clothes,wellie socks,lovely picture of the Rockerfeller Centre,cook books,Star Trek dvd (oh be still my beating heart- Zackary Quinto!) etc Chris was less fortunate with my gifts....but it is the thought that actually counts (thats what I keep saying and saying AND saying)
Doing jobs now then we are off to lunch with the family......then off to work later!
Tomorrow we need to sort of some proper fencing for the hens! A rather irate woman called to the cottage yesterday complaining about the hens in the Churchyard, she said their presence is "disrespectful" to the dead!.....I can understand it totally ( though I do not agree with her)....so I need to get my wildlife under control.!!
I felt like telling her "and a bloody Happy Christmas to You!!"

and the winner is?......................

I am not going to moan about the snow, even though the animals all seem to hate the cold and wet. I have plenty to do today so will leave a quick "Merry Christmas" blog to all the people I will not see this Yule! and of course to those unseen people that follow this personal diary rubbish from time to time!
I hope everyone will have the Christmas time that they want/need and deserve. For some, it will mean a restful time being quiet and useful,; others will have the usual family bunfights and interactions that sometimes will be infuriating yet comfortably traditional.
Yes there is always pressure to "do the right thing" and "to have a good time".....but hopefully for most of us, it will a time to realise that we are cherished and loved.
So!..........to old friends in Sheffield that read this rubbish (Mike & Bev, Jonney, Jane and a handful of others) Have a grand time and remember you re missed. To Nige....(I will ring you tomorrow) and to Nia and George (you are missed too!)....to my family members that we won't catch up with.- "have a safe one" and I send my very best wishes to any locals that pop in here from time to time
Oh and big "Happy Holidays"to those people that leave me comments from time to time. So to..Ruth, Cassie, Callie, Jess, Sara, Randy, David,Alex,Joanna,Kim,Steve,Tracey,Bel-ami, Kathy,Geoff and a score of others..........Happy Hanukkah!!!!

Snowed in

The snow started at 8pm and hasn't stopped since

The cottage looks like something out of Cranford.....mind you I could not help worrying about poor Hughie roosting up in his bare Elm in the Churchyard