it's an old saying....but they DON'T make them like this anymore..........
All About Eve
The turkey pack cornered a single runner duck in the netting of their enclosure this afternoon and very almost pecked her to death.
I was out, albeit briefly, delivering eggs, so it was by sheer luck I got back before they had basically decapitated her.
Turkeys when they attack another bird, seem to do so, by concentrating on the back of their victim's neck, and like poor Gloria, the duck had a huge bloody wound behind her head.
I released the duck ( a pretty brown girl) and treated her with the trusty antibacterial spray, bless her, she was lucky to escape.
Anyhow, enough of the killer turkeys!
As I was preparing supper this evening, I found that my fav film of all time was showing on TCM.
All About Eve (1950), is a cracker of a movie.
To me, it is not just a bitingly funny and wry look at the vagaries of Broadway (and indeed Hollywood) but the movie ,does in fact celebrate those life long friendships we all have experience of.
Despite some of the artificiality of the narrative, All about Eve, captures the real ;love em and loath em connection between two couples quite perfectly. Mainly through the experiences of the two women in the quartet we see Margo ( Bette Davis) being a queeny nightmare of contradictions, yelling and screaming one minute, self obsessed and doubtful the next, where as Karen (Celeste Holm ) remains warm hearted and mentally the stronger of the two.
Yet through adversity (the scheming of understudy ), their on screen friendship remains strong and totally believable in the relaxed and natural ease of the acting (mind it was reported that Davis and Holm actually did not like each other!)....
as a study of deep real friendship, All about Eve, can't, I think, be bettered
I guess I noticed the friendship sub text of All About Eve, as I am very aware that I have neglected some old friends in Sheffield. It has been far far too long since my last visit and I am counting the days off when I can get over, which may be at the end of the month (money permitting) but certainly will be be in April when Nuala and I have planned a joint visit!
Having nearly a hundred animals to care for is a difficult juggling act to be able to sort out a day and night "off", but it isn't (of course) impossible. I just need to get my arse into gear and do it.... so Mike,Bev, Jane and of course Jonney, I hope to see you all pretty soon
x
I was out, albeit briefly, delivering eggs, so it was by sheer luck I got back before they had basically decapitated her.
Turkeys when they attack another bird, seem to do so, by concentrating on the back of their victim's neck, and like poor Gloria, the duck had a huge bloody wound behind her head.
I released the duck ( a pretty brown girl) and treated her with the trusty antibacterial spray, bless her, she was lucky to escape.
Anyhow, enough of the killer turkeys!
As I was preparing supper this evening, I found that my fav film of all time was showing on TCM.
All About Eve (1950), is a cracker of a movie.To me, it is not just a bitingly funny and wry look at the vagaries of Broadway (and indeed Hollywood) but the movie ,does in fact celebrate those life long friendships we all have experience of.
Despite some of the artificiality of the narrative, All about Eve, captures the real ;love em and loath em connection between two couples quite perfectly. Mainly through the experiences of the two women in the quartet we see Margo ( Bette Davis) being a queeny nightmare of contradictions, yelling and screaming one minute, self obsessed and doubtful the next, where as Karen (Celeste Holm ) remains warm hearted and mentally the stronger of the two.
Yet through adversity (the scheming of understudy ), their on screen friendship remains strong and totally believable in the relaxed and natural ease of the acting (mind it was reported that Davis and Holm actually did not like each other!)....
as a study of deep real friendship, All about Eve, can't, I think, be bettered
I guess I noticed the friendship sub text of All About Eve, as I am very aware that I have neglected some old friends in Sheffield. It has been far far too long since my last visit and I am counting the days off when I can get over, which may be at the end of the month (money permitting) but certainly will be be in April when Nuala and I have planned a joint visit!
Having nearly a hundred animals to care for is a difficult juggling act to be able to sort out a day and night "off", but it isn't (of course) impossible. I just need to get my arse into gear and do it.... so Mike,Bev, Jane and of course Jonney, I hope to see you all pretty soon
x
At Last, Cloud Watching
It has been a long time since it has been warm enough for a little cloud watching. At five pm this afternoon, the cold wind dropped and the sun came out, so I took the scotties outside to play before I locked up the turkeys and ducks and fed the pigs.
"Cloud watching" is an occasional guilty pleasure of mine, and is one that I have not "practiced" since the autumn.(see last blog)
Cloud Watching is always camouflaged from questioning eyes by having the scotties jumping all over me when I lie down! To anyone passing, the whole thing would just look like a middle aged guy playing with his dogs.....only I would know that the ulterior motive would be a moment of pure , if not a little odd looking, relaxation!
Today the scotties wandered off, just at the point I had "seen" the White Cliffs of Dover in a particularly long cloud as it passed by, and Albert took over with a playful jump onto my head. He stayed with me for the longest time, so I fished the camera out of my pocket and took our photo to remember the moment.
Now neighbour Mandy was watching me from her garden, and amid some slightly confused hilarity she asked:
.
"What ARE you doing?" ..after all I am sure she was not quite used to seeing a middle aged man lying flat in a field with a cat on his head
"Watching clouds" I called back...........
She didn't ask for a further explanation.........
I guess she knows me very well.......................
hey ho
Arse into gear
list for the week.1. Start clearing the back garden ready for some more cottage flower planting. Last year the garden looked lovely (above)
2. Finish clearing the final vegetable bed and plant the first of my potatoes, broad beans ,shallots and onions
3. Paint the pig house and pick up fence posts for the new pig run
4. Set up the first of this year's fertilized eggs into the incubator.
5. Start to chicken proof the vegetable beds
Lizzy cooks her goose
Lizzy(Left) and Jane (right) are my two female poults (I have had to rename the two stags Darcy and Bingley) and one of them, has somewhat of an evil streak. Gloria has been sought out yet again by one of them and her neck wound has been extended and deepened.I moved Gloria and Boris into the furthest enclosure and caught the aggressive female turkey (it turned out to be Lizzy) venting her frustration on the diminutive Bingley.
Note to self: Lizzy will be fattened up and eaten very soon!!
Kes flies again
The former thriving holiday resort of Rhyl (6 miles away to the north) is now one of the most deprived areas in the whole of Wales. Unemployment,antisocial behaviour, crime, drugs,a change in the holiday habits of the nation and the credit crunch have stripped the town of of its previous "splendor" making it a truly depressing and unattractive dumping ground.
Mind you, I was interested to read that a local initiative has given hope and a purpose to three young boys from the town, by enrolling them as apprentice falconers.
It is hoped that by training these three lads in the ancient discipline, then the seagull nuisance on the Promenade areas will be drastically reduced.
I found the story a hopeful and positive and of course the influence of Ken Loache's 1969 film Kes, has not been lost by myself or the local media at this time, which is not always a bad thing.
Perhaps I am riding a little higher and more hopeful in the wake of seeing Precious drag her sorry arse out of the ghetto on Thursday night......perhaps I am just tired of hearing bad news story after bad news story from the trailer trash capital of North Wales......who knows?
All I do know, is that there is a therapeutic benefit to be had by constant animal responsibility a fact which has been seen ad nauseum in Hollywood, in literature and on tv.......(remember The Yearling? Lassie Come Home? Tarka the otter? The War Horse? The Snow Goose? Marley and Me ? etc etc)
It is a fact we all know, and I think subscribe to......perhaps more initiatives like this should be supported.
Time for an apprentice me thinks
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