Midnight insomnia thoughts

Blogger Dan @ www.allthatcomeswithit.com asked me recently what are guinea fowl used for...is it for eggs or is it for meat?
Well my answer is Dan, it is for neither! The three guinea fowl I have (from left to right-Ivy, Hughie and Alf) have once single job, and that is to provide me with an early warning alarm that predators are lurking around the field borders!
Tonight is a case in point, as from their advantage point in the Graveyard Elm, the amazingly loud calls of "buck-wheat, buck wheat!" from little Ivy and the more distinctive "ah,ah,ah,ah!" call of the males warn us (and all of the households in a half mile radius) that something is creeping around that shouldn't be there. Already tonight I have been outside with my trusty wind up torch, to see what the problem was and to be honest all I can make out is the white flashes of rabbit tails as they disappear into the hedgerows......but I trust the guinea fowl, I am sure they are reacting to something slightly more sinister than a baby rabbit!

I have slept too long today..ok, I feel miles better for doing so, but I suspect that I shall now be wide awake until the wee small hours of the morning!....tv has been crap tonight....re runs of the vapid Lewis and the bloody awful Peter Jackson's King Kong.....so I have been trolling through ebay listings and have put bids on some goose eggs for the incubator!......more field security guards me thinks?

Anyhow , the other morning I was racing around like a blue arsed fly, trying to get birthday pressies for my great nephew and feed for the pigs, and it was only then that I realised that shops and businesses seem to open at 10 am nowadays!
Whatever happened to the old fashioned 9am start?
Am I that out of touch with things? I just presumed that most retail outlets start work at the traditional time, a time that I was sure that all shops used to open at when I was a kid in the 1970s?
How wrong I was....performing a straw poll in Prestatyn ,I found that nearly all of the shops clearly don't bother themselves until 10 am or even 10.30!.....is this because shoppers don't drag themselves out until Jeremy Kyle has solved his first bit of dysfunctional conflict resolution? or have shopping habits actually changed?
.....hummm more likely, I am only annoyed by this "deterioration" of standards when I was inconvenienced by the mid morning, coffee break time, opening hours...otherwise would I have noticed?
am I living in a sort of fantasy world where shopkeepers always wore a friendly smile and a fresh apron and the shop girl didn't say "I dunno" when asked if a particular item is in stock?...or am I just a grumpy old git?
Time for another diet coke

Not so Good Friday

I have caught a bug from somewhere.
At 5am I was crouched around the toilet feeling very sorry for myself indeed......
and the silence of the cottage was only broken by Chris yelling out rather helpfully from the bedroom
"You've caught bloody salmonella from those f*^king hens!!!"
I got up at 8am feeling like shit, fed, watered and freed the animals then returned to bed until 11am.
I then walked the dogs, returned to bed until 3pm when I dragged myself up yet again to feed the animals re walk the dogs and climb onto the couch to eat some soup in front of The Robe.

Jean Simmons looked quite lovely in this 1953 fictional romp through the bible..though I have never really liked Richard Burton as an actor....he shouts all the time, which I find terribly irritating.
Anyhow...that about sums up my Good Friday
Off now for another doze

Clash of the titans

I let Boris out of his pen today as I was repairing the damage done by yesterday's storm, and like a galleon in full sail he majestically glided across the field to mirror the juvenile male, Darcy in his pubescent posturing in the far enclosure.
I love watching the stags doing their masculine thing. There is no overt aggression in this kind of joust, no sudden moves and not much noise. just the gentle rattling of their wing feathers as they scrape the grass and the heavy snorts of concentration as both birds circled each other in a half moon shaped dance.

I could have watched them all day

Les Miserables (in tights) The Flames Of Paris

The live performance of The Flames of Paris ( from the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow) was a truly wonderful experience. It is not a ballet that I am familiar with, and on the surface it does resemble a jolly romp through familiar Les Miserables territory!
After all we do have a French revolution, revolting peasants , much flag waving and barricade rushing.......but more importantly we have some of the best dancing I have ever seen in a ballet production.
The flames of Paris is a cracking ballet! A huge cast of pure talent is given space and time to show what they can do, and I loved the fact that even the smallest characters within the ensemble perform some spectacular set pieces, the best being the heart stopping "Dance of the Basques" at the start of Act 2.
The Ballet's two leads; Ivan Vasiliev, (he who has buttocks like two rockhard footballs stuffed inside a condom!) and snow white look-a-like ,Natalie Osipova have to be seen to be believed! I have never seen dancers that can leap so high and so powerfully in a production before, and their ability truly takes your breath away.(see photos)

I will have to give the Bolshoi production a magnificent 10 out of 10......eat your heart out Cameron Macintosh, Jean Valjean and "One Day More"!

A storm & Mrs Jones' arteries

I knew we were in for some bad weather from the north today, but the severity of the storm that whipped in from the sea caught me a little by surprise.
Sheltered in the lee of Gop Hill most of Trelawnyd had been sheltered from the worst of the wind, sleet and snow, but we, on the Northern tip of the village got caught in the direct blast from up the valley.
It has been a while since I have seen purely horizontal rain, and looking a little like Dorothy Lamour from The Hurricane, I battled around the field for a while trying manfully to save my polytunnel and cloches that had all been ripped from their moorings, and had been blown into the churchyard.
The turkey poults had taken shelter in their robust house, but after a particularly strong gust of wind, I heard a bang, and the whole house was blown onto it's roof with all the birds shrieking and calling inside.

Luckily all four turkeys were fine when I got to them as was Mary the bantam and Kate Winslett, a buff, who was sheltering with them. The coop itself, was damaged, and the roof "door" was ripped off completely. It has taken me an age, in the freezing sleet and snow to repair it . (No photos I am afraid...my camera batteries are being recharged!)
The bad weather coupled with unusually high tides have caused chaos all over the North Wales coast. In Llandulas, residents have been evacuated from the Promenade area as the sea has burst into their houses so I can't really complain even after my polytunnel sailed majestically over the gravestones!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8597110.stm

The village seemed completely deserted when I took the dogs to deliver some eggs, but I wasn't surprised when I bumped into sprightly Mrs Jones, braving the elements on her way to the post office. In her late seventies ( or perhaps older) Mrs Jones, with her sing-song Welsh accent and big smile is always a joy to bump into. A retired farmer's wife, she calles down to the field regularly for eggs and a chat about the animals, and knowing that I am a nurse, I always get to hear about the problems she experiences with the "arteries in her head".......a condition that constantly baffles me to this day. I am always careful not to give advice about confusing symptoms like "problem arteries", but I never worry about giving her a bit of sympathy! even in the sleet and snow.

Tonight we are off to see a screened performance of the Bolshoi Ballet in The Flames Of Paris, let's hope the heating is back on in the Scala

Thought for the day

"There comes a point in your life when you realize who matters, who never did, who won't anymore, and who always will. So don't worry about people from your past, there's a reason why they didn't make it to your future."
~Unknown

Back to a dirty reality and field jobs

Sorrel went home this morning and she seemed to have enjoyed her visit very much, despite the gloomy weather.
Obviously it is nice for Chris to have her up here; my immediate and extended family all live nearby, so I suppose this fact does make Chris feel slightly isolated from his family from time to time.
Having said this, Chris does have a rather special and close relationship with Sorrel and together they do resemble a bit of a double act. They banter away all day long like an old married couple and obviously enjoy each other's company in a way I never ever experienced with my parents, yet, I never feel pushed out when they are together.It's just nice that they get on so well.

Anyhow, this afternoon I have regained my usual scruffy (and dirty) daily garb and returned to work on the field. The weather, we have have been told will take a turn for the worst, so all of my cauliflower seedlings have been covered safely with cloches and polytunnels.

The old guinea fowl coop that was broken into by the badger has been recycled into a passable shelter for Boris and Gloria (below), and not surprisingly the opportunistic hens have used it all day during the heavy showers we have experienced. Perhaps the turkeys will get a look in tomorrow.

Gloria's neck has just about healed since her rather nasty turkey poult attack. She has started laying eggs this morning too!

Bodysgallen

The final "Sorrel Birthday" treat was a trip to the Elizabethan Bodysgallen Hall for afternoon tea.
We had the works! whatever type of tea you wanted-----( I had not got a clue) sandwiches cut into slices (without the crusts), freshly baked scones and a shop front of pastries and cakes!
Everything tasted better given the lovely historical surroundings, the peace and quiet and the classy decor.
You felt as though you wanted to curl up in front of the fire in the huge grate with a good book and read the rainy day away

Below the main staircase

Below a quick shot of the walled garden, which originally dated from 1620.

Sorrel goes home tomorrow. I was going to get on planting out cauliflower, onions and shallots but there is some talk of snow being on the cards again, so I may have to postpone the work.

I am slightly jaded, just two hours sleep this morning