Iranian films.......suck (well this one did)

Hazel and I hated No One Knows About Persian Cats. The semi documentary style cinematography, the slightly manic 1960 Richard Lester ish style narrative and some terrible performances didn't help this desperate story of the underground music culture in Tehran.
We left after an hour which was ok...we had a beer and a chat, and made up after me having "words" we her recently recently!
As we drove over Prestatyn hill, there was an amazing sunset (as predicted) over the sea....very hazy and pinky.....and not at all disasterfilm ish........

Volcanic Peace

As I was brushing the front path this morning a neighbour stopped by and asked if I noticed anything odd about the sky. Apart from being a deep azure blue, I couldn't figure anything out of the ordinary, that is, until he pointed out that there were no jet vapour trails zigzagging over the heavens! (pic from the front garden)
"It's the Iceland volcano" he explained excitedly " there is a toxic cloud coming our way and all planes have been grounded!" (yes, it did sound all very 2012 !!!) Now I did have visions of the villagers, with hankies tied around the faces battling a Pompeii type ash cloud, which I thank goodness will not materialise (after all, I had just washed the cottage windows!!!), but I have found the whole unfolding story quite fascinating.
I think that the only effects we will feel here in Trelawnyd, is reportedly a "lavender" sunset

Off to the pictures with Hazel this evening to see No One Knows About Persian Cats, review later

Sigh!

It has been too dry (yes dry!!!) for me to start planting out today, so I have fenced off the second vegetable bed in an effort to protect my delicate seedlings from chicken damage.Iceberg lettuce have already been planted under the cloches, and after the next bout of rain we experience I will plant out more potatoes, leeks and broadbeans.

As I was working this afternoon, I listened with interest to the radio news that the Pope's second in command Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone has linked homosexuality with paedophilia in an attempt to defuse the sex scandals that have blighted the Catholic Church as of late.

While, I think that Cardinal Betone's words were perhaps just an unthinking and confusing conclusion to a recent Vatican research project on the subject of "Church abuse", by dangerously connecting being gay to child abuse, he has potentially put back the progression of gay rights and gay acceptance in some areas of the world, irreversibly.

In more "enlightened" countries, the remarks , I hope, will just backfire spectaculary on the beligered and blinkered Church itself, and some of me feels that the Cardinal's words should just be given the contempt that they deserve and should just be ignored....

sad, sad, sad............

Sheffield Plans

I am pretty excited!
Friday I am meeting up with Nu up in Sheffield and we are going to catch up with a load of old friends for a night of laughter and gossip!
I left Sheffield in 2005 and Nu left in 1995 , so it will be a real nostalgic "blast from the past" night out when we all get together in ALL BAR ONE.....! especially as Nu and I are sharing a hotel room! which is so...well teenage !
Been texting like mad over the last few days in order to liaise with old mates!
tee hee
photo:- the famous vintage police box located next to the Town Hall in sheffield city centre

Spring Photos

The Chicks in the shed are nearly a week old now and all seem robust and healthy little buggers. The smallest (above) is a part bantam mongrel and is an absolute sweetie!
With the pigs gone there is plenty of jobs to be getting on with. I cleaned their hut out, and cleared much of their enclosure of dirty straw and droppings before re seeding the ground.
The Bourbon red turkeys will be housed into the hut as soon as the chicks are old enough to go outside. The chicks will be housed in the present turkey house. All I have to do now is sort out a potential goose house! (if you remember, there are four giant goose eggs in the incubator!)

As I weeded the been and pea beds this afternoon, the sun has been blazing and the turkeys have been clumsily mating amid clouds of feathers and uncomfortable screaming. I have erected the runner, french bean and pea supports and was kept company by the dogs and the obligatory Albert who always refused to be left out of anything

The creeping buttercups have covered the Churchyard in a blanket of yellow, and the backdrop of colour and nature is, I am sure, some sort of comfort for the increased numbers of visitors to the graveyard.

There seems to have been a lot of burials recently, and the newly bereaved to and fro along the neat paths and green borders all day long....As I work, I wave to some that I recognise, and thank goodness for the nice weather, a country graveyard in the sun, must bring a great deal of peace and comfort to troubled minds.....I moved the turkeys down to the bottom of the field....so that their sexual antics didn't bother any of the visitors too much.

As I came in to wash up before collecting the Berlingo, I spied Auntie Gladys who was sat quietly in the sun on the far side of the Churchyard ("Auntie is her generic Village name!)!. She waved vaguely as I waved to her (at ninety I don't think she actually recognised me at that distance! and as she got up to slowly amble her way home I had a huge rush of affection for this old lady who always reminds me of a white haired and smiling Woody Allen, She is one of the nicest and most respected villagers I have met since our time here.

She has been a member of the Flower Show Committee ( and the village welfare committee before that) for 57 years!

I have only been Chairman for two!!!

On Line?

I couldn't get on line yesterday. Computer said an emphatic "NO!"
wasted an hour talking to a technical officer from the Indian subcontinent trying to solve the issue only to be told that the whole village had lost its connection to the world!
Feeling like a sad geek, I was rather bereft without my daily helping of blogdom.

I have been typing this diary without fail for four years now (internet crashes and the odd holiday apart)...and the ritual and discipline of sitting down with laptop and coffee is a daily joy

Having said this I am typing this entry at my sister's house before I take the trusty Berlingo in for it's second crack at an MOT....and Janet's A key does not work at all well......you try writing something without a soddin A in it......

Hopefully the diary of a man hurtling through a mid life country crisis will be back on line tomorrow!

Pastures new

The pigs on their arrival last year

The pigs left the field today.
They have been adopted by an animal park over in Cambridgeshire (http://www.hamertonzoopark.com/), as breeding mates for a rare breed boar, who has been alone for quite some time.
The park looks lovely and finally I am sort of glad that they have a large new home and a chance to experience piglets.
Just over a week ago, I was suddenly made aware that the Glebe field's lease prohibits the presence of pigs, and the very future of the allotment had been put into jeopardy by this fact as well as a series of oversights (on my part)
I won't go into too many details, there is no real need to do so now as, after much wringing of hands, anxiety and angst (it was awful!), most things have now been sorted out to a satisfactory level, however I thought it appropriate for the girls to be re-homed, so that my existence here is above board and legal and more importantly safe.
And so, Gladys and Nora have gone. They came to me over a year ago after a chance meeting with their owner at the animal feed shop. She needed a home for them immediately as she was unexpectedly moving to the US....and I was a sucker for a sob story.
The girls became minor celebrities here in the field. Over the past year, they have been visited by a whole string of villagers clutching loaves of bread and bags of veg clippings.and subsequently they turned from small,.slight sows who lived in a small concrete sty, into fat old girls who have charmed half the village and who have lived a comfortable life in a field with a lovely view.
I shall miss them.

Thought for the day

"The purity of a person's heart can be quickly measured by how they regard animals." - Anonymous