Cow obsession and a first for Chris

Meg has a fascination for cows. Every time we take a walk down gypsy lane we come across a bouncy,inquisitive band of heifers and out of all four dogs, she alone seems to be completely obsessed with these huge benign and rather attractive animals.
Pulling at her lead, she edges excitedly towards them and nose to nose she allows the cattle to sniff and lick at her and seems intoxicated by the grassy burps they constantly emit.
I would love a cow!

Now the above photo is a rarity!
Chris, in a fit of "outdoor-ness" (I have never seen him with a hoe in his hand for all the years we have been together!), got stuck in with some gardening this afternoon ! We removed the dead fuchsia and an overgrown hebe from the front border and replanted a flowering currant, lavender,some antirrhinums, lupins, pinks, granny's bonnets and three fragrant Rose bushes. as well as some alpines which I squeezed into the spaces on top of the cottage garden wall.
I was impressed , he worked very hard.

This afternoon Chris went to Church when I completed the garden planting. He took with him several boxes of eggs, which I asked him to share amongst the congregation. With all the dry, warm weather and the arrival of the spring grass, the girls have been banging out their eggs with some gusto at the moment!
Perhaps a few freebees my increase my sales!

Jobs Worth

Ah yes, not having to sort out insurance or British telicom issues out recently....I had almost forgotten the "official-rule" speak of call centre micro managers,
so today a conversation with the sewerage department re enforced the kind of jobs worth attitude which is so typical of today's service industries.
The conversation went as follows

Me: I have been for a walk this morning and have seen an overflowing sewerage manhole cover outside your Trelawnyd water treatment plant and wanted to report it
Operator: What is your name?
Me: John Gray
Operator: what is your address and telephone number?
Me; well I will tell you but the leakage is not at my home address it is way down a country lane
Operator: can I have your address and telephone number and postcode
I complied
Operator: Is the leakage covering the pavement?
Me: No I have already explained the sewerage is overflowing on a country lane a long way from our house
Operator: Is it outside your property?
Me: No it is at least a quarter of a mile away from our house
Operator: How old is your property?
Me: (getting slightly exasperated) what has that got to do with anything? the overflow is not near my property and between it and ourselves are three other houses
Operator: can you repeat your postcode again?
Me:yes ( and did so)
Operator: I am trying to locate you
Me; The leak is not at my location, it is at YOUR water treatment works down the lane approximately a quarter of a mile away from this postcode, why do you keep asking for my details?
Operator: I am reading a script sir

I gave up!

This afternoon, Chris has rested his ear infection on the couch after I bullied him in getting some antibiotics from the GP drop in centre.
I have spent a long hot afternoon watering the seedlings (no rain in several weeks now) and have finished painting the 17 hen houses, and nesting boxes

Neighbour John laughed when he saw the uniform knot of little houses.....he agreed that it didn't quite look like the Ukrainian village that it used to

Postscript to this mornings post

This afternoon I have planted out sprouts, spinach, lettuce under cover , and more beetroot. I took a break to call over to my friends the Camerons to give Sandra the news of the next Flower Show meeting.

The Camerons have just had their first pigs butchered and although they found it a little difficult both celebrated the way that they had raised their pigs and looked after them over the past few months.

We talked about the importance of caring for your animals holistically ( which includes culling and butchering them where it was appropriate), and I found it all rather prophetic when I arrived home to find Rogo gasping in his coop.

I have never actually killed one of my chickens personally until today. Bob from the village has showed me how to do it humanely and with dignity, and although I watched him dispatch last year's cockerels and actively got stuck in with the butchering of the carcasses, I had never actually performed "the act" as it were.

This afternoon I had to. It was obvious and was the best thing to do. And in a couple of seconds it was all over. I had raised this lovely bird and I had the opportunity to see it humanely killed.

and you know what.....it felt perfectly fine

Up with the lark- Flower Show plans, painting and poor Rogo

It is amazing what a good sleep can do for a constitution! I went to bed at 9.30 pm and got up at 8am feeling rather washed out, but miles better than I did.

This morning I kicked myself up the arse and got on with jobs that needed doing.

All of the Flower Show committee members (me included) forgot to attend the last meeting so this morning I went around to auntie Gladys' (above at last year's show) to rearrange the next meeting for the 5th of May.

This year we have been donated 2 extra trophies so we have 14 cups to present as well as two new "Judge's Special" rosette prizes for best flower entry in show and best vegetable entry in show.

I have also been proactive in collating suggestions to where some of the Flower Show proceeds can be donated to this year. The Flower show historically has always supported village needs so at the next meeting we can discuss the proposed "good causes" and hopefully sort out donations accordingly.

Our Village Show has a wonderfully dynamic committee team. Sylvia our Show Secretary and Irene , the previous Show Treasurer have been instrumental in keeping the show going for many, many years and have done so without the recognition that is sometimes required . They, like the many "unsung heros" of such volunteer events past and present, sometimes never really get thanked for all their hard work....our village show would never have survived without their efforts as well as the contributions made by previous committee members that still live in the village but have now retired.

Anyhow enough of this back slapping

This morning I have started to paint all of the 13 hen houses a "traditional" green colour, which will satisfy my OCD tendencies and make the field look a little neater.
With the new chicken wire fences in place, escapees into the old churchyard have been minimal today!!! but after discussion with a few locals I have now decided to erect a larger chicken wire fence to screen the entire Church wall. It will take the summer to complete (money permitting) but then finally the "problem" of the odd wander lusting old hen walking on the Church grass will be finished

Rogo is still with us but remains dreadfully poorly. I gave him his last antibiotic this morning and syringed sugared water into him. Which he took without protest.

I took this photo of him as he sat on my knee (forgive the bad angle) and gave him a little cat food which he also took, afterwards.

I doubt he will survive overnight , and some of me feels as though I should have culled him today, but I will have him another day.

He has been a good protective Cockerel over the last few years. Always quick to stop any chicken fighting and always first to face any potential predators.......The cockerels' innate ability to protect their own, never ceases to impress and move me

puke

Not feeling too sparkling tonight....
as my Grandmother would say I am feeling rather bilious!
Chris has a sore throat and an ear infection....so it is all making for a wonderfully sick role orientated evening. My final words of yesterday blog is very prophetic
Not every blog can be a little gem!

No Way!

Gay men from all over the world are yelling "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!" in response to the news that Kate Winslett is going to star in a remake of Joan Crawford's "waitress to lady" pot boiler Mildred Pierce
What next? Nicole Kidman as Margo Channing in All about Eve? or perhaps Rosie O'Donnell as a butch Scarlett O'Hara?

Oh The Horror!
I feel sick

Preventing the Great Escape

Yesterday when I was out, apparently the female turkeys slipped through the badger hole in the fence and went walk about far up the lane. Gentleman farmer Ralph and bird hating neighbour Mandy managed a Sterling job in rounding them up and without my knowledge returned the escapees to the field.

The ducks also have been taking advantage of the rabbit holes in the poultry fencing adjacent to the new Churchyard and have been organising raiding parties onto the fresh green grass therein, sieving it for snails and slugs on a regular basis.

So today, acting like Kommandant von Luger from The Great Escape, I have implemented a six prong attack on the escapee poultry.

Number One: I have nailed chicken wire to the entire length of border fencing between my field and the Churchyard.

Number Two: The turkeys now have an escape proof enclosure at the very bottom of the field (unless they learn to use a spade and tunnel their way out!)

Number Three: The nesting boxes have been removed from the Church wall and now have been situated in the centre of the field

Number Four: After some detailed "field" observations, it has been noted that four hens (including the fat Buff, Kate Winslett have been using a piece of concrete next to my shed as a platform by which they can negotiate the newly reconstructed Church wall. This I have now removed

Number Five: Laboriously I have started to clip the main culprits wings, to limit their flight abilities...However I am fairly loath to do this with all of the hens. Limiting free range hens' flight abilities , I think is rather stupid, especially after the fox attack recently.

Number Six: I have started to fence in the top of the Church wall where the hens have been used to going. I will heighten the wall also when I have a little more time.

When I was working away at the fence one of the recently widowed ladies came over from her husband's graveside to see what I was doing. I explained that I was ensuring escapee hens and ducks don't bother anyone and she suddenly sounded quite aghast.

Her husband had been a farmer, she explained, the gentle movement of the hens as they picked at the grass, she had found wonderfully supportive and restful.

I will evaluate my escape measures tomorrow....

Perhaps I need a watchtower and a machine gun?

ps. Rogo is still hanging on....I have set him up on some straw in the spare henhouse

Theresa, Rogo, a friend of Dorothy and Micmacs

I have a new mouth to feed, albeit for a fairly short time! Chris, a fellow small (small) holder from the other side of the village brought around a rotund, benign and rather dopey bow legged female white turkey called Theresa to be mated with Boris (who has just got the hang of this sex thing); she sat quite contentedly inside his car boot during the short journey, and confidently laid an egg inside the turkey house within minutes of her arrival.
I have left her in a Ménage à trois alongside Gloria and hopefully love will blossom !

On a downside, Rogo remains very poorly despite his antibiotic treatment. He has spent another day sat in the sun by the Church wall and has hardly moved all day. He has eaten some bread and a few handfuls of cat food, and I have made sure he has taken some water. The other cockerels have ignored his presence, which is worrying. Obviously he is no longer any threat to them. In the above photo he has been joined by the lace Buff, Lillian, she has sat with him for most of the afternoon

The juvenile turkeys, who have spent long hours escaping from their enclosure have now been housed in the pig house. I have repaired their fencing and have made them a new enclosure well out of the way of mourners, and the graveyard. Not happy at the move and their confinement
all four have squawked and called throughout the afternoon. Tough titty I thought!

This morning I sold some some eggs and took the opportunity to go to a morning pensioner showing of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Micmacs.

Going to the cinema at 11am!! That is a treat and a half!

I paid my 4£ (OAP discount!) and went to the cafe to have a cup of coffee before the showing. The sweet waitress at the cafe told me that because I was going to a "senior citizen" showing I was entitled to a free cup of coffee and a chocolate biscuit!- which I thought was great fun!

An elderly lady on the next table asked if I was going to the film showing and introduced herself as Dorothy! Apparently we were the only members of the audience!

We went into the cinema together......I didn't think that she enjoyed the movie very much, but as she said...she only really came for the lovely coffee!

Now I love Jeunet's movies.

Amelie and A Very Long Engagement are two of my favourite movies of all time, so.... I had high hopes for his latest offering-and generally, I really liked this sweet, off-the-wall tale of whimsy, even though it wasn't quite in the league of the Audrey Tatou star vehicles.

Micmacs is filled to the gunnells with Jeunet's usual visual jokes and his comic strip touches and I absolutely love the way that he holds huge amounts of affection for his main characters , a fact he celebrates, by giving them tiny and wonderfully human eccentricities which warm the cockles of your heart. As in Amelie, where Audrey Tatou gained vicarious pleasure when she placed her hand in a bucket of beans, Jeunet captures the small pleasure of his leading man (Dany Boon) when he squeezes the contents out of a cheese triangle; he spends time and patience in isolating these tiny moments, and they serve him well, as the audience warms, as he has done , to his leading characters.

As in Amelie we follow the misfortunes of an eccentric who has lost parents and happiness. Bazil (Boon) is orphaned after his father is killed my a land mine in the Middle East. Years later,after he is nearly killed by a gunman's bullet, he is left destitute, potentially fatally injured and forlorn but is "adopted by a group of misfits who live a recycling life of sorts in a local junk yard.

Together with his friends, he finds that two city arm dealers are responsible for manufacturing the weapons that killed his father and injured himself, and the motley group devise a complicated plan to exact his revenge.....

So the scene is set for madcap slapstick chases,some complicated twists and turns and for gadgets galore...and although the leading man doesn't have the draw that the beautiful Audrey Tatou may possess, Dany Boon makes for a rather charismatic and likable hero.

With his distinctive facial tics and sad expressions, Boon is an up-to-date Charlie Chaplin. Comfortable in both physical and verbal humour, he commands the audience' attention despite some scene stealing turns by regulars Dominique Pinon and Julie Ferrier, and exactly as Jeunet
planned, the audience, , falls head over heels for his easy charm, and sweet nature.

Mimacs, is a likable, complicated and enjoyable comic romp which zips along like a bullet. Not quite as charming as Amelie, which it echoes constantly, nor as emotionally satisfying as A Very Long Engagement , it is however a joyful and zany journey into the mind of a filmaking genius

8/10