Guilty pleasures

The chicks in the shed are going stir crazy. They are five weeks old this week, so will be coming off the heat early next week......note the third from the right...the araucana tuft is just showing

I am catching up with Hazel today. Chris has been working in London then Newcastle, so won't be home until tomorrow night, so today will be movie day!
Hazel suggested that we go and see the Tilda Swinton Italian saga I am love at the Scala, then changed her mind when she realised that the much lauded Argentinian movie The Headless Woman was playing at Theatre Clwyd.......(below pic)
so we are being reckless crazy bitches and ARE GOING TO SEE BOTH!!.

The Flower Show donations and a Goose house

Today I have been strimming the field borders and have planted broad beans and more potatoes. I have also sorted out the raffle tickets for the flower show and have helped organise the payments the flower show wanted to donate to local good causes.

The Flower Show has paid the transport costs for the village friendship group to go on one of their many trips this year. (The friendship group is a large jolly group of local pensioners). It has also paid for gardening equipment and plants for the village school and will be purchasing a new kitchen water heater for the village hall, so between the three good causes the Flower Show has spent over a thousand pounds and has also been seen to be fair.
We are always looking for other local good causes to donate funds to, so if there are any local readers of this blog that may have any ideas please email me!

Anyhow I have decided on what I would like as a birthday gift (June 1st)....I would like a goose house! (above) Chris sighed loudly when I started to drop hints, I know he would prefer buying me a new (and clean) pair of pants and a smart shirt as my half of the wardrobe looks like Cinderella's closet, but he now knows me so well, and understands a goose house would be a bloody great gift!
tee hee
Now all I need are the geese!

sometimes.......

.........it's wonderful just being honest......

Helping hand

I don't really blog about my brother's illness. Part of me feels that it is an inappropriate forum to do so but today after I called up to check on him, I felt a compulsion to mention it
He has been diagnosed in suffering from a neurological condition called progressive bulbar palsy for around a year now, and he has been on an emotional and physical roller coaster relating to it ever since.
As with any disease and syndrome that has no real clinical treatments, there seems to be an unwritten rule that people just "get on with things" despite everything that the condition throws at them. It is a benign statement for what is sometimes an impossible task, and to be honest if anyone resorted to this kind of platitude when I was in the middle of pharyngeal spasm attack, I would ram a length of oxygen tubing where the sun doesn't shine!
Yet my brother is coping with his condition in a normal, variable and very self directed way. He has recently acted as a guitar tech on an exhausting 17 date national tour of a rock band, started my sisters' obsession with false tattoos and has dealt with a spasmodically supportive health service without much chest beating or complaint to us, his family.
Today I could do one tiny thing for him....I called up to utilise some of my Intensive care skills to briefly check on the condition of his chest before he and my sister-in-law go on holiday.
In the great scheme of things, it was nothing but a ten second job, but boy did it make me feel as though I had at least done SOMETHING concrete to be a support as he " gets on with stuff"....
I just wish ( as I know my sisters' do) that we can do more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_bulbar_palsy

Leaving a mark and Sunday Photos

Yesterday I took the dogs down gypsy lane and noticed a strange mark on a tree halfway down the bridlepath. I stopped and cleared away the ivy and found this old carved set of initials. "GWYN REG"

I got to thinking that as a species, all of us want to leave our mark on this world in some shape and form...don't we?

Some people leave a legacy through their children........other people have work sucessess, whilst others have plaques and statues (I would love a statue of me somewhere or other!!)

But I guess the only best way of being "remembered" is by being remembered fondly by those you have left behind.......if we are missed and loved....that's what really matters doesn't it?

Hummm.......I wonder just how long this blog survives in the vacuum that is the internet...long after I am gone?...and how many comments will be present on that final blog entry?

who knows

This is my favourite view of our lane....our cottage is where Carol can be seen (she is gossiping with a slightly hungover Chris who is sitting in the front garden.) He had a work night out at Osborn House last night and I went to pick him up after I finished work.

William and Maddie watching from the cottage window

Last night there was a bloody frost that burnt off most of my runner bean seedlings. I have not got enough fleece to cover all of my "delicates", so gardening is a little like Russian Roulette at the moment...( ok NOT as exciting but hey, we do live in the country)

Above the potatoes are showing their heads

........I have weeded the whole of the pea beds and planted out neat rows of peas and mange tout

Belle is the most determined hen I have, and has been contemplating a raiding party into the Church Yard for many days now. So far the chicken wire barrier atop the stone wall has stopped her short, but as God loves a trier, she has maintained this daily vigil in the vain hope of ascertaining just where any weak points may be

With Rogo gone, the old cockerel Stanley has now taken full charge of the field population. The bigger but more junior Jesus and the bantam cockerels Roger and Pirrie have deferred to his senior position and effectively "let him get on with things". Here he seemed facinated with the omnibus version of The Archers! (Nigel will Lillian get together with Matt's brother Paul?>???)

Daddy's Girl

My best friend Mike has Maisie....and as daft as it sounds.....I have Meg....
surrogate kids........yeap........I have around 74! including the turkeys!

We were watching "chopper coppers" on tv last night

Uncles John and Chris

Chris went to Chester Zoo today with Mike, Bev and chatterbox Maisie. I had already arranged to take the Scotties on their 40 mile round trip to have their haircuts.
They all returned late in the afternoon, tired but entertained by the day's events, and just about managed to eat a large meal of meatballs and spaghetti (Maisie's request) before crashing out for the night

Maisie has been a pure joy to deal with. But we know we are too selfish and set in our ways to cope properly with a child for more than a day or so......Chris is off to have a doze on the couch...me I am off to lock the birds up

It was lovely to catch up with them all

Mixed bag

Today the nation decides on our next government....listening to the manifestos, the pledges, the spin AND all of the "lies", my head is in a whirl of PR and stats as well as being over shadowed by last year's "expenses row"
It is all a sorry mess.
The financial crisis in Greece seems to be pushing the country into some sort of anarchy...and I am fearful of what will happen to us all if Britain heads down that precipitous path; a fear which has been compounded just a little by our isolation here in Wales.
Somehow living in a city feels slightly safer when petrol prices soar out of control and amenities and public services may be cut
.......so how the hell do we pick a political party that will stabilise our lives and our country?
I will vote today, but I think I need a long quiet walk with the dogs before I do so.

Anyhow to happier things..
Readers of this blog will know that I absolutely love little acts of kindness. They are the stuff that makes the world go round, and they bring a smile to your face at the oddest of times.
Yesterday I got home after delivering eggs and there sitting on the wall was a vintage poultry feeder. No note. No sign of who dropped it off for me. It was just sitting on the wall, as an anonymous gift.
And it made my day!
So many thanks to whoever dropped it off for me.
It was lovely!

Today I will meet our friends at the beach for a bit. More hens have hit their broody buttons, so I will have to come back at some stage to sort them out. Too many broody hens means no eggs and broodiness is catching!

hey ho

Last night we had a flower show committee meeting and have allocated some of our funds to worthy Village causes.
We agreed that three groups would benefit by donations and gifts; one for the elder population and one for the junior population of the village and one for the Memorial Hall which is the focus of the village....Obviously I cannot detail our decisions as yet until the relevent parties are informed, but it is wonderful to feel that the original remit of the Flower Show ( ie to support worthy causes in the village) is being upheld