Village Day snapshot

The alliums are starting to bloom in the garden and Lords and Ladies (Arum Maculatum) are sprouting all up the field borders. It has been a fine, warm and rather humid day, and I have had to wear Chris' "old man's hat" in order to keep the hot sun from making my already weather beaten face a double for Mother Theresa!

I have been asked if I ever have a humdrum day?.......hum of course to some, my day in the village may be seen as "plodding", but I can honestly say that the only humdrum days I have experienced recently are those on intensive care when I am at work.

This morning I was up and out at 7.15.

All four of the broody hen boxes have had to be emptied of their occupants and the hens "woken" up by some judicious sprinkling of water onto their faces and backs. I have to go through this time consuming performance twice daily with them all; all four take an age to come to in order to drink, eat and drop their huge daily poo! Broody hens can be thick as mince when it comes to self care issues

After walking the dogs a couple of miles down gypsy lane (it was too hot! yes, HOT) to take them out in the full sun, I made a batch of fishcakes from scratch for supper then all the housework needed doing and THEN...I went to the post office to post Nuala's birthday card. The post office was deserted, as most of the pensioners from the village were attending the Christian Aid Faye at the Village Hall, so I had a brief chat to Jenny the postmistress and bought my usual diet coke before darting over to the Hall to see if there were any plants left in the sale.

Pat, one of our neighbours is famous for her gardening skills and always donates trays of seedlings for the sale. Obtaining the best plants is always a bit of a bunfight, so I "muscled" in to buy baby foxgloves for the front garden. The vicar, auntie Glad and numerous others were there having tea and biscuits At ninety, Gladys is the flower show's best raffle ticket seller and only yesterday I gave her 200 books of tickets to shift..a task she will do easily,quickly and with a great deal of good humour.....I have always found that the pensioners of the village always provide the biggest support for any village based event.

As I walked back home the chap from Anchor house yelled out his usual hello as did Ann from Rhoda Arthur, and Pippa, all breathless after her tennis lesson galloped past to the Hall after leaving me with an egg order and a load of spare bread for the birds. Bob, the retired hen keeper caught me when I was almost home and kept me talking for three quarters of an hour. I have heard his story of his mother's favourite sow and her abilities to steal grain several times now and it tickles me every time he tells it.

Before I knew it, it was afternoon, and I had an hour of weeding and sweetcorn planting to carry out, before the ritual of feeding the broody hens, dog walking and egg collection started all over again.

Humdrum?

Perhaps....... but........ quite, quite acceptable!

Questions

AJ @ A little farm with a big Heart sent me an award and a questionaire..which was nice of her. Her blog always makes for an interesting read!

1. What would your perfect day consist of?
Well I would choose to something more pampering rather than my usual animal and veg orientated day as a treat. So I would have breakfast at Pershing Square (a wonderful pancake house on 42nd street New York above), then we would mooch around the Rockefeller centre and central park before going to a movie........a slap up meal at Docks (on 2nd avenue and few cocktails up the Beekman tower...who said I cant do sophisticated!!!!?

2. How would you describe yourself if you were an item of clothing?
An Unkempt and comfortable woolly hat. Mutton dressed as lamb

3. What hobbies are you currently working on?
The Trelawnyd Flower Show preparations.

4. Walking in the woods in wellies or bare foot on the beach?
Walking on the beach in Sitges Spain ( the water is warmer!!).

5. Have you ever hugged or sang to a tree?
No but I once apologised to my reflection in a full length mirror after I had walked into it (I was pissed) (pissed means drunk in this context!!!)

6. Growing your own veggies or nipping to the supermarket?
Growing my own but they don't always turn out the way you want them.

7. Have you found anyone exciting in your family tree?
No but I once found an injured cat in my privet hedge once.

8. Slap up meal in a posh restaurant or fish ‘n’ chips from the wrapper?
I am shallow with the best of them.......posh meal anytime especially as I am not paying.

9. Which element do you most resonate with, Earth, Air, Fire or water?
Earth I suspect but Chris would say air.....especially with my flatulence

10. Do you believe in fairy’s?
As a middle aged gay man...what do you think?.

Police Beat in Unalaska

Now, the one thing that I love about blogs is the way you suddenly are able to grab a glimpse into someone's life and experiences.
Now I know that everything is subjective, and you only really get to know what people want or need to reveal, nevertheless that snapshot of others lives and experiences remains powerful and dare I say, rather addictive .
I must thank Ina who sent me an email from Alaska. She noted that I enjoyed "Chopper Coppers" on tv (I know, I know..I have not missed the sexual connotations here.....but I must admit I am now slightly addicted to the Australian reality cop show The Recruits!) anyhow Ina sent me a link to read. It is called POLICE BEAT which is located on a local advertiser website of the city of Unalaska and is a list of the police activity within the city's limits
Now Unalaska is (and I am quoting from the city's website here)Unalaska, the 11th largest city in Alaska, is a bustling community of about 4,000 residents located along the Aleutian Chain, approximately 800 miles southwest of Anchorage. Dutch Harbor, the official name of the city's port, is often applied to the portion of the City of Unalaska located on Amaknak Island, which is connected by bridge to the rest of the community on Unalaska Island. Unalaska's economy is based on commercial fishing, fish processing, fleet services, and transportation

The link is
http://www.arctic.net/~veda/index_files/Page374.html

I found it an amusing read and so typical of a rural and isolated community...my favourite entry was this wry comment:Suspicious Person/Activity – Officer was advised that several men looked ready to rumble outside the Harbor View bar. An officer contacted the men, all of whom were loud and intoxicated but not in any way belligerent.

Like I said , a fascinating snapshot into other peoples' lives

Protecting the troops

It has felt like summer today; house martins have been swooping around the field borders and I have caught the sun after finishing off the weeding and planting out French beans, marigolds and turnip seedlings swapped with another villager for some eggs.
Broody hens and now ducks seem to be everywhere. Lilly, the buff has now parked herself on any egg she can find and in one of the rabbit hutches two of the runner ducks have collectively started their broody sittings!
Kate Winslet has been fed with corn, cat food (good for a sitting hen) and pasta and has been set up on some more eggs within the safety of a new crow proof run and I have surrounded Blanche's broody box with chicken wire.
I have also set up another enclosure in which to house Jesus. His sexual advances has somewhat knackered many of the hens including the diminutive and lame Bunny. who now has large bald spots on her back and wings To give Bunny some more respite and TLC , she has been moved into the last one of my broody boxes and has been given a small, quiet run of her own. (above)
Bloody hell. sometimes I feel like a nanny rather than a (small) smallholder!!
I must say that Bunny is one of my favourite hens. She is not a looker, is definitely a runt and can only hop spastically with both skinny wings flapping hysterically. Her knackered hip (damaged two years ago when she and her adolescent flock mates were attacked by a dog see old post) prevents her mobilizing very well, and if she is not careful she bares the brunt of the cockerels who see her as "easy meat".

http://disasterfilm.blogspot.com/2008/10/ewan-saves-day.html

Bloody Crows

Last year Kate Winslet hatched out a healthy bouncy brood. Her first brood this year was almost read for piping!
Yesterday evening I found her broody box empty and her eggs smashed, pecked and cold. I suspect a crow had driven her off the eggs or had sneaked in when she had briefly left them to feed.
By the look of the shells most of the eggs had been fertile and when I checked on the intact eggs, each one had a perfectly formed but dead chick inside. It was a bit of a blow as broody hens literally go out of condition when they are sitting (they hardly eat and drink), so the prospect of another 3 weeks sitting is a daunting one to an animal that is already thin and slightly out of sorts!

I gave the dead chicks to the hens to eat (no waste) and tomorrow after I feed kate up a little I will start her off on some more eggs in another more robust broody box.

Chris was up at 4.30 am to go to London for the day, so I am writing this wide awake in bed surrounded by dogs. It is too early to let the birds out...that fox is still around, I could smell his scent markers by the field bottom....
time to get a gun me thinks

huh?

stole this from Marks blog

very funny

Am I?

I am 48 in two weeks!

Am I a little too old for a celebrity crush?

Well Chris certainly thinks so.......having said that, he was highly amused when Russell Crowe flexed his pecks at the audience of Robin Hood, and I let out an involuntary sigh!

I guess that if you have a crush at 48, then the base line is that you HAVE A CRUSH....plain and simple....and there is no real harm in it

Is it a sign of immaturity? (......hummm perhaps)

Is it a sign of not being content with a partner? (nawwww)

Is it just a little daft (humm probably)

Am I bothered? ( defiantly not!)

But I do feel just a little guilty......

Not with sighing at Mr Crowe

But acknowledging that I have a secret guilty crush on Derren Brown too!

War of the Weeds

Not the most interesting Blog!
With the warm weather following a good drenching, the usual "WAR OF THE WEEDS" has now started. This morning I did a Russell Crowe and with trusty hoe in my hand I faced the growing mountain of weeds with a gruff "On my command, unleash HELL"
For 7 hours I have toiled away clearing the vegetable beds and ripping up the armies of spring meadow flowers and grasses. It is a backbreaking, sweaty but necessary job.
Right is one of the newly painted rabbit hutches I blagged from the animal rescue centre. I have had to remove Blanche from the ark and relocate her inside with her eggs, as the other hens were "adding" to her clutch on a daily basis by parking their bums neatly into her nest..thank god I had marked her original eggs as today she had 16 in her nest and was going slightly frantic in an effort to cover them all!
Broody hens do not take lightly to being moved, but she settled down after I had covered the front of her hutch with some wood.
I have not even had time to start the back garden weeding as yet. Scores of pink columbine are starting to flower but the garden has not quite come into it's own as yet. I weeded the front garden and cut the grass today too, but again the flowers have not yet started to bloom so the place looks need if not just a little dull

Chris asked if he could have a herb bed made on the allotment and I sorted that out too this afternoon. (below) I planted out sage, thyme and flat leaf parsley, and moved containers containing rosemary, chives and mint from the four corners of the allotment
All of the herbs are now safely behind chicken wire.....hungry beaks are everywhere