Roasting pig

There is a downside to leaving in a cottage that was originally built over three hundred years ago.

When it is cold outside, the cottage can be icy and take an age to warm up and when it is boiling hot outside the bedrooms especially can become extremely hot to say the least.

Bwthyn-y-llan (a name in Welsh that means cottage of the Church (or cottage of an enclosure) is south facing, so when I am on nights and the sun is shining I always wake up early in the afternoon which the oddest feeling that I have been transported inside a large oven, albeit on a fairly comfortable mattress.

This usually puts paid to any further rest I may have, as I feel a little like a slug which has been caught outside on a hot stone. (humm a nice mental image there)

I have just got up, staggered downstairs in a rather unflattering pair of y fronts, demolished a cheese bagel and have staggered back to bed with the laptop.

I will try to get back to sleep after typing this blog, then will get up to see to the broodies.

Meg is desperate for me to be "available" and is mooching around the house in a pathetic kind of "I am an orphan " way.

I am so tired, I could spit

Dyserth brings the worst out....

Dyserth (above) is the next, larger village downhill to Trelawnyd.
The main road cuts the top half of the village in two, and the high street , where the few shops are located effectively is made into a one lane road by the fact of cars parked on one side of the road.
Negotiating the high street is a nightmare, as each lane thinks that it is their right of way to drive the 1000 yards or so without stopping, so every day the road remains effectively gridlocked.

This modern day problem brings the worst out in most drivers that face it, I always think...and I hate driving back from the supermarket with Chris every Saturday as I always have to face the gauntlet of Chris yelling "GO ON! DON'T LET THEM THROUGH! DON'T STOP, DON'T STOP................................GO ONNNNNNNNNNNNNN! IT'S OUR RIGHT OF WAY!!!!"
I swear he'll have a stroke one of these days...but I can understand just why he gets so irate........road courtesy seems to be a thing of the past in our need -to-be-there- now modern day lifestyles. Ok, a cheerful wave and a smile still can work wonders when you are facing a line of hot and bothered drivers, but simple flirting behaviours like these, I feel are wearing thin with people that are too busy to effectively deal with those normal little pressures that life have to throw at them.
and I thought living in the country calmed people down!
off to work tonight and tomorrow night...we are in for the hottest days of the year so far this weekend!

Worst Wedding DJ EVER! (ORIGINAL)

I nearly wet myself towards the end..........................................deadpan and worrying but oh! so funny

Plans

What is my next project?.....Humm I have been thinking about this today as I was clearing the back garden of weeds. (above)

In three weeks time the goose eggs in the incubator are due to hatch, but just in case they don't I have a provisional promise of some day old goslings. The goose house hopefully will be delivered around my birthday on the 1st of June.

Now, with the changes made in the glebe lease I am now allowed to keep a pig, so I think we will buy 2 weaners to fatten up and eat. The problem remains that with the turkeys living in the old pig hut, I have no where for two piglets to be housed........

Sandra, my friend and fellow Flower Show committee member, may have the answer to this one, as she is after two turkeys for her own allotment in the centre of the village.

I have suggested that she takes two of my Bourbons..........the remaining two females can be housed with Boris and the new piglets will be housed in the newly painted (I did it this morning) turkey house!

simples!

Nuala

It is Nuala's birthday today!
I have arranged to go down to London to meet up with her in September and I feel pleased that I can treat her to a west end show as a bit of a birthday treat...albeit a late one!
Usually it is her that treats me to something rather decadent!
Being Nuala's friend is as necessary to me as breathing. She has been my best friend, confidant, counsellor and fellow giggler for over twenty years now; we ring each other on the same day...we say the same things at the same time and boy can we laugh....and laugh, long, hard and with some gusto.
Nuala, like most of the people I love dearly, has a big heart. She is loyal, opinionated and consistently THERE for me albeit in the “wings” of my life.....however, she is never suffocatingly involved with me and mine...but remains a steadying, pragmatic and loving influence in my life.
I love her dearly

Hello Miranda

Nuala rang, full of giggles tonight....she works with someone in London who loves my blog!
Nuala couldn't understand it, as she thinks it's all too country and incredibly dull!!!!
hey ho, that's a best friend for you!
so hello Miranda!

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?.