Pecking order blues

I bought four large ham bones today and furnished the dogs with them as I got on with planting out artichokes, Chinese cabbage and the last of the broccoli.
Meg, William and Maddie got on with the job in hand whereas George had a less than fortunate time with his bone and one particularly assertive amber rock.
The pecking order between hens is a well known phenomenon, but between hens and dogs I doubt there has been much research done.......By some innate ability the hens all seem to know that George is a non assertive, bullied individual who can be taken advantage of, and if he turns up on the field with food they press their advantage quite mercilessly.

This afternoon over an hour period they harried and intimidated poor George in an effort to steal his bone, so much so that I finally had to put him and his bone in the back of the Berlingo where he could chew in peace.
One white amber rock , who had pecked the gristle from George's bone in several concerted "attacks" made the drastic mistake of approaching look-a-like Maddie as she was sucking out the marrow from her prize . The hen was flattened instantly and within a split second, got swiftly de feathered for her trouble


The back garden arch that my brother-in-law made for us has finally taken on the typical cottage "look" that I had originally planned for . The clematis and honeysuckle have now joined together quite nicely.

My gardening bible is Carol Klein's "Grow your own veg" and this well thumbed copy is kept in the shed. Those are artichokes which I "bartered" from a guy in the village for a dozen eggs

Kate Winslet is still sitting on her clutch of eggs in the prefab hen house. (above). Her nest is now secure from the crow threat BUT this week I have decided to construct a scarecrow to maintain egg safety! The problem is, what shall I dress it in? All the crap clothes that I own...I actually wear.
The weather has been quite beautiful again...if not a little too hot. The pond already is drying up just a little,,,, and it's only May!!!

life

saw this on the great http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/

It reminds me of the Urban Legend of a middle aged couple being overheard in a post restaurant

"No George it's not the peas...it's the last 20 years!!"

Monsoon - Ever so lonely 1982

I loved this single from way back in 1982!!

funny I found myself singing it today...now where did that come from?..Why camels? why the Sarhara? she's obviously asian! hey ho

...a good Idea....

One of the girls from work told me that B&Q had some cheap chicken wire for sale, so after another busy night I put off home chores and went hunting for it in the local superstore!
Now I don't DO shopping......to me it is a necessary evil that has to be endured rather than enjoyed (with the only exception of browsing in a book shop that is).
I go into a shop or store like an assassin! I hurry in, get the object of my desire and leave...bish, bash bosh...it's as simple as that.
This morning it took me approximately 30 seconds to locate the fencing "department", a further 10 seconds to pick my role of chicken wire and another 15 seconds to weave my merry way to the tills..............a record breaking 55 seconds in all! ...result!......
Mind you I had not banked on the fact that I had to negotiate the small cluster of four "self service" checkouts each one occupied by a somewhat hesitant older person.
The seconds ticked on.....
I was aghast to see that one old guy was trying to scan two 7 foot curtain poles without using the hand held scanner. The poor old duffer looked a little like a ninja wielding a fighting stick as he tried manfully to hear the "beep".The other guy next to him couldn't quite figure out which way to put his credit card into the machine whilst a woman opposite had dropped two trays of trailing lobelia onto the weighing mechanism.
The last man had a huge trolley laden down with the contents of what looked like the Chelsea Flower Show....so wasn't going anywhere fast...and to add insult to injury the checkout supervisor seemed overly busy chatting to her mate by the special offer counter!
The seconds turned into minutes!
I pointed out to the man with the curtain pole where the hand scanner was, but having grappled it, he could quite locate the bar code on the pole itself!
The man with the credit card had the thing declined setting off a large red beacon on the top of the checkout and the woman was apologising loudly for the delay as she got on her hands and knees to pick up her damaged seedlings....

I could have screamed!
As the supervisor dragged her carcass over to see to the duff credit card, the final guy seemed to be scanning one plant pot at a time v-e-r-y--v-e-r-y- s-l-o-w-l-y and I just about stopped the urge I had to batter all four of them to death with my roll of cheap fencing.

No sleep, a busy shift and four cretins at B&Q to deal with!..........and all before 9am!
My tolerance was way WAY too low for this kind of shit!
Finally...( and after some very British huffing and puffing) I flounced past the woman who had finally sorted out her dropped greenery and scanned my wire professionally and with a flourish! Smiling in a somewhat superior manner to the four old gits, my fingers whirled over the touch screen instructions as I slammed my debit card into the slot....
I should have known better...in front of them all, I had entered the wrong pin number!!!.

I should have had a sleep when I got home, but as the weather was perking up again, I got on with jobs including carpet shampooing (too much doggy smells to bare), kitchen cleaning (below) and dog walking.......big mistake.....I collected all the eggs and was so tired that I left the lot in a bucket on the field......all were taken by crows!!!.

I am such an old fart!

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!