Gosling update

The fox is still lurking around, of that I am sure, but after a week and a half since his attack, the field population remains intact and untouched.
My brother in law, Ned, who used to be a gamekeeper, gave me some sound advice about how to recognise if the fox ( or "Charlie" as Ned calls him) is around.
Last night around 8pm I noticed a couple of Magpies chattering above the heavy hedge which runs above the stream. They were slowly following the line of the water, jumping from tree to tree as they cackled loudly, and I remembered that Ned had said that this is typical behaviour of magpies following a fox. I called the hens in to feed, and took the dogs down to the hedge to sniff and wee........ and the danger passed......for now

On a brighter note ,the goslings are going from strength to strength. At 7.15 we sat in the garden for our usual morning constitutional. Me with my coffee, they with gobfulls of grass. Both babies are now around 12 inches tall, and are losing their needy insecure personalities. They are increasing in confidence and bluster, and now will take themselves off for a walk on their own, However, sometimes their nerves fail them and back they gallop to "MOMMY" for a cuddle and a warm.
Having babies that need me, pander to my ego I guess, they are so lovable

Today I need to get some more strimming done as the nettles and bindweed have put a strangle hold on the wild flower border I planted next to the stream........I got a compliment too for my roses in the front garden (above) this is the first year they have bloomed so well.

Here comes the rain again...........

....falling on my head like a memory......

We have had experienced heavy showers throughout the night!
This morning it is misty and noticeably colder and the air is heavy with fresh moisture It also feels that the allotment, garden and pasture land have all taken in a collective "gulp" of rejuvenating water, which I know will change the scorched yellow of the field to a more normal and comforting green.
At least I wont have to hump a dozen buckets of water across the field now to water the far vegetable patches.
I need to clean out the hen houses today and will lay rat poison down carefully beneath each one.. I have seen a couple of rats lurking around when I have been on fox watch, so will nip any problem that may develop in the bud.
The dogs are incredibly patient when I am pottering around doing household jobs. Meg will take up her usual position on the bedroom window seat, watching out for any interesting movements and spending her time smearing dog snot on the window.
Perhaps it is the slightly damp feel to the start of the day, but I will forgo my second cup of coffee of the day and will now take the lot down to the beach for a run

Happy Birthday Ann

Chris is away working in London again, which will probably mean a slight improvement in his hay fever and a corresponding improvement in his mood!

We have had a small amount of rain today ( I had to curb the urge to reenact that famous scene from The Shawshank Redemption..I was so happy).And the day has shot by in a blur of jobs,and normal routine.

It is also my Sister Ann's birthday today.

When my sister Janet and I were born, Ann was a teenager. As young as she was, Ann provided the warmth and stability for us when we were growing up, something that was subtly lacking from our slightly dysfunctional 1970 parents.

Always a matriarch (even then) it is Ann's small kindnesses and attention to detail that always stick in my memory of her when I was a child. Birthday gifts were always an event, play activities were light hearted and enjoyable and parties and get togethers were relaxed and comfortable. With Ann in charge the critical parenting that we were all so used to, was overwhelmed by a more encompassing sense of fun,and a morale boosting celebration of self.

To this day Ann retains this benign matriarchal persona. Ok we all now have a few more lines on our faces, and for me there is far too much grey in my beard, but essentially things have not really changed over nearly fifty years.

She has remained the mother figure that we never really had, by shaping and supporting those more positive facets of our personalities by her celebratory approach to us and the other members of our family. We are, I would always like to think, products of her optimism and warmth...........which are much more positive gifts than what our own mother could have given us

Happy Birthday

xx

A little Gem

Sometimes you can obtain pleasure from the strangest of things.....tonight was a case in point.... When on "fox watch" I listened to BBC 7's re playing of their production of Raymond Chandler's The High Window!
It was a cracking play full of those Chandler-esque quotes.......
This one was my favourites!
"From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away".
Isn't that cool?
If anyone has a chance read Eric's blog....
http://mountainrambler.blogspot.com/
It is as near Chandler as you will ever get!

Hot Sunday

The allotment is hanging on by a thread. We have had no rain now for a month now, and without the kindness of my neighbours' hosepipe most of my vegetables would have gone to seed and dust. The poppies I planted a few years ago are the only things that seem to do well in this drought, although veg such as my cabbage and cauliflowers have thrived....... Mind you a persistent black rock broke her way under the protective netting the other night and has stuffed her fat face with the delicate cabbage hearts! (below)

The buffs and chicks in their runs have had shade covers put on, and extra water during the hottest point of the day.......it is strange, that come midday, the field is all but deserted with clumps of hot hens lying out in shady corners and under bushes.

Gina G - Ooh Ahh... Just A Little Bit Eurovision performance

we should have won with this entry way back in 1996! Ok she looked like a man in drag ) or even a tiny bit like Rita Hayworth?...but nevertheless............

A Hot Village & Greenberg

It has been hot, hot, hot today!
The village seemed deserted when I took the dogs on their walk this afternoon, but as I walked up High Street, I did spy Auntie Gladys (right pic- oh and just to let everyone know that Gladys is called "auntie" by everyone that knows her!) She was having a quiet sun snooze outside her house, which is one of the oldest in the village. At 90 she remains a stalwart on the flower show committee and single handedly has sold almost 300 raffle tickets!
I didn't wake her as she looked so relaxed, sitting there in the sun...I thought it was a lovely and awfully intimate scene of relaxation.

This afternoon we had a bit of a break and went to see the movie Greenberg at the Scala. As it turned out we were the only two people in the cinema on one of the hottest days of the year so far.....It was blissfully cool inside the cinema....pity the film was so bad.

Greenberg is Noah Baumbach's tale of modern Los Angeles and centres upon the realisation by a small group of friends that they are indeed "past their prime" now they have reached their forties . The central character is Roger Greenberg, a prickly 40 year old no hoper who after being discharged from a psychiatric hospital, is house sitting for his successful LA based Brother.

Greenberg ( a dreadfully haggard and sad looking Ben Stiller) is a difficult character. He is overtly angry, emotionally unstable, and is a rather unlikable man who has not quite dealt with the hand that life has given him and amid this background of thinly veiled depression he meets his brother's PA, Florence.(Greta Gerwig). Florence is a similar personality but is young enough to make something out of herself, and the two start a fraught, unstable love affair, overseen by Roger's world weary but ultimately more stable old friend, Ivan ( a good performance by Welshman Rhys Ifans) I am sure Greenberg has a great deal to say about the awful shock it can be when you realise that you are middle aged. It also in its own Annie Hall (ish) way discusses disillusionment,the death of hope and broken dreams.....and does so quite sucessfully in a bleak and souless kind of way....however, in the end I lost interest in what the movie had to say, and this I put down to Stiller's character, who is so awfully unsympathetic that I couldn't bare watching him for another minute longer than the 107 minutes that the movie ran for.

5/10

ps Finally caught up with Nu on the phone this morning......she was in Harrogate going to a wedding....."Just thought of you Jonney!!!" she yelled....."I have just bought a fat bastard from Bettys".........I will tell you the story of all this tomorrow!!! It was lovely to catch up

pps. I spied the Fox tonight in next door's field!

Anyone seen BIG?

There There is a child in all of us