I need a snooze

I just cannot get going today. Last night I was caring for a a poorly but "awake" patient who constantly (for 12 and a half hours that is) tried to pull all her IV tubes, naso gastric tube, catheter, central line and invasive arterial lines out.
In one shift she managed to remove all but two of them!
Supervising a confused patient who is seriously ill, is a challenge to say the least and driving home, I was more weary as weary could be!
I fed the dogs, sorted out the animals and took the goslings into the front garden for their feed and promptly fell asleep on the grass ( still in my uniform)
I woke up after about half an hour after one of the farm hay wagons gave me a "beeb" as he turned the lane corner....both goslings were neatly tucked up under my chin as I lay on my side,all safe and warm.
I took the dogs for their walk, bought dog food and again fell asleep on the couch after checking my emails.....
The then had a choice...........clean the duck house out or mooch on the couch!! and for once in an absolute age I mooched on the couch and watched an old Audie Murphy movie The Guns of Fort Petticoat.
It was a cracking movie! -
"Murphy deserts the Union Army to warn former Texas neighbors of impending Indian attacks triggered by Army massacre. He overcomes initial distrust and convinces the homesteaders (all women whose men are away fighting in the Confederate Army) to take refuge in an abandoned mission. He trains them to fight and shoot in anticipation of the attack. Surrounded and outnumbered, the defenders prepare for the final assault.."
Mind you the movie' poster's tagline sums up the action much better...as it screams:
GOOD WOMEN...BAD WOMEN...BRAWLING WOMEN...BRAVE WOMEN! They were all soldiers in skirts!
Yeap I think you get the picture
off for a very strong coffee............Chris is working away again
I need a sleep

Spartacus and cauliflower overload

I am a sucker for an underdog. The stocky, deformed and most silent of the battery hens has just about won me over. I was resolved not to name any of these hens as they are earmarked for eating but this little chap, who has the look of John Mills in Ryan's Daughter , has been dealt so many bum deals at such an early age, I feel that it is only right that I give him a little bit of freedom!.......so it felt only right that he/she is called SPARTACUS

Anyhow enough of me being an overly soft puddin. I am working tonight, a shitty night to work but a computerised rota system has suddenly been introduced at work which starts the week on a Sunday not a Monday.........the long and short of all this..means that staff are working more weekends.........Chris will lock up the animals tonight but wont watch over the field I would do, With the last sighting of the fox over two weeks ago now, I hope things will be ok tonight.

My first major crop of cauliflower is ready. We have blanched and frozen a load, and tomorrow I will make soup to freeze. The slog of harvesting has started

The American President "End Titles"

I watched this movie last night and although I am not a fan of Michael Douglas..I found this bit of fluff and sweetness rather moving, thanks mainly to Annette Benning who was wonderfully sympathetic.

Loved the music too.

The Ghost hens improve

The power of home grown raspberries!
I dropped a couple outside the battery hens' house and after a few unsure steps, five of the youngsters tottered out on shaky big feet.
A small but intensely satisfying little victory

Barbarella and Hot Lips

Funny what you remember when you listen to music.
My last post (Cool and the Gang) got me to thinking about my CB days way back in 1980 (30 YEARS AGO!!!)
I shared an austin 1300 with my sister. It was a shitty brown/green colour, had furry seats and a 5 foot "whip" aerial which allowed me to use my trusty superstar 120 citizens band radio!


They were all the rage back then, and most geeks aged between 14 and 35 had one. At night the airwaves would be full of "1-9 FOR A COPY?" as saddos like me searched the ether for friends that you could chat to or even meet ( this was called rather bizarrely as an "eyeball")


Official and unofficial groups were formed by these CB'ers, and once a week the Prestatyn despots would troll down to a dive in Greenfield for a night's eyeballing complete with too much beer and individualized T shirts with our names ( or handles as they were known as) emblazoned upon them.


My handle was POCKETS! and yes even back in my teenage years I was slightly film obsessed!
as Pockets was the nickname of RED BUTTONS in the film HATARI....I was an unofficial member of the Prestatyn group of teen CB fanatics which consisted of BOGEY MAN and his sister SILVER FOX...., sisters RUSTY NUT and CHERRY BLOSSOM. GREEN GIANT, BLACK SHEEP ( a guy who was a lot older then we were and was,on reflection a bit of a sexual predator), his waspish wife SWEETIE PIE (! no comment) and various other hangers on with the dubious names such as PSYCHO, PONYTAIL , SHADY LADY (pronounced shady laaayyydeee),PEPPERMINT PATTY, SUPERTROUPER and RAMPANT BUDGIE (who was unfortunatly my massive GEEK of a cousin)....


On reflection our social group was fairly benign, but some of the younger girls could have been put a risk from the more full blooded members of the CB fraternity..I am only saying this on reflection as at the time we seemed to have lived in a safer more trusting time......nowadays I suspect that teenage girls would never be allowed the freedom that they had then ( humm mind you we never had the internet then either!!!)


Of course there were icons amid the CB community, those that had been established for months before we came on the scene! Two of these icons were the velvet tongued HOT LIPS and her sister BARBARELLA.

Every time these Talullah Bankhead sounding sex pots came on for a "copy" there was always a clamouring from the more desperate men who had been lying in wait for a hopeful chat or eyeball..... On the radio, I guess , like the internet the imagination can run wild!and with deep sexy and breathless voices even I would imagine that Hotlips and Barbarella ( Babs to her close friends!) were stunning blondes with legs up to their armpits.


LOL..I should have known better.....both girls lived "over the tracks" in Prestatyn and one fellow CB'er one day informed me that Bab's glamorous job as a beauty "technician" was in fact a part time job in a pet groomers..........when we all finally got to meet these two celebrities of the airwaves, we were slightly underwhelmed by the sight of a pair of grossly overweight, heavily made up teenage girls in grey sweat shirts with the words BABS and HOTLIPS undulating over their chests.

The craze lasted a year or so. We teenagers grew up and started work and University.... but it was fun when it lasted

Kool & The Gang - Celebration

love the foot work.....

got home after 8pm to find Janet and Ned (with George) in their car parked on the field watching out for Mr Fox...thank god for sisters!!

As I got the field locked up..this song blasted out across the fields.... and I realised that a party in memory of a popular local women was going on ! She died this time last year, and her huge family and close friends had got together to "celebrate" her life by music, games and plenty of beer!

It was lovely to hear the fun....and this song was a blast from my past.......reminds me of my friend Rol and his sister Nia.....and the CB days of tacky 1980 night clubs!

The Ghost Hens

It has been a bit of a rush this morning, I received a phone call from work desperate for me to do a day shift rather then a night shift tonight. I said I couldn't do the whole day but I could work the afternoon and early evening, so I am grabbing my morning coffee and blog before I sort the animals out then I will be off.
The battery hens are starting to take a little more interest in their surroundings after 48 hours TLC. They remain silent and still and are typical examples of the "frozen awareness" that you often see in abused animals and damaged children.
Last night I caught three of the little ones sat outside their run and this morning a couple of them shuffled their sad ways into the sunshine of the hen house door to take in the dawn sunshine.
Look closely on the hen on the right, her beak is completely crossed, giving her the look of someone with a cleft palate.
One hen remains very unsteady on her feet, and all still look hunched, frightened and unhappy.
The other hens on the field have found these strange little birds terrifying. From time to time several of them have crept up to the wire to give the strangers the once over, but look wary and unsure of the new hens...

Web cam

Its not a good look for a 48 year old is it?
A hoodie!!
I am on fox watch this evening and have just found out that the wireless broadband reaches the field!!!
so I am here typing out some blog comments and taking photos of myself with the web cam!..a neighbour has just called out
"well I've seen everything now! poultry and the internet"

My plan tonight is to watch the awful film The Presidio (some lovely shots of San Fransisco..I will enjoy recognising places we have been) and eat ALL of a salmon wellington from out of the freezer!.....bliss