An odd little moment

I bought my first two runner ducks a few years ago now. and kept the gentle, nervous females, who have mothered all of my many ducklings over the last few seasons.

I named them Nell and Maude, and I suspect both were older ducks when I bought them. Yesterday Nell looked tired and wobbly on her legs, and without the usual hysterical screaming that Indian runners exhibit when they come into close human contact, I caught her and placed her in the quiet duckhouse with food and some water.

Today the old girl remained ill , so I placed her back into the duck house and got on with chores before I needed to leave in order to take one of our elderly neighbours to hospital. When I returned I took the goslings out on to the field for a walk and sat down with them with a bowl of water for them and a cup of coffee for me.

As we sat there in the sun, Nell tottered out of the duckhouse and walked very slowly over to us.

She drank briefly from the goslings bowl as they craned their necks and twittered at her and not six inches away from us, she sat down in the warm sun where she lowered her head into the grass.

I thought to myself that she was dying and very gently I picked her up and let her lie in the crook of my arm where she sat still and very calm.

There was something small but incredibly moving about the whole little scene, and moments later Nell's breathing slowed and then eventually stopped.

It was the oddest thing

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)

I have posted this before and no matter what is the real origin is of the video is, It is a wonderfully uplifting piece of mini cinema, It should be viewed at least once a week!!!!

Don't Look Now Midget in red

In way of explaination for my previous post

I did look.... now

Sometimes life can be a little strange.
Last night I found myself looking after a young road traffic victim from Sheffield ( I knew the road that his family lived on very well indeed) and this morning I stalked a midget in a red coat around Home Bargains.
Obviously I wont go into details about my patient, suffice to say having someone around that knew the family home city well, went a long way in cementing good relationships between nurse and family...no I want to concentrate on the surreal little moment I experienced when shopping for dettol.
Knackered I had finished work, completed the jobs , walked the dogs and then driven to Prestatyn to deliver eggs and to collect more red mite disinfectant.
Prestatyn has a Home bargain store ( which took over from the now defunct Woolworths) and although a little "trailer trashy!" it is the ideal place in which to buy cheap cleaners and diet coke.
As I walked around the store , a small figure in a red coat kept catching my eye and I found myself transported to the climax of Don't Look Now! when a middle aged lady "small person" shot passed with a large wire basket..

I don't know what possessed me but I followed her!
When she stopped to look for something on a shelf I stopped, pretending to search the higher shelves for an item of interest and after a few minutes she limped to the till with me and my dettol in hot pursuit....I could believe myself, but I wanted to see what she had bought.
I had visions of a sharp kitchen knife, a claw hammer and perhaps a sharpened screwdriver...

What I did see was a packet of wild bird food and can of air freshener!

Time for more sleep

Visitors

Now I know I risk sounding like some old queen swooning over a hot dyson hoover "But I haven't had a minute to myself today!!!"
Truth is I haven't and that's typical as I am working nights tonight.
I had to break off a phone call from Nu an hour or so ago as some neighbours brought around a sick hen for me to look at, Chris' supper is cooking away on the stove , unwatched and I am crawling with soddin red mite after cleaning most of the coops with dettol and jayes fluid all morning!
The recent hot and humid weather I think has given the little bastards a foot hold and "BANG" there is millions of the little fuckers all sucking the blood of every warm blooded animal in sight.
Well I sorted the neighbours hen out with some spare antibiotics, tried to ring Nu back ( no luck) and plated Chris' supper like a good wifey
Now I am going to jump in the bath and dettol myself free of red mites but will grab a cuppa and a few minutes to do my blog.
Nothing much happens here generally but between now and mid August things are going to be busy. I have My sister's flower Show to prepare for which is on the 30th, The allotment open on the 1st of August and Trelawnyd's Flower Show on the 21st. In between these Chris's dad, Richard is visiting and is bringing with him his grandson, Leo ( Chris' nephew)
Now my knowledge and experience of 7 year old little boys could be written down on the back of a fag packet but I guess we will bumble through....
I will give him a few friendly hens to carry around, get him dirty in the pond and will get Chris to take us all to see Toy Story 3......(Nu says it's fab)...so jobs a good 'un..
Right I am off now ( flounces off) I need that bath, the dogs need another walk and I can't find my uniforms for tonight

Au Revoir Les Enfants

I don't know much about Louis Malle's film career but I did sort of knew that Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987) was one of his "coming of age" movies, but that was about all.
Nigel sent me a copy of the movie for my birthday, so knowing his love of quality, I thought I would enjoy it.
Today the weather has been atrocious. This morning I did all the household jobs, walked the dogs, made a meat pie for tea and fed and watered all of the animals as they hid away in the coops and bushes out of the rain. The only good thing is that the field pond has now almost full (above)
So steaming after getting soaked, I sat down with a towel and a hot cup of tea and indulged myself with 100 minutes of French movie.
Au Revoir Les Enfants is striking as it captures the cold, cruelty and pettiness seen within a boys' school ( and by saying cruelty I mean the little acts of harshness that occurs constantly when little boys are forced to spend time together) but balances this with a very real and recognisable friendship between Julien Quentin and Jean Bonet (Gaspard Manesse and Raphael Fejtö)

Quentin is homesick for his mother and is a smart and angry boy. Bonet is a quiet, lonely academic and one of several hidden Jewish borders. The date is 1944 and the Germans are looking for any Jewish citizens not already interned.

The story is simple enough, and from the very beginning the audience can guess where the plot is heading; that much is clear, however it is the realism of a child's point of view that cuts to the quick in this movie. The boys' roles with all of their their whims and contradictions are beautifully portrayed by the two leads, and the loss of innocence by the tortured Quentin when the Germans finally seek out the truth, is truly heartbreaking.

8.5 out of 10

A day in the life

I know I can blog about the opening of an envelope, the habit of "chatting" about the little things that occur in our tiny corner of the globe is now so ingrained totally in my daily routine and existence, I hardly realise that the blog has been "done" along side the washing of the dishes and the collection of the eggs.
Chris has the car today, I forgot that I needed to pick up some medication for Jesus ( who has scaly leg mite) so am stuck at home for the day.
Yesterday the day flew by.......In the morning I baked apple pies, tray bakes and jam tarts for the Open day and quickly hid them in the freezer before Chris could get his hands on them

In between the rain showers I exercised the goslings in the garden, much to amusements of a group of walkers. Jo's floppy wing is clearly seen on the above photo, but again he looks happy enough with it. As I watched over them the red faced Welsh farmer called by and blocked the lane with his trailer as he unloaded huge heavy bags of shavings for my hen houses. He always does this for free and in his seventies he still effortlessly hurls these bags around without any hesitation. I filled his tweed hat with eggs as Ralph the gentleman farmer and another farmer in a pickup beebed their horns in a good natured way as they waited for him to move

I already have 5 people provisionally enrolled onto my next Chicken course. The lady I helped out the other day offered me some hens in lieu of course payment and I collected five healthy young hens last night. The hens are lovely, two cochins with their scruffy feathered feet ; a speckled Plymouth Rock, a gentle Welsummer and what looks like a Rhode Island Red. I sneaked them into the large buff hen house at dusk and will keep them shut in there for the next 24 hours until they imprint on the house itself. (above the Plymouth rock)
Our animal population now numbers around 83.

The wet weather has given the flowers on the allotment and wild flower border a bit of a kick start. The sweet peas, and red poppies look great..I hope they keep going for the open day

Today I will harvest the climbing french beans ( below), which I will blanch and freeze and will do the same with broccoli which has burst into flower overnight.

I talked to a farmer yesterday about the fate of the Ghost hens. He warned me that the broilers may not survive their new "gentle" lifestyle in the field. He said that he had the experience of trying to free range a few before he culled them and he said that all but two died suddenly. The vet informed him that because these birds are intensively reared (literally a few weeks from hatching to being eaten) their organs cannot cope with a slower pace of food and water. So by offering these little birds a "better" way of living, I could almost be viewed as being cruel! Its a weird world eh?

Above the five remaining Ghost hens watching the turkeys walking past their enclosure.

Sigh.....health and safety...again!

Readers may recall that last year an anonymous caller contacted the local council's health and safety department about my proposed allotment open... They voiced concerns over the state of the Church Wall and indicated that the public may be "at risk" if it collapsed!
Collapsed! collapsed! it has been standing for nearly three hundred years!!!

Duty bound a sweet lady trundled out to"inspect" my risk assessment plans for the day and even she scoffed at the caller, surmising that they were either a crank or someone that was harbouring some sort of grudge.
I do detest people like these. Every community has them. The character who is the spokesman for the host of complaints that never actually exist or the nameless phone caller who "just thought you would like to know!"...and all in the spirit of health and safety!
So this year everything has been sorted. This morning at 6.45 (Chris woke me up as he went to work) I downed that first lovely cup of coffee of the day as , I drafted out the risk assessment for this years' allotment open.
It was easy enough to do, gawd I remember completing dozens and dozens of the bloody things when I was a ward Manager....but in these days of litigation and blame, they are a necessary evil if any "event" needs to be organised.
There has to be signs for "uneven ground", (people may fall over a rabbit hole) "These animals may peck" (Boris with a gob on) "Do not pick the hens up" (Fear of E coli).......perhaps I should invest in some very large plastic hamster balls, so that visitors can be safely installed inside and can roll themselves around the field without fear of actually coming into contact with anything vaguely dangerous
I heard through the grapevine that when there was the odd hen in the Churchyard someone indicated that there was a potential risk of someone falling over them! To them and people like them all I have to say is "get a life" Mind you, I guess in these days of courtroom payback, laughing in the faces of stupid small minded jobsworths would probably get you saddled with a lawsuit!

tee hee

Jo, the grey gosling has a deformed wing. I recall that when he hatched he dried out very quickly when struggling from his egg and he came out with his wing fixed firmly to his head by dried rock hard mucus. I managed to separate wing from head using some cooled kettle water and some cotton wool but even then the part of lower lobe of the wing looked bent. This part of his wing has no feather growing on it and sticks out comically from his side, but the little chap is not bothered by all this so I will leave well alone and let nature heal it if possible

(above this mornings shot of the goslings watching a tractor passing the cottage)