Airport 75 Tribute

The animals have taken to their houses as the weather has drawn in......so while spring cleaning the living room cupboards I have watched THE NUN'S STORY (9/10), AIRPORT 75 (7/10) and am half watching (yes believe me)...half watching.. MUPPETS FROM SPACE......

Loved this totally amateur false trailer from Airport 75!

Chuggers and being naughty

I am quite firm when it comes to road side charity giving.....when approached by one of those smiling, usually attractive undergraduate types holding onto their ID and clipboard, I smile broadly and call out assertively "No thank you!" before marching on with my head held high.
It has always been a personal rule.
Now the reasons for my refusal are as follows:-
1) If I want to give to charity I will do so off my own bat and not as a result of soft bullying tactics
2) I have also always questioned exactly how much of my monthly direct debit would benefit the charity of their choice?

I am glad I have never succumbed to the flash of white teeth and the friendly arm tugs as
Yesterday I read with interest in the Telegraph that when these "chuggers" ( I have never heard this term before) obtain a signature for a regular direct debit payment to say Help the aged then the first £165 is swallowed up with the administration costs of the company employing and paying the chuggers themselves!
Given the fact that many charity givers stop a regular payment to their charity after a year or two it is easy to see just where the money doesn't go isn't it? .
Am I right?....................... or am I an old grump?
Go directly to the charity of your choice that what I say or failing this find the nearest poor old lady and bung her a fiver!


I am tying this blog entry in bed. I got up early, walked the dogs, sorted out the field then with coffee , dogs and a peanut butter bagel I have sneaked back to bed listening to BBC I player- ! with Chris still away, I can get away with it!
Yesterday was sort of a quite non-day. I had to give up strimming the field when my loaned strimmer lost an attachment from it's spinning blade head. I rang the company which helpfully said they would send me a replacement "bit" in the post. After this I was in a bit of a loss of what to do, so I went for a drive to see my friend Hefin, who has a small chicken selling business in the hills....it was a fatal mistake......two cups of tea later, six hens ( 2 light sussex (above),a cochin, two pretty barnevelders and a little grey whatever it is) were sat in the back of the berlingo waiting to be rehoused in my new hen house.....hummm more beaks to feed,but at least these 6 will be good layers)

Chris rang yesterday evening...he has been to France with his mum for the day (remember he is in Kent which is a stone's throw from the French ports) and has stocked up with smoked garlic, tinned duck, and other nice nibbles....he knows me well when he said pointedly
"I bet you have been wearing that shirt all week and haven't had a bath for 3 days"
.........and you know what? he's be right................

Pob Hwyl

The Village post office will close today, and a steady stream of Trelawnyd folk have called in to wish Jenny the postmistress "Pob Hwyl" or as the Welsh would put it " all the best"

I cut her some flowers from the garden and called in to give her my best wishes when I was off walking the dogs

.the above photograph is of Jenny and one of her oldest customers Mrs Hughes

sigh

More Big Boy's films this evening.... Clash of the Titans.....

total bollocks but Sam Worthington is a real sweetie.....I could spit on a hankie and wipe his face anyday!!!

Blood and guts

I decided to have what Nuala and I used to call in our "salad days" as a "big boy's afternoon"..... now the actual definition of a big boy's afternoon is:-

"to vegetate on the couch in front of an action film with beer, crisps and no interruptions"

Mind you we used to indulge ourselves with such luxury years ago, when we were students with no responsibilities..so the thought of doing nothing for 2 hours in the day time now fills me with guilt that would put a Jewish Momma to shame.

So I got up early, had the jobs done by 8.30am and then got stuck in with the likes of coop cleaning, dog walking, lawn cutting and cottage cleaning. By 4pm, after I had delivered eggs and painted the last of my brooder boxes I thought I had earned enough brownie points to climb onto the couch with the dogs without any hint of remorse.

The movie of choice was the Neil Marshall epic CENTURION, which wasn't that bad a romp, even though it had obviously been cut-to-hell to fit in with the 20 year old yahoo cinema trade.
Little more than a chase movie, Centurion tells the tale of the 7 survivors of a 9th Legion massacre by the dirty Picts ( Michael Fassbender, Dominic West, David Morrisey and the still sexy Liam Cunningham amongst others) and how they have to escape from axe waving psychopath native warrior sexpot Olga Kurylenko
The survivors are picked off one by one after they do that obligatory jump over the waterfall scene, and everything is garnished with lashings of CGI blood and guts spurting around with gay abandon


Just the sort of mindless rubbish to while away a muggy afternoon

The Ghost hens.

For Maugre!

Here is a brief video of the ghost hens ( sorry Nigel) As you can see they are buxom, slow and rather mute birds but there is something quite benign and sweet natured about them

tee hee

I have one gay male friend ( well only one officially gay friend that is), and that is my good mate, city living Nigel
Tonight we had a chin wag.
He is pretty stressed at the moment as he is battling through his PhD, but after a bit of brief bitching about deadlines and the like, we finally reduced the quality of conversation to subjects that would elicit some humour and silliness
The subject of my blog came up and he wryly commented on my heavy livestock biased writing
"when I see a photo of a chicken on one of your blog posts...I skip it!!!!"
Message to self....re: tomorrow's blog"
...............no more hens.........

Getting Chris to relax, a fortress and good news

Sometimes you experience a day that keeps you busy but doesn't sound that exciting...well not to anyone but me I suppose.
Chris left for a week's holiday in Broadstairs this morning, he needs the break, not only has he working extra hard over the past few months, he has been intermittently smoking again, which doesn't do well with someone's stress levels especially as he has been playing around with his nicorette patches! A week with his family, at the scenic beach in Broadstairs will, I hope, recharge his batteries.....having said this...my request that he leaves his work laptop at home fell on deaf ears!
If I can eventually find a house sitter that can look after the field, we both will be able to take a break sometime...hopefully in Sitges in Spain..........but for now I am on hen watch.....it's going to be a quiet week ...both my friends here Geoff and Hazel are away on holiday...hey ho!
Anyhow this morning my neighbour John helped me collect my new second hand hen house, which was a snip at 10 quid! It had been displayed at a local feed wholesaler and needed a little work to get it back into shape, but essentially was a huge, robustly made coop.

I painted it this afternoon, and fixed the broken doors and then bought another ridge tile to cover the heavy house tiled roof. After an hour or so, it looked mighty fine and sturdy enough to catch the eye of a visiting farmer!

"Do you think it will keep out a fox?" I asked him....and with a chuckle he stated "The only way that a fox would get into that house is with a f*cking hand grenade"

I used the left over paint to tidy up several small enclosures that had been donated to me by the animal rescue centre at Trelogan. I know it is slightly presumptuous but I want these ready for the hopeful next hatching of ducklings that are due in twelve days or so

By 6pm I was buggered. and had a quick moment of cloud watching before Lily clambered up onto my tummy....who said hens can't be affectionate?
The anonymous fruit leaver has continued to drop kind offerings off for Boris. He loves these little treats and today sucked out the centre out of each tomato with delightful relish ( I had to break them open for him.....of course...remember Turkeys are thick as mince.
The great news of the day is that my friend Nia has just had her second baby over in Australia! Little Molly Seren ( Welsh for star) is a real cracker and I am so pleased for her.....after looking after Leo for a five days, I now feel as though I am an expert in child care.....and can talk about babies without my usual reticence!!!
Humm another skill tucked under my belt.....

Off to lock the birds up now....I suspect this week I shall be watching a great many dvds and all the cupboards in the cottage will be cleaned out at last