No Sign Of Sheep

I finished a stint at the hospital  by 4pm and was disappointed when I got home because the sheep had not been delivered! The lady that wants to move them on, has not quite sorted out the relevant paperwork as yet, and as I was adamant that all the I s would be dotted and the T s crossed they will remain with her until everything is sorted.

I have not had time to sulk, the ducklings needed cleaning out, so into the garden they went for the very first time.......the hysteria, as you can see was almost palpable!

Tonight is Strictly Come Dancing and a bag of chocolate buttons night

An Autumn Trip Around Trelawnyd

 The change from Summer to Autumn is almost palpable and today the village is shrouded in mist and rain as the fields seemed to have changed from deep green to a slight muddy brown.
When out walking this morning I decided to "snap" a flavour of Trelawnyd as winter approaches, and got bloody wet for my sins!.I also effectively Superglued my right foot inside my wellington as I put on the boot after "fixing" a hole in the upper by filling in with too much adhesive!
After some painful pulling and grunting ( and NO farting) I managed to free myself from just a little bit of skin.

Anyhow the following photos are literally a brief snapshot of Trelawnyd on a somewhat wet and sleepy Friday morning 

This is the view from the Gop overlooking the Northern part of the village. Trelawnyd nestles in the Gop's shadow and occupies the Head of a small valley which drops down towards the flood plain and eventually the sea. Trelawnyd is around 600 feet above sea level 

The below photo is the main village proper

 Trelawnyd School was completed in 1860...apparently the children would be reprimanded and punished if they spoke Welsh on the school premises and in the school log book on the 19th of January 1866 actually documented this fact. At the end of the First World War, the school bell was rung that loudly that eventually the bell rope snapped! 

 The Church of St Michael and All Saints seems to have not changed at all when compared to old photos from the late 1800's. Hughie and Ivy, the Guinea fowl can be seen picking pests out of the newly cut grass.

 Well street leads down to the Village Pond ,the site of the old public well and the Still House, which is one of the oldest houses in the village dating from the 1700's. The Still house had, is was said,two springs which rose in the cellar, and was known as a beer making house.

 London Road, showing the old cottages that line the street, and the old post office.. The house just out of shot to the right used to be the Central stores and Cafe at the turn of the century. In the rear of the shop ( down well street) there used to be a bakehouse where the villagers used to bring their own bread to be baked for a penny. Down well street there is a small cottage which is called "Baker's cottage"
At the end of the road, you can just make out the sturdy chimney stack of the village pub The Crown

 This shot is of the stone cottages up High Street. These were known as lower Bonc terrace.The impressive stone houses to the left of the photo is the former "Plas yn Dre", This was a former grammar school set up by a John Wynne in the late 1600's

 This is a shot of the High Street from the the top. Plas Yn Dre and Bonc terrace are situated beyond the hedge of Bryn Hyfryd farmhouse

 Down Chapel street is the Ebenezer Congregational Chapel. It used to be a market Hall in the 17th Century and was converted into a chapel in 1701 

Behind the Chapel used to be located a row of terraced cottages long since gone now. In their place is a series of gardens and allotments. This allotment is run by friends Sandra and Rob, and makes mine look rather amateur and scruffy

And finally I had to photograph the Village Memorial Hall. The Hall was built by the Greek Consul of Liverpool, a Mr M.A.Ralli, who lived in Mia Hall (Just North of the Village) Today the hall is the centre of Village activity as it houses the friendship club, Community Council meetings, youth club, and bingo. It is also hired out to the likes of the Flower Show committee, the Village Male voice Choir (they rehearse here every week) and even for strange animal mad villagers who run "how to look after chicken" courses

Friends

"The only way to have a friend is to be one."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 

Best Friends

"Everyone hears what you say. Friends listen to what you say. Best friends listen to what you don't say." ~ 

 

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Friendship

"What is a friend? A single soul in two bodies." ~ Aristotle

 

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Three of my friends are suffering difficult times at the moment.

 

nuff said

A Good Friend

Meet my new best friend.
He is with me for the majority of the day,
He chatters away with all manner of interesting comments,
he can entertain me come rain and come shine,
 and he will shut up exactly when I want him to!
He is my solar powered digital radio.
In the mornings he allows the velvet voiced Harriet Cass to give me the world news on BBC's Radio 4 when the animals are all beginning to stir,and then he entertains me with London Talk radio when I trudge around filling water buckets and shovelling shit.
At Lunchtime Boris and I have our shared lunch whilst listening to the pompous tones of  James O'Brien or the amusing but inane chatter of Jeni Barnett and I am not embarrassed when some local walkers hear me listening to my other favourites such as the ever faithful Woman's Hour when I am digging the allotment or cleaning out the coops
Sitting under the elms when on Foxwatch, the middle class saga of The Archers is always at hand with its comforting plodding story lines and last night the BBC Radio 7 has been re playing a classic 1950 serial Journey Into Space which I have listened to for over a week now , and which is crammed full of plummy English accents and cliffhanger endings- a little piece of history.

My radio friend is a constant. He entertains me, informs me and even frightens away the foxes when I leave him "on guard"......Not much to look at, but cheap to keep happy, I couldn't stand a day without him.

Ending The Day

 I talked in my previous post about my morning routine
Tonight I realised that I have an equally important yet brief evening routine.
After nine pm, the cottage looks warm and cosy, what with the wood burner alight and us and the animals heaped all over the two sofas , yet with a click of my finger within seconds the dogs are all lined up by the back door waiting for their walk.
As we leave the cottage there is ALWAYS a faint THUD, THUD to be heard from the roof of the shed as Albert climbs out of the study window to join us, and every night he waits on the cottage wall for me to rub faces with him as I pass. It is a ritual that both he and I seem to enjoy immensely and has become such a habit now I think that both he and I would miss it greatly if it was to stop

There was no let up in the muggy rain this morning and into the afternoon, so I did go to Theatre Clwyd for a mooch around. I saw a film The Killer Inside Me which has had some brilliant reviews, but turned out for me to be an overblown ultra violent film noir thriller that has nothing new to say about sexual sadist serial killers but did feature a good central performance by the slight Casey Affleck

I did enjoy an exhibition by  Caroline Rudge much more that the movie! Her portrait , paintings  in the Theatre's Oriel Gallery are quite striking and well worth a viewing and has been the best exhibition at the theatre for quite some time.

This afternoon, my head full of women beating serial killers and paintings...I took advantage of a break in the weather to pick my surplus sweetcorn cobs......it's been a mixed bag of a day

Facing The Day



Winnie and Jo

 Animals are like people; some like the geese face the day with an exuberance that is almost infectious whilst others like the ghost hens take at least ten minutes before they haul their fat bottoms out of their hen house in order to take slow deep beakfuls of water from their water bowl (they are the only animals that have to have a bowl of their own)
The field wakes up in fits and starts.
The guinea fowl, I know will be waiting noisily for me to scatter some corn for them before I open the 18 houses for the day. Ivy, the runty female, is now a robust adult bird and with Alf and Hughie the trio are a permanent and welcomed addition to  the old church yard.

The Magpie ducks, separated for the night from the geese,literally whip themselves into a frenzy before they are reunited with Winnie and Jo and together the little knot of five birds totter off to the stream to bathe and drink, content that their flock is reunited.

Boris whistles his strange mournful greeting as I lift him out of his house and stands blinking in the daylight with  rather tatty looking mates Gloria and Theresa behind him as wave upon wave of hens surge back and forth on the grass searching for food after I open each hen house in turn.

This morning the rain has been heavy and just that little bit cold, so I have left the heat lamp on over the runner ducklings for the day.
This daily routine is always interesting yet never changes!

The ducklings are putting on weight and are growing quite nicely but will not be going outside until they are feathered up, I need to clean them out yet again this morning   

I also need to harvest the remaining beetroot, sweetcorn, potatoes,onions and artichokes today, but as usual the rain has started to fall yet again......
I think I may bunk off and sneak to the cinema...I have a credit ticket to utilize!!!

London River

London River (2009) is a movie I have wanted to see after I read my friend Alex Ramon's review of it on his movie blog http://boycottingtrends.blogspot.com/, and I must agree that this worthy movie centred around the 7/7 bombings in London 2005, is a good watch.
French director  Rachid Bouchareb makes London a rather unreal and "foreign" place where two anxious parents from out of town search for their respective children that may or may not have been killed or at least involved in the atrocities.
Dowdy Guernsey farmer Elizabeth, Brenda Blethyn, is terrified of the Muslim surroundings she finds in and around her daughter's empty flat, while elderly African Osmane  Sotigui Kouyaté stalks the hospitals and mosques fearful that his son may be responsible for the bombings in some way,
These two unlikely characters join forces to find out the terrible truths about a day that still haunts Londoners and the resulting story is a masterclass in some outstanding acting. Blethyn breaks your heart as the initially prickly and racist Elizabeth, whilst Kouyate ( who died shortly after filming) is quite amazing as the soulful gentle and mostly silent giant who follows her journey.
Not everything works in this movie. Some of the scenes just  feel too unreal to work properly for a British audience ( The French speaking Police officer/ the non NHS -ish Hospital scenes and a rather sterile morgue sequence are cases in point)
But the acting, especially a towering performance by Brenda Blethyn is what I will remember from this film. and the scene when Elizabeth finally finds out the truth about her daughter, will literally rip your guts out.
8/10

I did it again!!!!

This time at the supermarket!
I called in to buy some things for Chris' tea, leaned over a freezer to pick up a carton of cream!
In front of two old ladies and a woman in a wheelchair I farted VERY loudly
Oh the shame!
Another message to self I am starting weight watchers again!
To make things worse the lady in the wheelchair said loudly and to no one in particular "I do that all the time!"