Quail, Sheep and piglets

The kitchen is full of peeping babies yet again. Four baby quail hatched over night and they are absolutely TINY. The eggs were a gift and if they develop as they should, a donated rabbit hutch and extended run will house them nicely on the field. Quail eggs may be a bit "posh" for Trelawnyd, but already I have a prospective customer in line for these little delicacies.
The lady who was giving me the sheep, let me down a little by not being able to sort out the necessary paper work for them. Since the foot and mouth disasters of the 1960s ( and again in 2001 and 2007) the documentation relating to the registration of sheep and the movement of livestock is complicated and important. All sheep owners ( and that includes someone who only has one pet lamb) has to have a "flock number" and all animals need to be tagged and the relevant papers completed before any movement can be carried out. I have learnt that things have to be done properly, so when things are not quite "right" I will not be involved.
I discussed all this with one of the local farmers, who has offered me a couple of his grazing sheep on   a "loan" basis which is very kind of him. This will allow me the opportunity to learn about the care of sheep,so that perhaps next year I will get a couple of my own!
I am also asking around to see if I can get an alternative turkey house for Bingley and his two hens......the old pig house in which they live needs a spring clean in readiness for the Gloucester old spot weaners I hope to buy very soon! I am going to check the piglets out later in the week!

Nigel's comment

This is just a part of the comment left by Nige on my previous post about therapeutic "touch"
It deserves a blog entry all of its own...and is , I think, a beautifully written piece of  "self"...hope he does not mind

When I lived in Sheffield, the barber who used to cut my hair (an Italian guy about the same age as me) used to press my shoulders down firmly with his hands as he wrapped the short black cape around my neck and fingered its edges beneath my collar. It approached sensuality (although, of course it was not) and, admittedly (and quiet sadly) I miss the precision of that three-weekly contact.

When you’re rarely touched, you remember each occasion in intimate detail: the most banal of contacts (the dry, scrubbed hand of the supermarket checkout operator; the glance of the young Pakistani guy who sells you a ticket on the train; the grasp of my Father’s hand as he leaves, recalling the physicality of a mythical childhood). Fleeting moments; brushes of falling autumn leaves.

Being Physical

Sometimes work can provide you with those special little moments that make the slog, stress and occasional banality worthwhile.
Last night I looked after an elderly lady with a particularly nasty skin condition. Every couple of hours various creams had to be applied to 90 % of her body in an intensive, sometimes painful and time consuming procedure.
I had not looked after this lady before and made sure she was happy for me ( as a man) to initiate this rather invasive treatment. Politely she said she was happy and throughout the night I completed her therapy in her superheated side ward.(she was effectively a burns patient and therefore had to be nursed in a "hot" environment so that she would not lose too much body heat)
As I worked, we talked, and the conversation led to how she was in fact coping with her admission to hospital and the intensive nature of her nursing care.
"I don't mind all this too much", she said rather sadly "it's the first time I have been touched by another person in such a long, long time!"
We often  forget the importance of physical contact with others. older people especially sometimes live in a desert of physical isolation and the briefest of touches can be as uplifting and as important as the most expensive and convoluted of therapies.
I think it is something that we all have a tendency to forget

WI Comedy Sunday

Don't you just love "Middle England"

- Susie Blake continuity announcer (Rundown)

The weather is awful.......it has been raining buckets since dawn. I walked the dogs (I couldn't bear Chris' moaning) and got soaked and then sorted out the birds ( and got soaked again) so have come back to bed with my trusty coffee to trawl YOUTUBE. forgive the flit down 1980 Victoria Wood classics but they cannot quite be beaten!

Victoria Wood shoe shop sketch

My FAVOURITE Julie Walter's comedy sketch!!!

Two Soups

My second favourite Julie Walter's sketch

10:10 video

I saw this this morning Is it me, but does this radicalisation of anti global warming advertising make anyone else sick and angry? The need to shock when it comes to "good causes" is wearing a little thin with me......I don't need to be shocked, or manipulated or patronised when it comes to understanding how the world works.....I can, in general terms, work things out for myself........I don't need Richard Curtis blowing up kids to give me a wake up call................