6.50

I am typing this in the dark so please forgive the typos.
It is just before dawn ( the time when Everything but the Girl says "you are most forlorn"), and I am wide awake after Chris' size 12s have "tap danced" their away over the cottage's ancient floorboards.( he was due a lie in this morning but woke up early and decided to go to work!)

He has now just taken the car leaving the dogs all snoring beside me and the guinea fowl shrieking at something unseen in the long grass.

From where I am now lying, I can just make out the black silhouette of the hills behind Rhuallt and the lights from Gentleman farmer Ralph's farm are the only ones I can see. beyond the hawthorn hedges  and rolling fields behind the village boundary.


The view across the valley from the Gop


Our view right across the valley probably put an extra 20 thou on the price of the cottage but I dont care. It is a view I never tire of, even in the semi darkness and gloom of pre dawn. Very slowly the sky lightens up the field borders and the badger or the  fox that is upsetting the guineas will disappear allowing the birds to quieten,  and giving the cockerels time to crow in their own hen houses.
There is a stillness in the air that is quite lovely, a stillness that is only broken by Albert, who is, as I type this, clambering onto the bed to greet each sleeping dog in turn with a gentle face rub.

If I could bottle this brief moment in time and sell it to city slickers, I would be a millionaire

Postscript: Anyhow the romance of the above scene soon dissapeared somewhat after I donned wellingtons and coat and braved the first frost of the autumn.......my fingers are now stiff and cold after cleaning 4 chicken coops out before breakfast!........

Heartbreaker ( L'arnacoeur) and Guinea Fowl Bullies

It has been a long, long time since I have laughed long and hard at scenes in a movie. Tonight I joined in with a healthy-ish audience at Theatre Clwyd and chuckled my head off at the rather sweet French Comedy L'arnacoeur.(Heartbreaker)

The plot in this Pascal Chaumeil movie is the stuff of Richard Curtis' imagination: Alex (Romain Duris ) and his sister ( Julie Ferrier ) run a business designed to break up only poor relationships. They are hired by a rich man to break up the wedding of his daughter (Vanessa Paradis ). The only problem is that they only have one week to do so and Alex's usual professionalism is called into question when he falls for the bride to be! 

The obvious plot is sweetened by a brilliant central performance by Duris, who is a skinny,untidy chancer with an over abundance of French charm,. He carries the movie with a flourish and is ably supported by the wisecracking Ferrier and an oafish brother in law François Damiens, but it is the clever scenes between him and Paradis ( namely when the pair sing George Michael Songs in a car and reenact the famous dance scene from Dirty Dancing) that linger in the mind........as I type this  am still giggling at the thought of them.

This is a lovely move! 9/10

Alf (the blue) and Hughie

I got home fairly early after the cinema. My sister has visited when I was out ( she was downloading some videos for her charity blog with Chris (http://supportingandrew.blogspot.com/2010/10/inferno-dance-video.html)  and had left the gate open. When I went to close it when I took the dogs for their final walk, I could hear the guinea fowl scream their very angry alarm calls from the Churchyard Elms.

The guinea fowl cocks ( Hughie and  Alf) have been a pain all week now. I dont know just why, but both have suddenly turned all bullish and have taken themselves off to attack any hen, duck or turkey that crosses their path. Already today, cascades of feathers from a score of chickens bums, have fluttered down onto the field like confetti at a wedding, after the guineas have run amok......sigh........does nothing run smoothly when you look after 91 animals?

Any advice people?.........or is this just a brief surge of guinea fowl testosterone? 

The Dog Whisperer



Meg looking worried



I walked the dogs around Axton yesterday. Located just a mile South of the Village., Axton is  a small collection of houses and farms.. As we ambled past my friend Eirlys' farm we passed an old chap who was walking the other way. I had not seen him before , and presumed he was a farmer ( by the way he was dressed) and he stopped to chat in that sing/song way  fluent Welsh speakers always do. We talked about geese (he told me he sells goose eggs in season) and he shared a few "tricks of the trade" when it came to fox protection and hen care, which I found fascinating.

He also made a huge fuss of the dogs informing me that he was able to ascertain a dog's personality by just looking at it....and by the side of the road I asked him to give all three dogs the "once over"

Briefly the man looked at William and said quickly "he's a nice dog with a good heart" Meg he described as "highly strung,occassional aggressive and clingy" and George was summed up  as " Bright , Happy and a  real joker".  

"How was that?" the old guy asked, and he was highly amused when I told him he had summed up all three dogs perfectly.

We chatted on for a while longer and then he tipped his hat and wished me "all the best " before ambling away

sigh

sigh

Cucurrucucu Paloma

Now I know absolutely nothing about Spanish music. I have a smattering of knowledge about Spanish Cinema but that is about it when it comes to the arts of a country I have perhaps visited two dozen times.

Last night whilst Chris was indulging himself with the period drama Downton Abbey ( I am sure he was hoping to see the sexy footman snog the even sexier Duke again!), I contented myself with a gallop through youtube!

This is a wonderfully delicate song by Caetano Veloso from the movie Talk To Her....I had forgotten just how intricate and beautiful it is..............

I love YOUTUBE. I really cannot be bothered with the happyslappy or overtly silly! but I do absolutely love those rare little clips from the more obscure movies that nearly everyone else (with the exception of those like minded geeks) have forgotten

Cottage History

 Arfon and Della from Pen-y-Cefn Isa farm let borrow an old photo of Arfon as a child. Now I am not in the habit of collecting vintage photos of the neighbours but I was grateful to scan this one as it showed just a glimpse of our cottage's old back door circa 1959.
Arfon's Uncle and Aunt lived in our cottage for many, many years, and originally the main back door of the cottage opened directly onto the street. Our Kitchen window is where the old door was situated (you can see the outline clearly) and behind the cottage (where our kitchen extension now lies) used to be a small byre for a few cattle!
I told you I wanted to find out a little more about our home..... Arfon and his baggy shorts is certainly a start



Hysteria



Winnie, Jo and Harry Secombe  worry the new Indian Runner ducklings

 Finally amid much screaming, adolescent quacking and flinging of watery poo from hysterical webbed feet, the runner ducklings have been wrestled to the ground from the safety of their shed and  in frantic groups of twos and three, they have been transferred to their outdoor run. The move has completely unhinged the field's magpie ducks and geese, who have spent the entire morning gazing intently at the babies through the chicken wire. Tentatively  Winnie and the drake (Who I have now nicknamed Harry Secombe) seem just a little obsessed with the new arrivals and I have been amused to watch them push their beaks into the covered run, in order to contact the runners, who true to form have spent most of their time running in circles screaming their vacuous heads off!!!!!

I wonder what Dan has let himself in for

Simple things

Now, blog readers will have realised that I am generally easily pleased.
Yesterday when we were at Sainsburys ( entertaining Nigel)
I saw this illuminated Halloween ghost.... and I thought it was so cute, Chris bought it for me......