Camilla the actress

. Over the years The Archers' cast has been joined by various famous celebrities, who have popped up in cameo roles in the middle England village . Judi Dench,Ewan Mc Gregor and Terry Wogan, amongst others have chirped up with the odd few words as have Princess Margaret and The Duke Of Westminster, who appeared in the early 1980s in support of the NSPCC.
Last night Camilla the Duchess of Cormwall arrived at Grey Gables (.BBC Camilla story)..she had a "nice chat-et" with the velvet voiced Caroline and waxed lyrically over the too-good-to-be-true Ian, and his shortbread........before popping off to another engagement....but short as it was, her appearance in the 60 year old soap was indeed a bit of a coup for the BBC and I think another small coup for her personally. (Although Camilla, it must be said that you should not give up your "day job"!)
I like Camilla. She is what she is!  a lady of some privilege with a warm personality and a slightly gung ho attitude who doesn't push herself or her thoughts too much down the publics' throat.
She is, in fact a typical upper middle class lady, who could roll her sleeves up with the best of them to help clean the horses out or chop logs or run the local Flower Show......you recognise the sort don't you?.........a lady who may be full of flu that still walks the dogs in the rain cos it "bloody well just needs doing!" 

I look forward to see Queen Camilla in a few years time....with her wellies and headscarf on, driving the 4 x 4 back from Waitrose!
Now I am off to my brother's house. I am going up to help him with his tracheal suction and the like whilst my sister in law gets some jobs done in town....it' will be nice to be useful

The Big Sky,Spring Jobs and Kit Hopkins' slippers!

Local County Councils do come in for a bit of ear bashing from time to time, but I must admit that out own   (Flintshire Council) is pretty good when something needs sorting out. We have two street lights in our lane,and both are attached to telephone poles. Recently both have not been working, and over the past few weeks, (before they were unfortunately fixed this morning), I have absolutely LOVED walking the dogs down the lane in the darkness. Without that harsh, yellow neon glow, suddenly the vague night sky had been transformed from a blank backdrop into something out of a sci fi movie and every evening I have stopped quietly by the sheep field gates soaking in the cold black beautiful big sky of the night.


If I had  my way, I would switch off the village street lights after 11pm......

William and Meg

The day has been sunny and springlike and for the first time this year, the dogs have joined me on the field from 8am as I worked away cleaning the coops and tidying the carnage caused by the awful winter weather.Meg and William still cannot be left to free range with the poultry, their pure terrier instincts are too ingrained and strong to prevent a massacre, but George and Constance can be left to their own devices. George remains a terrible egg stealer and potters away checking each coop in turn for any spare eggs to eat whereas Constance remains rather non plussed with the whole chicken thing
There was once minor "stand off" when the Geese stood their ground between me and her ( below) but apart from that, peace reigned for the most part.

Bulldog versus  geese

As I tidied up the compost bins,cleared dead wood, fixed fencing and disinfected coops, Constance ambled around the field very slowly checking on each pen and enclosure in turn.
For a city dog, she remained very calm and composed as she did her rounds, peering intently inside each hen house with her little piggy eyes before plonking herself in the centre of the field, where she watched the morning pass her by in the warmth of the sun.

Constance in thoughtful mode

By a late lunchtime, I had all but finished, so took the opportunity to deliver eggs . On my rounds I was stopped by Mrs Hopkins ( you my recall she was the lady that knitted my winter mittens), she called me into her bungalow to try on a pair of hand kitted slippers she had made for me, and like Cinderella they fitted perfectly!

Now don't be fooled by the slightly "pixie" and schizophrenic look of these individualised pieces of footwear ( I especially love the little pom poms) they ARE totally the most comfortable house slippers I have EVER owned......I wonder what's next? knitted underpants?

True Grit

Anyone over say 35, will ( or should) remember the  much tv shown 1969 western True Grit. What usually sticks in the memory about the Henry Hathaway movie is the warm no holds barred performance by John Wayne as the fat one eyed old Marshall who is softened by, Kim Darby's, spunky Mattie Ross, a teenager looking to avenge her father's death. The sight of him attacking the Ned Pepper gang to the strains of Elmer Bernstein, reins gripped in his teeth and with all guns a blazing, lingers long in my movie soaked mind, so it was great interest that I went to see the Coen Brother's remake this afternoon.

True Grit ( the remake) is a much darker and a totally different movie than its predecessor.The Coens have all but eliminated the sentimental touches that Wayne and Darby generated. Instead, the affection that crusty old drunk Rooster Cogburn ( Jeff Bridges ) has for the precocious Mattie (Hailee Steinfeld ) is all but hidden away until the very final moments of action, and in its place  a powerful unsaid respect between man and girl can be seen in the odd phrase or telling glance ( watch the uplifting crossing of the river scene and you'll get my drift)
Bridges' Cogburn is a gruff, growling man who spits out his words like an old bear. Unlike in the 1969 movie, he is not Mattie's replacement father, however he does "blossom" under her forcefully, clever and slightly bullying ways.and the interplay between Rooster, Mattie and the self indulgent but emotionally warm Ranger, La Boeuf (Matt Damon) makes for a more interesting movie, a movie which is more a three headed love story than a  Western action piece.

Wisely the Coen brothers mirror the pace of the movie with the atmospheric use of the  hymn " Leaning on the Everlasting Arms  " ( Funnily enough it was the hymn that the psychotic preacher Robert Mitchum sang constantly in Night Of The Hunter) The music soundtrack is not uplifting, it is tough and a little harsh, a thing that is reflected again in the impressive cinematography of the austere countryside,and in the narrative of the film itself, which underlines the "life is cheap" mentality of Indian territory of the 1880s.
Surprisingly there is very little action in this atmospheric movie, but when the action does surface, it does so with power and some shocking violence
Jeff Bridges gives Rooster a hard edge that was perhaps missing from Wayne's  shouting performance, and Hailee Steinfield is absolutely amazing as the tough, wisecracking and emotionally hardened Mattie, who only shows her softness in one short telling scene with the rather good Damon.
I enjoyed this movie and give it a cracking 8.5 out of 10
But you know what?. for a couple of minutes, I did miss fat old John Wayne riding out and yelling "Fill your hands, you son of a bitch! "

Him Indoors

Last week, I was asked by the ubiquitous Bea Fickle why the illusive Chris remains a somewhat shadowy character here on the Going Gently blog 
The answer is a simple one, he prefers to remain in the wings.
Chris has a healthy disregard for the potential damage that personal blogs can have on peoples' lives and I respect this fact as I am only too aware that what you write can sometimes come back to snap at a person's arse at a later date!

So, dear readers you may occasionally only get a glimpse of Chris amid the flotsam of Going Gently....A pure, clear cut, University based PhD academic, I think Chris finds my emotional view of animal husbandry, sentimental view of life and particular lack of personal grooming somewhat baffling, but generally will put up with needs of 100 hungry mouths and the emotional jacuzzi of my personality with some alacrity  Having said this he will sometimes be pushed to breaking point - ( sixteen shit flinging runner ducklings on the kitchen table almost bounced him into therapy)....but for the most part he enjoys the country life a little vicariously as he writes his academic papers and completes his research.

The runner ducklings that almost pushed Chris to the brink

Last night we swapped Valentine gifts. Its not something we have done for years, but independently he treated me to some theatre tickets ( to see one of my favourite musicals- Guys And Dolls) and I treated him to some toiletries.

It was a nice gesture.....Him Indoors and I have many years together to go.....

Praise for Jesus

Minutes before I left for work last night there was a knock at the door.
It was a  lady who had come to the field a week or two ago to buy hens at point of lay. I had sent her up another hen breeder to purchase her new hens , but before she went on her way discussed that she may want to have a cockerel at some stage to keep her hens happy and together.
Last night she came around to see if I had a "spare" cockerel that she may have and without hesitation I offered her Jesus.
Jesus was abandoned on the field by some anonymous soul two Christmases ago.
He was a frightened adolescent cockerel , with little confidence and a nasty dose of scaly leg mite, but even though I already had too many cockerels I sort of had a soft spot for the sad looking unwanted male, who had been thrown out like the Christmas wrapping paper on Boxing day!...
so I kept him

His legs were treated on a daily basis and after a difficult period of bullying by the resident Cockerel , Stanley,, Jesus has spent the past year in his own little run away from fighting beaks and rampant sex.....and so I was chuffed that I had eventually found him his own home, with his own garden and his own goo goo eyed harem.

Right, coffee has been drunk! and I can now face the day without any sleep...off to bath the dogs

Trauma

What is the height of post Night shift fatigue?

When you get home and push your knife slowly into a lovely onion bagel with fried egg

Only to see the said breakfast slide majestically off your plate and onto the back of a Hairy Scottish terrier then plop onto the floor!

Having said this... I picked it up and scoffed it before Chris saw me

Off to bed

Hoarding

Recently, in debate, I was asked what I thought about the subject of "animal hoarding" ( the person doing the asking ,  I was later to find out was being somewhat snide). I had never heard of the term before and asked for some clarification which I did not receive, so today I had a quick look at the definition of the phrase

Wikipedia states:-

Animal hoarding involves keeping higher than usual numbers of animals as pets without having the ability to properly house or care for them, while at the same time denying this inability. Compulsive hoarding can be characterized as a symptom of mental disorder rather than deliberate cruelty towards animals. Hoarders are deeply attached to their pets and find it extremely difficult to let the pets go. They typically cannot comprehend that they are harming their pets by failing to provide them with proper care. Hoarders tend to believe that they provide the right amount of care for their pets.[1] The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals provides a "Hoarding Prevention Team", which works with hoarders to help them attain a manageable and healthy number of pets.[2]


Years ago, I was a psychiatric nurse in Chester and York, and never came across this phenomenon before, (although I have had experience of patients hoarding bodily waste, household rubbish and the like---yes charming!)
I found the above article an interesting read and was reassured to realise that I am not quite at this stage just yet .
The human mind never ceases to amaze me in it's abilities to play tricks on itself, and although the whole subject is fascinating, I don't regret leaving psychiatric nursing for one minute.
It's just too complex

Why does everyone want to bitch slap?

As usual  I took the dogs out this morning first thing and as we walked down the lane ( the lane is not wide enough for two cars to pass each other) a small car crept up behind me. I gestured to the driver to wait a minute as I walked on to take the dogs up into a farm field gateway.HOWEVER
He revived the engine loudly, obviously impatient for us to move out of the way, and Constance who is only new to road "etiquette" pulled at her lead and backtracked into the road
The driver edged forward and I called out "just hang on a minute will you"
But he didn't stop
I had a glimpse of an office type businessman who mouthed " get out of the fucking way!" as he flicked the "V's" at me, and the car sped past missing Constance by a hairs breath
I wish I had a bag of shit on me, as I would have flung it at the car without a second thought.....but it was all too late
and as the Ford Ka, sped off , all I could think was why are so many people in this modern age so bloody angry!!!!?
Anger seems a modern epidemic doesn't it?

You see it everywhere:-, in the village,, on the roads,  on the phone ( anyone ring a call centre recently?) and on the net! ...........everyone seems so bloody angry
I hate bad manners- Being angry is being bad mannered  when anger is not controlled
The two seem to go together!
 Living in the country I think that good manners very much come to the fore
You stop if a horse rider approaches your car
You stop if you see cows in the road
You say "good morning to someone who passes you in the street"
and you give way if a 4 x 4 "out guns you in a country lane!
But still I see people angry, aggressive and difficult!
I would like to think that I am assertive but not aggressive... but I know I can give as good as I get and it does trouble me slightly that although I am in many ways mellowing with age, I just cannot put up with the unjust and the wrong.....
hummm perhaps it is me that is getting angrier?....that's worrying
who knows

I am Working all over this weekend on nights so here's hoping everyone has a nice and peaceful weekend?