Australia

Its been a terribly wet day, and a miserable one.

It is the sort of day when the driving rain even infiltrates your underpants,

so that every time your return to the house after yet another soaking,

you begin to steam.

So this evening I was so glad to see that one of my very favourite movies is on the television.

Big..... brash....... artificial.....and slated by the critics on its release, "Australia", in my opinion is an old fashioned romp that has it ALL

It has a sexy hero (Hugh Jackman at his most gung ho) a feisty herione with a questionable English Accent (Nicole Kidman) and a cute child star with bambi eyes (Brandon Walters) add to the mix some wonderfully bravura set pieces (the bombing of Darwin and a particularly over-the top cattle on a cliff scene), a screen baddie that borders on the Pantomime (David Wenham) and a score that features "Over the Rainbow" and "Schafe können sicher weiden ( Bach's "Sheep may safely graze") and for me it is almost the perfect film....
SIT BACK...open the chocs....and enjoy

Côr Meibion Trelawnyd (That's Trelawnyd Male Voice Choir to you)

The Gala performance by the Trelawnyd Male Voiced Choir, sometimes is a bit of a strange affair.
I say this only as the day-to-day ordinariness of the Hall and the Village seems to contrast so sharply with the quality and varied nature of the singing and musical pieces.
The thing is, and I have to remind myself of this, that the Choir is no longer just a village affair. It has a musical director now.....and a vice President in the shape of renowned Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce.....so has gone on to bigger and better things...but it's heart and identity still lies at the Memorial Hall where a good cross section of villagers made up the packed audience.
As usual the audience had come to listen to the Choir, who were on belting form, but sticking to tradition the concert featured some local performers which included a very young and talented soprano from Llanberis ( who caused some whispers around the Hall when she turned up in a backless gown which showed off two enormous tattoos!) and a trio of teenagers from Lloc who stunned the audience with the pieces from Haydn and ( of all people) Scott Joplin.

As much of the choir now hail from all over the region, a lot of the audience were non villagers, but looking around I did spy, Peter and Val from Anchor house, Beryl who used to be the Church organist, neighbour Trevor, and many others........
We had to sneak out before the end as the chickens needed locking up, so missed the final set from the Choir, which is always something of a rousing affair......as we left several villagers where stood outside the open windows of the hall....waiting to hear the spine tingling finale.......
I am still battling with my confidence regarding an audition with the choir.......one day...I keep saying....one day..............
Oh by the way, the ONLINE winner of "Name the Pig" competition will receive a  selection from the Choir latest CD as well as a Welsh Love spoon as their prize........


Anyhow I got up this morning praying for bad weather
and your know what?
the Met Office seems to have got it right
It's pissing down!

Dia's words

There are many reasons why I enjoy blogging.Sometimes it's the humour...

sometimes it's the humanity...and sometimes it's the language...

Dia wrote a lovely comment on my post relating to Mary,the small dying hen who seemed to
rally somewhat a day  ago
I thought her description of the process of dying..quite beautiful


 acuriouscure said...

"Aaah...little Mary was nodding back in for a bit eh? Whenever patients would do that it always
reminded me of the way a piece of seaweed can get caught up in the wave wash at the beach,

washing in and out a few times before finally breaking free and heading out for deeper water."




off to the Memorial Hall later...there is a gala concert on by the Trelawnyd Male voice Choir

Snippets

In the village there is a somewhat "entertaining" elderly lady who owns a rather large and at times bad tempered dog.

This animal goes on walkabout on a regular basis and eventually returns home after its owner blows lustily on what can only be described as a large police whistle

Late  one recent evening some friends in the centre of the village were settling down in their living room when the said whistle went off suddenly. The wife, who is recovering from illness turned quietly to her hubby and quipped with a broad Lancashire wit
" ey up...theres been another murder in Whitechapel 


Well it made me smile

"Come on if you think you're hard enough!"

21 escaped her pen this morning, she is still a bit of a runt compared to 12 and is still  agile enough to squeeze under a depression in the pig fencing ( after a little bit of digging). Neighbour Mandy caught me first thing when I was out with the dogs to let me know. She was all a bit fraught given 21's hen eating abilities, but as all but one of the birds were still inside their houses, there wasn't much damage that could be done.


I found her looking at the one hen on view. It was Eric the feisty bantam cockerel , who was stood facing her off  on top of his little hen house. He was safe as his home is now Inside a badger proof cage, but typical of little men from all over the world, it was clear that he wasn't doing to back down! Screaming at the top of his lungs for the pig to "bring it on!" he launched himself time and time again at the slightly astonished pig, who just stood there watching him carefully with her hard little Shelley Winters eyes.
This pantomime continued until I called 21 and she trotted after me like Mary's soddin little lamb.
Peace was restored when 21 was safely installed back into her run, the fence was repaired and Eric given an extra portion of corn.
Sometimes you've just gotta smile at "little man syndrome"

This morning, after the pig/rooster stand off, I took CJ and Badger out of their shed and placed them into the garden for a sunbathe. I removed the tape that Pat and I had so carefully applied to his deformed "angel wings" a week ago now and stood back to survey if our nursing care had worked.
As you can see, we now have a little Canadian Goose with NORMAL wings!
A little victory I am hoping.


...and as for Mary still sat quietly in the shed?.....
She's still with us! I have fed her carefully with a syringe every few hours,...it's a case of "little and often".....if it works great......if not......at least the little sweetie is hydrated.......watch this space....
Its bloody like a scene from ER here this morning


ps....My sister has been busy being our official PR lady!
see the following story!


The Rhyl Journal Editorial

Now Voyager

Watched this last night on TCM.......here's to the Charlotte's of the world!

Flogging A Dead Horse

Mary in more robust days

I have never liked the above phrase.To me, everything about it sums up all of  the harshness' and poverty of the Victorian Era ( For reference - it was first "officially" coined used by a British orator John Bright in 1867) 

The the term is a blunt one but it is also apt  especially when I think of what modern intensive care medicine can sometimes do with some frail elderly patients who are just fading away in the twilight of their lives. Because we can aggressively support a patent's vital signs by invasive drugs, procedures and ventilation, sometimes , just occasionally do we forget to ask the question, should we be doing so?

Like Mary, the bantam in the shed, some people just "go light" and it's that lack of a certain spark which can signify that "it's their time to go" Of course it's such a hard thing to call. When people are ill , of course they need to be treated and treated appropriately ( which does at times mean an aggressive regime of care) but common sense needs to show her apron here..... especially when someone is dying.

A spade needs to be called a spade, and it has to be said with sensitivity and with kindness.

Yes, it's a big think, isn't it?

I have been mulling over it ever since I checked on the animals last night. Little Mary the sick bantam who has been "light" for over a week now, raised her head from inside her crate in the shed.

She hasn't eaten for days but her eyes seemed brighter than they did, so on impulse I lifted her out and fed her some cool sugared water from a syringe. 

She drank it carefully, and I repeated the process after two hours and again twice this morning, but this time with some baytril and a few mls of raw egg added to it, and although the outcome for this little scrap will not, I suspect be any different, there was something in me that needed to try.

Perhaps this is the answer to my first discussion point about old people in intensive care. All of us, fundamentally have an in- built need to try and help when and where we can. Perhaps its not objective or sensible or even right, 

......................but it's there.......

Weather Problems, Good Will, A Canada Goose? and "going light"

Now I won't bang on too much more about my Open Allotment day...
Even I am getting somewhat jaded with it's organisation
Suffice to say that after looking at the Met Office Weather forecast ( and around 10 other on line predictions) I have decided to postpone .
It's only a week further on ( the 24th of July) so hopefully my small army of cake bakers can reschedule their baking for seven days or so! New volunteers need to be conscripted, extra gazebos need to be organised and I need to re flyer the village again, but apart from being a royal pain in the arse ( I am working night shift next Saturday!), the "move" is do-able.
The forecast was for rain all day and blustery wind.......not a good backdrop for an outside event ........so I am hoping that the 24th will provide slightly better weather.I have a great number of people to contact today

Just a quick insertion here!...I have just contacted all of the cake makers from the village and all bar one is able to bake for the ammended open day date! Several have volunteered to fill in the gaps in staffing and I have also had three others offering to make more cakes for the day!

In addition I recieved a parcle from Dronfield in the Peak District  this morning filled to capacity with home made aprons and other needlework........thank you Kathryn for your contribution to the day....it is much appreciated

Anyhow on to nicer things
CJ the gosling is doing fine. He/she has now almost lost all of his baby down and is turning ( for the most part) into a somewhat beautiful black goose!.
With the lighter markings on his face...I am begining to wonder if he actually is a Canada Goose? perhaps someone could enlighten me?
 The "angel wings"  that I taped up, remain in a "normal" position , and by this weekend I will remove the bandage to see if he "looks" better.
Badger, the hen (you can just see him behind CJ'S neck) remains a constant companion, and by next week the two friends will be set up in their own  run outside with the three new bantam hens.
It is so sweet to see the two of them together.

Speaking of bantams, sitting quietly in the shed, and waiting to die is one of my old girls, a sweet natured bantam called Mary.
Poultry keepers will identify with the strange phenomenon of "going light". This occurs when a hen slowly starts to loose weight and her appetite and literally starts to disappear over a period of days or even weeks.
It is obviously due to some illness, but despite antibiotics, extra rations, TLC and other poultry  tricks of the trade, there is generally nothing you can do for these sad little birds except make them comfortable and wait for the inevitable to happen.
It is almost as if they give up totally and just fade away....

Funny...I have seen the same thing occur in patients sometime, it's as if the spark of life has left them in some way

This morning I removed her from her cage and placed her with the benign CJ and Badger. A bit of company won't do her any harm in her last days....even a dumb bird deserves a bit of companionship at the end eh?