Co-Operative

I have just taken some spare rhubarb to a neighbour....in return for some strawberry/rhubarb jam!

So far this week, after some negotiation with hen, duck and quail eggs we have received

1 home baked loaf

1 jar of apple sauce

1 bucketful of eating apples

A large bag of scones

1 bowl of cherry tomatoes (given without a swap- Thanks Pat!)

1 jar of damson Jam

 half a sack of wheat

oh and a donated second hand parka coat "we thought of you out in all weathers"- thanks Kate

Apparently in Gwaenysgor ( the next village) there is a co-operative that meet in the village hall  to "swap" excess produce... I have been told they meet on a Wednesday morning.

May be worth a visit

The Book Inside Us

If we were honest with ourselves, I have the feeling that most bloggers would like to think that there is a successful novel within us all just waiting to be unleashed upon a greedy and adoring public. We practice our craft, so to speak every day...chatting about this, sharing a little about that and if we are lucky a few kind souls from across the globe will big us up with a few nice words of encouragement and thanks.
For most of us that is as far as it will go; but for some others, people with some talent, that final goal of a published book may well, some day, materialise into reality.


Dia, Tom and Maria are three bloggers with such talent


 Dia writes eloquently and passionately about the taboo subject of dying. Hers is not always an easy read,especially as I often prefer a pithy and somewhat wry text, but she has a beautiful and an economical turn of phrase, which often makes me stop dead to read her work again.
Some of her essays are moving beyond belief.


Tom is at his best when affectionately recounting stories of his past, of family and friends.His work has a rhythm and pace about it which is readable and clever , a fact which is helped immeasurably by living a slightly eccentric and interesting life....put the two together and bingo...you have a cracking autobiography!


Maria's work comes from her heart. It is less a story, but more the thoughts,feelings, insecurities and fears of a modern day mother, partner and friend , all jumbled up together into a stream of consciousness. With her you can dip in and dip out when you want and still enjoy some beautifully honest writing whenever you visit. I envy her ability to bare her soul on "paper" so to speak.


Of course there are hundreds more talented people here in the unreal world of blogging...certainly there are too many to mention here.....and I have kind of digressed from my original theme here, as I wanted to flag up a few ideas for bloggers own autobiography title!
what would your's be?
There are some cracking titles out there....
for example


Mel Blanc "That's NOT all folks!"
Boy George "Taking it like a man"
Peter O'Toole "Loitering with Intent"
Christopher Reeve "Still me"
George Saunders "Confessions of a Professional Cad"
Christopher Lee "Tall, Dark and Gruesome"
James Earl Jones "Voices and silences"
James Mason "Before I forget"


Then again.....why did we pick the blog titles we already have? won't they do?....anyhow ideas on a postcard please....


I will never write a book... my spelling is too bad

Two Fat Heroes

Sky tv is generally filled to overflowing with shite..new shite, old shite......repeated shite.....its all the same..... but just occasionally it will come up with an old gem of a tv series that you almost forgotten that you enjoyed.

Two Fat Ladies, was a cracking watch, as , for me, it summed up everything that is great about Britain.

The programme was fronted by two English ecentrics. Spinster,devout Catholic, drinker, chain smoker and ex Ugandan legation cook, Jennifer Paterson was teamed with ex alcoholic, barrister , hunt em and shoot em Clarissa Dickson Wright.

Both women came from privileged backgrounds, both had suffered great hardship in their lives and both were blessed with a "spirit that won the war" mentality of "let's get on with it and let's not suffer any fools"...their programmes were a joy to watch as they unapologetically cooked cream filled food with painted fingernails, a cigarette slid carefully behind an ear and with a wardrobe that looked as though they had been dressed by Oxfam.

The video above, perhaps sums up their "Joie de vivre" better than any words

Paterson was especially entertaining, as she still was part of the "social set" in London and loved her dubonet, social gossip and holidays in the south of France when asked if she inherited her flair for cooking from her mother she said "My mother had no idea of how to cook and no wish to learn, existing on gorgonzola, coffee, and chocolates after the demise of any form of servant."

Their sucessful tv seies was cut short when Paterson became ill during filming and was diagnosed as having lung cancer. She deteriorated quickly and phoned Clarissa to bring her in some caviar into hospital but when her partner arrived, Paterson had sadly died.

Dickson Wright, however brought the caviar to Paterson's funeral, where she ate it as a tribute

....................................................................My kind of women!

Field Watching

It is 13.34pm and I am on field watch .
The guinea fowl have been particularly noisy over the past hour or so, and  so I suspect that there is a fox about some where past the field borders.
The weather is turning more blustery and somewhat violent, and tomorrow we are expecting the last vestiges of hurricane Katia  to arrive.  It is not going to be a day for gardening.


The animals are not used to me being sat up against the church wall with my laptop and they crowd around to see if I have any treats hidden away in my pockets. After a few minutes of waiting most of the hens melt away, leaving Boris and the geese watching me carefully.
Boris, is not after any food, all he is wanting is protection  Bingley the other stag turkey on the field is more dominant and aggressive but will tend to keep away from me when I am around, next to me Boris has a chance to relax and settle......and settle he does, sitting on the grass beside me like a dog.

Winnie and Jo chatter quietly away to themselves and crowd even closer to me as I tap the ground with my fingers .It was a habit I did when they were goslings which I am sure they remember, and they bow their heads low to see what I am doing, their deep blue eyes placid,calm and always curious 
Camilla is a little way behind them, still courting favour and still not quite being accepted by the group. She looks slender and breakable compared to larger geese, who all have keels like the Queen Mary, and remains rather a beautiful and sweet natured bird. All four geese , settle like Boris has done, and make themselves comfortable a couple of feet from where I sit.
The hens, in their ones and twos amble away to sit comfortably in the shelter of the Church wall out of the wind and the guinea fowl glide noisily into the riding stable fields to peck through the small mountains of dung  lying temptingly in the grass.
This afternoon all eight ducks are sleeping in the long grass next door to the pig enclosure, each one with their head tucked tightly against their wings. I suspect they feel safe a stones throw distance from the pigs, who since their arrival have provided a strong arm deterrent to predators whether they be foxes or badgers.


From where I sit I can only see no 12. Even at 200 yards, he is a fine figure of a pig and somewhat charmingly, he always seems to sit on his haunches like a very large pink and brown dog.
Even at this distance he looks rather benign even though he is now over six feet long and has more fat on him than the average sumo wrestler .


As the wind increases even more, the field clears itself of birds completely. I leave the Church wall for a while and pick the last of the raspberries in the allotment with only Boris again for company. I hand  feed him the spare overripe fruit which he gobbles down with some gusto,making the most of this moment of male bonding

Time flies when you indulge yourself in these sort of jobs,
I am back now at the computer and its quarter past three.....
I think it's about to rain

John Williams : Cadillac of the Skies (Empire of the Sun)

Every Year at this time, Chris can be found on the couch, waving his flag to the BBC 's production of The Last Night Of The Proms...and enjoying every bloody minute of it all...

Although I love Classical Music..... over a decade listening to "Rule Britannia" clutching my double gin and tonic. , is a little too much...even for me..so whilst Chris was wiggling his Union Jack... I donned the old headphones and listened to perhaps one of the most talented of modern classical composers.. the film composer John Williams.

His soundtrack for the film EMPIRE OF THE SUN is quite, quite beautiful especially the piece Cadillac of the Skies.....this is the only version I could find that will play on blogger

but see the original at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD4Xyb2LJsA its much better

Perhaps one day he will be played at the Last Night of The Proms

He deserves to be

My Foolish Heart

After the successes of The Allotment Open Day and the Flower Show, some people think that I can sort anything out!. A few weeks ago a lady stopped me when I walked the dogs around Bron Haul. I recognized her face but had forgotten her name, but I did remember that she had won best hydrangea in the last flower show.

She asked me the oddest of questions

"I wonder if you could help me , I need to find the music to the old song My Foolish Heart...It's really important to me"

Now that came out of left field

I get requests for eggs all of the time.

Sometimes people ask me a poultry or dog question

BUT no one has ever asked me to locate a 1949 piece of popular music before!

The request baffled me somewhat, but out of politeness I said I would try .

That was weeks ago, and I had all but forgotten the request, but as I returned home this morning I suddenly remembered this lady's request and without much hope banged out "My Foolish Heart" out on EBAY

Within seconds I had not only located an original copy of the music from 60 years ago but I had bought it for a few pounds, and before Chris and I went out to lunch in Llandudno  we called in to tell the lady that I had found it.

Now I know that I am a sentimental old soak compared to Chris , who is much more a matter-of-fact and "cooler" individual, but even he was caught up in the pure joy this lady showed when she heard that I had located the song sheet she so wanted!

We were all grinning like idiots when I shared the news!

Sometimes there is nothing better than seeing another person genuinely and childishly happy!

Have a safe 9/11

I will leave you with a rather amusing video from Kim over at Golden Pines

It's a funny old World....AND a small one!

I deleted my last blog entry because It bored me to death!
This morning Jackie the affable dog groomer called around to sort the dogs out. As usual it was a big job as the Welsh terriers both looked liked miniature wookies,  so as each dog was shaved I left Jackie with a coffee and marched them around the village.

William with his new art deco hair cut

You can never have a short walk around Trelawnyd, there is always someone that stops to chat. The Red Faced Welsh Farmer, Auntie Gladys ( who was off to Rhyl on the bus alone to do her shopping! -not bad for a lady of 92 who fractured her pelvis only a few months ago) both had something to say and listen to.


Then I had an interesting conversation with Jason from Ty Wynne, who had read on the blog that I had studied the village 1861 census. I commented in passing that many of the village population were miners by profession back then and they either worked at the Coal mine at Point Of Ayr (5 miles away) or at the Lead Mines in the nearby village of Meliden . Jason told me of a bit of history that I found totally  fascinating..... apparently when his mother had visited Pompeii on holiday, she had noticed on an information sign that lead for the town's building needs had been imported from the Meliden  lead mines to Pompeii before Vesuvius'
eruption......what a bloody small world! 


Anyhow I found it interesting!


Perhaps I should have deleted this entry too!

30 things to do before you die

BBC NEWS Highlighted a 50 things before you die stunt here in Wales

I am up at my brother's again today, albeit for a short 2 hour stint, my younger Sister Janet will be taking over from me at 1.30pm, so I am indulging myself with a bit of news reading.

One story did catch my eye today...it is the story of how a bloke called Craig Williams, drove almost to the top of  the 3,500  Snowdon Mountain in his 4 x 4 on a spur of the moment whim to tick off one of the objectives of his "50 things to do before you die" bucket list...

suffice to say that the "authorities" had something to say about it all....and Mr Williams was arrested and subsequently bailed....

This got me to thinking about my own 50 step Bucket list, and seeing that I have a little time before Janet turns up, I thought I would indulge myself ( when don't I?)..with the fantasy! (I only got up to 30!)

so here goes...I would like to:-

1. Appear as an extra in a series of films, just like Alfred Hitchcock used to do..you know holding the door open for the leading lady....walking past with a couple of dogs or sitting miserably on a bus......just enough to be immortalised on celluloid.
2. Kiss Matt Cardle on the lips (or anywhere else for that matter)
3. Travel on the Queen Mary into New York Harbour (First class)
4. Be a part of a choir that wins a national prize with true Hollywood chutzpah
5. Be able to touch my toes without farting!
6. Learn to dance (in secret) and then astounding the guests at our wedding with some funky moves!
7. Opening the back door to our retirement home to let 10 dogs run riot on our own land and fields away from a main road.
8. Being able to write a whole blog entry without any spelling mistakes or having to used spellcheck
9. Swim with tadpoles (Thanks YP)
10. Own a Jersey Cow and being able to milk it !
11. Saying something breathtakingly witty and cutting to someone I cannot stand, whilst looking wonderfully handsome at the same time as being overheard by a group of my peers and indeed filmed by an opportunistic film team
12. Dance "Jai Ho"with the Boston Flag Football team (see below) sigh
13. Fly in an airship
14. Be all blokey with Russell Crowe over a couple of "tinnies"
15. Buy just one outfit from Bergdorf Goodman on 5th Avenue without worrying 
    about $ 
    
16. Bitchslap someone who really deserved it
17. Save someone's life.....that would validate all the time being on this planet!
18. Have a rose named after me..and that rose then wins the Beldon Cup in the local flower Show
19. Sit in a Royal Box at the theatre with champers and nibbles!
20. Have and being able to work an IPHONE properly
21. Own An Aga
22. Buy something that causes a "stir in the room" at an antique auction
23. Have a party to which all the people care about would come to and enjoy with NO exceptions
24. To be seen as classy, handsome and debonair just once rather than cute or bonny!
25. Make a good feature film 
26. Open a Welsh Terrier retirement sanctuary 
27. Be on 60 Minute Makeover or even better Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
28. Travel in period costume on a 1930s flying boat 
29. Have my own American style barn
30. Fly In Concord