"Daaaadddd...there's a vulture in that shed"

Theresa

As work slowed up somewhat over night, I took some annual leave and left the hospital at 5.30am. What a treat! I was in bed by 6.00 am, asleep by 6.05 am and ready to start the day by 8.00am

The shed behind the cottage, has always been nicknamed "The High Dependency Unit" by Chris, who is almost always  exasperated by the fact that it always seems to be populated with some sick animal receiving treatment.

Today Theresa is the patient. Theresa for those that don't know is the turkey that turned up two years ago sitting quite comfortably thank you very much in the boot of car. I was asked by her owner if I could mate her with Boris to he could rear some turkey poults. I agreed and Boris duly "did the deed", but then the owner seemed rather reluctant to collect her again........and bless she kind of ...well...just stayed

Presently, Theresa has a bit of a bad chest, so has been receiving intensive tit bit therapy as well as oral antibiotics. She has perked up quite nicely, and as she is one lazy bird, I think she has actually enjoyed the rest and comfort of a quiet shed with everything "laid on" as it were.

To give her a bit of UV therapy first thing, I opened the shed door for a bit and went to have my morning coffee, and as the shed opens up to the lane,any occupant can be seen by anyone passing the cottage.

A while later,through the window, I spied a man with his son out walking. The boy must have been around seven and I could hear him chattering excitedly as they both saw Theresa sunning herself by the egg boxes.

"Dadddddd....look! there's a vulture in that shed" the boy gasped

The father sounded like one of those new-age dads..encouraging and gentle natured.

"I don't think it would be a vulture Ben" he said "they can be rather dangerous"

"Is it an eagle then?" Ben asked

"I am not sure" Ben's father said making things up as he went along "It's not a bird of prey"

"What is it then?" Ben asked " a white pheasant?"

"No I think it is some sort of exotic bird" his father continued to bullshit

"He's got a bald head" Ben said "like a vulture...I bet you it's a white vulture" 

"I don't think he's a vulture" Dad repeated with a sigh....

I couldn't resist it...

I walked out of the cottage, pretending to put out the rubbish and said hello as the two of them continued to lean over the wall looking at Theresa who now was asleep

"What's kind of bird is that" the father asked brightly?

I didn't hesitate

"It's a white vulture" I said with a smile.

Cria Cuervos, Jolly Spaniards and life beyond computers

My computer gave up the ghost yesterday.

All I have been left with is a black screen, a few unless instructions, and  a whole load of frustration.

But that's the way of our modern world sometimes;- we rely on these little cubes of technology just that little bit too much dont we?

Of course I will continue to blog, but I am now using Chris' work computer until mine can be resurrected or binned, so will have to dovetail into his routine somewhat.....

Ann Torrent in Croa Cuervos

Anyhow, last night I went to see a re run of the 1976 Spanish Film Raise Ravens... a wonderful and melancholy little film about a sad, little girl surviving life without her beloved mother (Geraldine Chaplin) by living in her own lonely little world.

It's a kind of like Pan's Labyrinth without the monsters.

The film was enlivened by three middle aged Spanish ladies who sat behind me ( who said North  Wales wasn't a cultural melting pot?)

Obviously they identified with all of those cultural and personal ques within the film ,so when the little girl played her favourite record or sang her favourite song, the ladies  would all join in, but would do so in a polite but ever so excited whisper.
So I kept my gob, uncharacteristically shut

Usually I find such behaviour unacceptable , and am not at all shy in letting such "culprits" know the fact, (firmly and loudly), but in this case, I found their obvious pleasure at re living a childhood that must have seemed a million miles away  from a damp night in a North Wales Cinema rather amusing.

The film although excellent, needed a bit of a lift anyway

It's a dull, lifeless kind of day today........and you know what? I could do with those three jolly Spaniards around the cottage

Keeping Things Going

Last night the Flower Show Committee met at Auntie Glads for our post show post- mortem

Gladys had gone to The Harvest Thanksgiving in Church but had left the large kitchen kettle boiling on the aga for our break and had organised thickly buttered scones to be distributed with the strong tea, which was to be set out in wafer thin china cups on the sideboard.

We had more or less sorted out next year's schedule, by the time Gladys returned, and as she sat down in the armchair next to the fire ,she wryly commented that there was more people grouped around her old kitchen table than there was sat in Church; but as usual there was only amusement in her voice and no hint of criticism.

With the congregation falling at the Church and the two tiny Trelawnyd chapels holding on by their fingertips, the village social groups, like those in all villages, seem to be fading as the population ages.

Bucking this trend has been the village Friendship group ( a social group ran by and for the village OAPS) and of course the Flower Show, which has been going (albeit gently) from strength to strength with the injection of new committee "blood" and a late rush of new exhibitors in recent years.

I am proud of our little band of valiant volunteers from the Flower Show.

Good humour, hard work, and just a little effort by  ten  people always seems to produce something rather special year after year after year.......

After a review of the dates, it would seem that in 2012..the flower show has been running a self congratulatory, 40 years

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible..and The Willow Manor Ball

Ok, I can be swayed by peer group pressure.
Here IS the new "Kathy Burke" look. Don't get used to it, because it won't be here long.
Normal Grey goatee will be resumed as soon as the testosterone can grow it.
Chris will be pleased...I think he thinks I'm having an affair
Fat chance...he's got me for good
x

Ps I am off to the Willow Manor Ball in a mo (fashionably late as per!)....sporting my new "bald" look......escorting me will be the slightly-more-scruffy-than-a-bag-of potatoes Matt Cardle... but seeing that I am spoken for, I have told Matt there is not to be any shenanigans in the limo........I don't want to get any grubby finger marks on my white tux!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Self Awareness

Yesterday I shaved off my goatee...
I am not quite sure why I did it
Perhaps it is another middle aged crisis kind of thing......
But I actually suspect that my sister Janet is responsible, as when we all met up for a family meal at the weekend, she told me that I might look a little younger without one!


I shaved it off yesterday morning and when I walked through the village at 4pm with the dogs not one person I spoke to (Sylvia from the flower show committee, Ann on her horse, the red faced Welsh Farmer, Sandra with the allotment, Bob and Olwen the retired chicken farmers and Peter with his black Labrador) noticed that it had gone!
Only Jason, who called down to swap a loaf for eggs, noticed and had the politeness to say I  LOOKED 20 YEARS YOUNGER
I have just taken a photo of myself sans beard and I now KNOW just who I look like.......

yeap it's ..........Kathy Burke

Turkey Cuddling (winter 2009)

Proof , if proof was needed that I cuddle my turkey
see previous post

A Classic Case Of Transference

We've all experienced it.
The boss at work gives you a bollocking
You come home and kick the cat.
Transference in the animal world can be just as cut and dried

Junior turkey Bingley makes it his mission to bully old retainer Boris.
Boris gets pissed off
I get "battered" by Boris
It's as simple as that.

Bingley (all talk and no action)

Bingley is a stunning turkey stag. He is all testosterone and bluster when it comes to me and after a brief altercation ( when he got swiped with a plastic bucket), he now has a healthy respect for my alpha male position. Bingley understands the pecking order clearly and does not over step the "rules" of the field.something that Boris unfortunately has done.recently, as he, being upset with being now the subordinate turkey, has transferred his aggression towards me.

Boris, claws at the ready

For those that don't know turkey stags generally attack with their feet and not their beaks. They "trill" a warning call before hand , glide quickly up  with all feathers rattling then in a lightening type attack will leap forward at you with razor sharp claws.
An attack can easily knock a man off his feet.
Boris generally is a big sweetie with me, after all he was hand reared and is well used to be handled, lifted and cuddled ( and YES, I have cuddled my turkey... what's wrong with that?) Having him now stalking me with murderous intent 24/7 is becoming rather tiresome.
This morning I set him up with the new geese, away from Bingley and out of my hair. Hopefully this "time out" will cool his hormones down just a little......and this afternoon I will go and sit with him with a tempting bagel in my hand.....here's hoping that cupboard love will win back his affection

A Little Tinker

Gary Oldman and John Hurt...men in beige

I was around 17 when the much Lauded tv series Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was around., so was really too young to appreciate this complicated John le Carré tale of the sad and the obsolete in 1973 MI6.
The Tomas Alfredson remake is now obviously a period piece set against the beige filled early seventies, when everyone drank scotch out of their filing cabinets, hid their sexuality preferences and mourned the glory days of post war espionage.
It is a complicated, slow burn of a movie, which is well worth watching, a fact that surprised me, as I tend to hate similar drab "Ipcress File" type dramas.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy also has a cast to die for. Gary Oldman (remarkably good as the melancholy George Smiley) takes the lead role from the likes of Tom Hardy,Toby Jones,John Hurt,Mark Strong,Benedict Cumberbatch (also very good) and Colin Firth and even a rather lumpy Kathy Burke Shows her face as a retired agent who misses the camaraderie of the "old Cold
war days"(mind you if this was a Hollywood movie her role would have been played by Meryl Streep!)

It is a carefully paced and if you stick with it, a satisfying watch, especially if you are like me, a
a complete ignoramus on Le Carre novels.

8/10