Going Gently

Sigh

The only good thing in Downton, Siohban Finnerhan as O'Brien

I know everyone seems to be blogging about the arrival of autumn, but when you live your life mostly wearing wellies, that sharp cold snap in the air, somewhat dominates your attention. The nights have drawn in, the wood burner has been lit and and dissapointmernt is in the air on Sunday nights as Downton Abbey has sadly morphed itself into a cheaply written daytime soap.

Autumn has arrived.

I hope it's not going to be another wet winter. Cold the animals cope with ease, cold and wet...they don't

Cold, wet days are cruel.

Cold and wet days halt work on the allotment

Cold and wet days fill the cottage with muddy paw prints and damp

Cold and wet days empty the village

Having said this, the arrival of ice and snow has it's own downside here in Trelawnyd.

Waterfeeders require ice clearing at least three times a day and the animals need extra feed to fight the effects of the cold.

The berlingo does not cope well on icy roads and I am worried about getting to my brother's house up in the sticks when even 4 x 4 s struggle with the conditions........

Last night the moon was shining brightly behind the churchyard trees. With the leaves almost gone from the branches , the sillolettes of the guinea fowl crowched firmly against the wind could be clearly seen. Of all the animals, they alone have to face the winter elements without shelter. This will be their third Christmas alone in the Graveyard.

So, it's time to order some straw to insulate the pig hut and it's time to dig out Mrs Hopkin's mittens to wear out on the field.....
I hate winter


The guineas in last year's snow from left to right-Ivy Hughie and Alf

Betty's Last Hot Pot

Annie Walker (Doris Speed) and Betty Turpin ( Betty Driver)

I am of a generation that grew up with Granada tv's "traditional" portrayal of the Northern Working Class Woman in twice weekly soap Coronation Street.

Life in Weatherfield (aka Salford) at that time, remained drab, industrialised and parochial. The austerity of the 1950s was only a decade away, some houses still had an outside lav, and women who were old before their time still had to make do and mend.

Coronation Street of old was a cracker of a soap, and it was all the better for having the likes of Betty Driver ,a former 1940s big band singer, in a supporting role as the street's warm hearted, ham armed, motherly bosomed bar lady Betty Turpin.

For me she embodied women of a certain age, who survived hardship and wartime with an offer of a smile, a cup of tea and a piece of cake, and like John Wayne, Betty always looked as though she was playing her warm and big hearted self on screen, a thing the British nation loved her for.

Betty Driver 1920-2011

"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.......