Mabel and the Real World

A rather nervous Mabel in the back of the car

It must be hell coming to a new home in Wales when all you have known for 5 years is a kennel mate in Liverpool!

New sights, new smells, new dogs (and cat), new routine and new owner...it's a lot to cope with even though I am know I am pretty good at bedding a new dog in, so to speak.

Nervous dogs need consistency, patience and routine. They must not be pushed or forced to "join in" in any way but need an unhurried "boss" to lead them into the direction you want them to go.

Voices need to be lowered and actions slowed....it's all common sense really

Toileting has to be done every couple of hours ( Mabel has never lived inside a home so therefore is not house trained) and the company of a more laid back dog ( in her case George) should help her adjust to the changes of a new way of life.

Well that's the theory!

Bless it can't ever be easy.

Mabel managed to follow the other dogs into the car, and bless she shook like a leaf as I collected animal feed from the wholesalers and paid my Nurse registration at the bank (Did you realise that nurses have to pay nearly 80 quid a year just for the privilege of working?)

As we drove through a neighbouring village of Meliden, I noticed a mound of flowers outside one of the old miners' cottages....it was the many tributes left by the locals in memory of a Hungarian delivery man,Gabor Sarkozi who was murdered there only a couple of weeks ago..

Even in our semi rural situation the big bad world sometimes rears it's ugly head!

So when I got home, I was sort of happy to be lulled back into the pedestrian world of the village by

Mrs Hopkins, who called me over to her tidy little bungalow with the kind offer of my new winter mittens!

 They are a triumph of knitting engineering! Phase 1- fingers

Phase 2- mittens!!!!

I like living in the 1960s..I only hope that Mabel will!

Nosferatu and the new Gal

I enjoyed the showing of the 1922 Nosferatu. The 6 piece ensemble that played the accompanying music were talented enough and the whole experience was a new one for me.......the film was ok.....I loved the iconic vampire shots (vampire magically rising from a coffin/ vampire shadows on the wall etc)

and to be honest, I have never sat through the whole movie before even though I had studied two key scenes in detail when I did my films studies course in sheffield.

It was worth the effort.

When I got home, I got a shy little welcome from newbi Mabel.

She's a nervous little character, more robust than Constance physically, but she is a smaller and somewhat prettier bitch that . 

has never been away from home before. She has the look of a dog desperate for  gentle reassurance and a friendly smile ( yes dogs understand smiles very well), and she constantly searches your face for a sign of welcome and acceptance.

The other dogs, after giving her the usual welcoming "sniff" ( whilst rolling their eyes with a sort of "bloody hell here's ANOTHER one!" expression) have left her to her own devices, so I have been careful to constantly give her a gentle smile,a  kind word and a small stroke every time I've passed her.
The ghost of that affable despot Constance  is much in my mind at the moment

Funny just  how when one door closes... another one opens eh?.................

ps Hazel.... I sat in D13.. the woman on reception asked me how I was!

Mabel

She's stayed
..

Calm

Well only short post this morning....more later (bet you all can't contain yourselves!)

We survived Halloween. No little darlings trick or treating here (I wonder if the crackhead whores frightened them off?)..so the night (for Chris anyway who was working on paperwork all evening!) was quiet and uneventful.

After the bar room brawl of yesterday, peace of a kind has reigned on the field. "Vinegar tits"* is still "giving it large" towards the home field hens, but after getting a good pasting from the turkeys, she is a little more subdued

The pub quiz fundraiser for MND did very well last night, but I will let my sister tell the "official" story of that one.....I am suffering from the evening ever so slightly though... too hot a chili supper I am afraid......

Every time I cock my leg over a gate or fence..I am blowing off like the Queen Mary's Fog horn...

but that's a little too much info

I have a lot to do today (more later!) and I even have a ticket to tonight's special showing of the 1922 classic Nosferatu at Theatre Clwyd
* For those that don't know Vinegar Tits was the nickname the female prisioners had for a particulary horrible guard in the Australian soap Prisioner Cell Block H

Whore Wars

As any poultry keeper will tell you,  it is unwise to "let loose" a load of new hens into an existing flock. You have to introduce your girls gradually, preferably over a few days of seeing each other through a fence or run, and even then you are not guaranteed a peaceful amalgamation of birds.

The eleven new hens. the ones that had been shagged ragged by a cockerel the size of a bear, are a tough looking, sorry bunch who have been somewhat unkindly nicknamed the "Crackhead whores". Not one of them has a full set of feathers between them, and in actual fact two of the bigger ones have that crazy kind of look only seen in the eyes of Jerry Springer's most unsavory guests. So I just kind of knew that when I let the new girls out of their pen, the resulting introduction, would be interesting to say the least.

At first, nothing happened. "The Crackheads" slowly left the safety of their run in a tight knit group, led by an buxom alpha female black rock who I have subsequently nicknamed "Vinegar tits". Jane the American turkey wandered over to take a look and was immediately set upon by the black rock (a thing I have never seen before as turkeys can be terribly violent when challenged)

Jane retaliated, as the guinea fowl and other hens joined in, and before I knew it, a full cat fight from hell had started..with even all the seven geese shrieking at the top of their lungs as the brawl spread through the ranks

Only the Indian runners didn't join in, they all stood nervously next to the pond chattering " leave it....leave it..... they're not worth it" to themselves

I have seen all this before! The best thing to do is to take a big breath and walk away.

So with feathers flying like confetti,

I turned on my heels and went to have another cup of coffee

"Fucking Turkeys in the shed"

It's a strange "tradition" (if tradition is the word for it) for this country to still adhere to the autumn/winter rule of "putting you clocks back"....

I have never really bothered with it all before ( apart from having an extra hour's lie in that is) but last night during a somewhat trying shift at work, I was one of eight staff who all looked at the clock at 2am with some satisfaction that the whole sorry night was at least half over, only to realise that it was suddenly 1 am all over again.

Its amazing how psychologically "crushing" that hour gained can be, to a group of registered nurse despots who are all in need of a coffee and a kind word.
It was a long night.....

And so this morning after an hour's marathon snoring  and looking like an extra from The Walking Dead, I ventured out down the lane for a dog walk.

I must have looked a fright for I hardly realised that a car had stopped to squeeze past us all.

It was gentleman farmer Ralph and his wife Louenna (who always reminds me of a smiling Welsh version of Miss Jean Brodie)...As they passed I apologised for standing in the way of the car, explaining that I "was not firing on all cylinders" due to that extra bloody hour

"I wondered by your blog was not updated" she called out!

Small fish in a small pond........I realised.

And so, I have updated the blog with the banality and humdrum which is so often "life in Trelawnyd"...The new bald hens have all settled down, safe in the prospect of not being shagged to death by cockerel the size of a small man in a rooster outfit and the dogs all relaxed and comfortable after their country walk are lining up to lie down with me for another short siesta....they are nothing but loyal.

I'll need another snooze as Christopher (bless him) is taking me out to a rather nice sea food restaurant in Llandudno later..he has remembered that is our anniversary of eleven years together!

Bless... he has put up with a great deal over the years!

Only this morning he spied me carrying Boris and Gloria out of the shed (where I had moved them so that the new hens would have a "hen house" all of their own).....and I could hear him mutter to himself a slightly exasperated

"There's Fucking Turkeys in the shed AGAIN!!...what's bleeding next? "

......tee hee

I think he has forgotten that there's a bulldog bitch visiting on Tuesday......

Scruffy Buggers & MND Fundraiser

The Bald Buggers

So another 11 waifs have arrived on the field.

The elderly lady who was so sad on the phone early this morning, turned out to be a delightful character when I met her in person.Her husband had suffered a minor stroke a few weeks ago and no longer could look after his small flock easily, so both were exceedingly grateful that I finally agreed that I could take all but one cockerel off their hands.

The cockerel was a monster of an animal who had effectively scalped all of his hens through persistant mating, so I am sure that all eleven hens will be delighted at having the opportunity to relax a little and give their "tuppences" a little bit of a rest!

Llanasa's Red Lion

Now I have "cut and pasted" the folowing from my sister's blog...a bit more publicity for Motor Neurone Disease fundrasing.........locals please note

"My brother in law Chris MacDonald- Parry has very kindly organized a music quiz night for this coming Monday the 31st of October at his local pub The Red Lion in Llanasa -the proceeds of which will be going to the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
Please come and support us if you can -it should be a lot of fun ! There will be a raffle with the chance to win a free meal for two , the quiz starts at 8.30 pm. I`am making sure " Team M.N.D " are all of various ages so hopefully we will have a wide spread of musical knowledge. Chris organizes a quiz once a month with the proceeds raised donated to various charities.
And for anyone who is interested in a bit of history.........

The pub dates back to the 1700`s- previously it was a farm called Ty Newydd [ which translated means - New House ] it is situated in the centre of a typical picturesque country village- opposite the pub is a beautiful large Georgian style manor house in which my hubby and his family grew up in-Ned`s grand father bought the house for four hundred gold sovereigns ! Where he got the money from nobody knows and it still remains a family mystery today-Many of the pieces of furniture in the house had come down from Captain Edward Morgan who was a welsh man and an officer in the Royalist Army during the civil war in the 1650`s, he played a significant part together with 3 thousand Welshmen in the defense of Chester against the Parlimentarian forces- he was also a relation to the famous Captain Henry Morgan - buccaneer who operated in the seas around Jamaica" .

Phone Calls

How things change in the blinking of an eye.
This morning I have had three phone calls over a rapidly cooling cup of coffee.
The first was Chris, who is still working away in London.
The second was an elderly lady who somewhat tearfully asked if I would 'adopt' her small flock of hens, as her frail husband could no longer look after them
And the third was a lovely conversation with a lady in Liverpool who wants to find a loving home for her five year old female bulldog.
" The Jungle Telegraph" is an amazing thing.

The upshot of the conversations were:-
I will be picking Chris up from the station at 7pm
I will go and look at the elderly lady's hens this morning( with my hen crate in the boot)
And the lady with the bulldog bitch will bring her over to see us on Tuesday

hey ho