"Put The Bun Down, Walk Away From The Bun"

I have always enjoyed my food

Chris says that it comes from being a twin, 

It's Something about having competition at food time.....

Once when I was tucking in to a plate of goodies, he laughed and said that if we were infant birds rather than babies then he was sure that I would have kicked Janet right out of the nest when mommy came-a-calling with a beakful of worms...

Even at a year old I was chubby and  just a little camp!

Of course weight gain is sort of natural when you are fast approaching 50. My regular twice a week badminton games with friend Mike stopped long before we came to Wales.......(because of creaking knees and pressures of work) and we have got into the habit of big meals in the evenings, too many takeaways and for me, the fatty perils of a crisp white wine!

Add to this recipe, a propensity for comfort eating, a liking for big portions ( a legacy from my Grandmother who re enforced love and affection with feeding) and a genetic "Gray double chin" and is it no wonder that I look like a pig in a leotard?

So it is time I do something permanently about it.....

I know I can do it.

A few years ago I lost three stone in six months, and did so fairly easily ...

I just didn't keep it off.

This time I am serious........ I can do it again and for good this time.......Looking like Shelley Winters on a bad day  and having embarrassing, uncontrollable and uncomfortably loud flatulence when I cock my leg over the field gate is the last straw........

There...I have said it publicly........

My Name's John...... and I am a porker.

So from now on Mondays will be my weightwatcher weigh in...Last Monday I was 16 stone exactly

Today I am

15 stone 10 lbs.
"Way to go Girlfriend!!!!!!!!!"

A Little Extra

Meg, Mabel, William and George and the ubiquitous blue rug

Sunday morning is a time for slow paced activities...

Chris has gone to Church in the next village and the dogs are all heaped together on the kitchen sofa, unwilling to get up into the fine , grey mist and rain which looks as though it has set in for the day.

This is the time for coffee, eggs Benedict and Radio 4 Extra.....

Radio 4 Extra is a little gem of a radio station. For those that do not know ( and I am quoting wikipedia here) Radio 4 extra is:-

"BBC Radio 4 Extra, formerly known as BBC 7 and BBC Radio 7, is a British digital radio stationcomedy, drama, and children's programming nationally 24 hours a day. It is the principal broadcasting outlet for the BBC's archive of spoken-word entertainment broadcasting "

What wikipedia does not make clear , is the fact that Radio 4 Extra  often cherry picks the best the brightest of the BBC productions for a re airing...this morning I have enjoyed a cracking adaptation of Kipling's Jungle Book....(with Eartha Kitt literally shining as Kaa the snake) and as I type this, Kirsty Young is in the process of interviewing Debbie Harry for Desert Island Discs 

Vintage Peter Coke

Tomorrow, I will catch the 1959 re run of Paul Temple and the Conrad Case and if I remember on Thursday, I will try and catch The Chief Inspector Dover Mysteries from way back in 1976, 

We are lucky having the BBC here in the UK...... but if it was up to me I would rip most of the shitty tv programmes off BBC1 ( apart from Sherlock of course) and replace them with some of the quality radio productions from the past and present..... 

But, alas, a day cannot just be crammed with breakfast eggs, good drama and a warm kitchen....

dogs have to be walked in the rain..........and I need to burn off the calories before my weightwatcher's weigh in tomorrow morning

Have a nice Sunday

It's All Go.....

I am still keeping on eye on Village affairs

Trelawnyd seems rather quiet in this post Christmas time lull

There is little news to report....

Neighbours Della and Arfon found an abandoned Jack Russell outside their farm gates...she's a sweet little gal too

The village noticeboard has been finally erected

-The builder who did the work gave me the key as he knew I am on the community council--( oh the power!)

and Kit Hopkins kindly presented me with my second pair of handmade slippers this afternoon.....she apologised for the wait......she had a rush order to get out!

The ever cheerful guy with multicoloured hair and numerous piercings from Maes Offa dropped off a load of wood for me to burn in the lounge stove...

Carys at 1 London Road said she didn't mind that I had forgotten to deliver her eggs this week as she has enough

and there is talk of a part time post office being opened up at the Village Hall very soon......

The Trelawnyd Village folk seem happy enough despite the lack of excitement!!

Frodo's tale

Frodo

Now as regular readers will know, I am a bit of a sucker for a sob story. 

At least 30 animals on the field arrived as a result of being neglected or unwanted, and most have blossomed into healthy, happy and in the case of the "Crackhead whores" productive birds, who have all started to lay after a few barren and somewhat bald months.

Yesterday I received an email from  a woman in Shropshire, who had rescued a predominantly blind bantam cockerel from a farm after he was bullied by the resident cockerels and the farm children who delighted in throwing stones at him..

She had heard , through a mutual friend that I keep poultry (and probably that I am a soft touch) and wondered if I could help her

Frodo, apparently is a bit of a character. Before being re homed at the farm, he was one of the star attractions in the petting zoo at Alton Towers, subsequently he is tame, loves human contact and a cuddle, and now is almost fit enough to be re homed

I have a spare run, and the Rhode Island Red who had a stroke would make him an ideal companion so of course I have emailed Frodo's rescuer and have said yes. 

She was lucky, I think, as her timing had been pitched just right. With the start of the New Year, and the faraway prospect of better weather, I am beginning to feel more like my normal, more positive self.

The dreadful 2011 is now behind us

The Wind Doth Blow!

70 mile an hour winds, horizontal rain and hail ....I could hardly see the field this morning

I managed to snap a quick photo of the hysterical runners all leaning desperately into the wind

Strangers On A Train

I have spent a rather pointless afternoon battling the vagaries of a banking call centre, which proved to be as lengthy as it was irritating..In between huffing and puffing at faceless jobsworths, I almost forgot that Albert needed his inoculation boosters, so after bundling him into the berlingo, I popped up to the vets.

As it turned out the vet was running late ( it is a rural surgery) so I had to wait, and as I sat there I struck up conversation with a woman who had been booked into the slot after  me. The woman had brought an over weight and rather cheerful Labrador to be seen, whose name, she informed me, was Winston.
Winston, she added had a bit of a nervous "tummy"
My companion, was a garrulous old soul. Within a few minutes, she had told me that she was a retired legal secretary, that she had recently been hospitalised for suspected gallstones and that her niece had recently obtained a doctorate in some high flying subject over in the States.
She didn't think much about the Christmas Television schedules, though quite enjoyed "Downton Abbey" and was fed up with the increasing number of fireworks that were set off by people on the "Estate" when the New Year was welcomed in.
Winston had been with her for three years  and she also had at cat at home called Frank or Franks....... and after those facts were shared I think I started to glaze over just a little.......
But she just kept on spouting.
The Stephen Lawrence case was discussed, her niece's slightly disastrous love life was touched upon and even the merits of cranberry juice for "bladder probs" was thrown into the mix.... and even though I sort of enjoyed our conversation, the sight of the vet hurrying into the surgery was a very welcomed sight

With Albert tucked under my arm, I said my goodbyes, and the woman beamed at me, holding up Winston's paw up in a jaunty wave!!

"oh I have enjoyed our chat" she said and with just a hint of sadness in her voice, she added candidly
"Do you know you are the first person I have spoken to properly since December the 18th"

I gave her a brave sort of smile ,and  suddenly felt like crying.... and I wondered who she chatted to over two weeks ago

Injured fingers,Storms and Sherlock

The second in command Cockerel, Badger and the marsh which is now the field

Now bare with me if my spelling and grammar is ,moderately worse than usual....

I can only type with my left hand and with the third finger on my right hand......a result of a particularly nasty fridge defrosting injury.....I won't bore you with the details...suffice to say that I am  having a little  trouble typing, picking my nose and wiping my bum!

Yes....enough said....

The storm which has buffeted the Uk today, hit home in Wales in the middle of the night. and  at 4am, me and my sore fingers were battling the elements on the field as part of the Churchyard fencing crashed down onto the goosehouse ripping part of the roof away.

In the dark and with Mabel watching every move, I fixed the roof and checked on each coop in turn.....we have been lucky .........despite up to 90 mile a hour gusts, nothing else has  been damaged severely (so far)...

Hens a lucky little souls, when it's dark. At night they literally go totally blind and will sit comfortably side my side, blissfully unaware that anything untoward is happening in the big bad world..

I didn't even get a murmur out of them when after opening one coop door, Mabel stuck her big fat head through to give a group a buffs a somewhat energetic once over!.

The torrential rain has saturated the field, to it's limit, too and most of the animals are living in rather damp unhealthy lives during the day.....its been a lousy winter so far,

Last night, with the wind screaming around the cottage we had an early night and watched the first episode of the  second BBC series SHERLOCK on iplayer.

Now for those that have not yet seen Benedict Cumberbatch's modern day portrayal of the famous detective, you are in for a real treat, as his Sherlock is a masterclass in charisma.

His  "more damaged" Sherlock is a borderline asberger sufferer....as being the genius we all know and love,he is sexually immature geek,  who is at times socially inept and rather isolated, a facet which makes his character even more compelling to watch.

He is clearly  my favourite incarnation of Holmes.....

...and I am not alone...... fellow blogger Kyna over at crystalcoastgardener 

seems to be a bit of a fan..it always amuses me when she refers to herself as a .........

If you are having a bad time at home, hiding away from this bloody awful weather........ go to iplayer and give the New Sherlock a go...... it's great fun

To everyone in the UK.... be careful and safe today.... that weather is a bitch! and not a cumberbitch!

A Better 2012

The Family Photograph Jan 1st 2012