Coincidence

This morning I remembered the oddest thing, a coincidence that really made me sit up and question how strangely things can turn out when you arn't "looking", so to speak.

In 1986, when I lived in York I briefly dated a general nurse called Fiona. Our relationship was basically platonic in nature, but it was all very intense and "serious" given the fact that at the time both of us were....well......very intense and serious people, she more than I , as I recall

Finlay

Of course both of us went our own ways in life, so you can probably imagine the surprise I felt  when I was driving through Crooksmoor , a scruffy suburb of Sheffield some 18 years later when I saw her pushing a pram down a tree lined avenue.

I stopped the car and got out with my dog on his lead, and we walked over to say hello.

It was lovely to see her again. Apparently she had worked as an alternative therapist all over the world, met her husband in Italy and had helped open a restaurant with him not two miles from where we lived in Hillsborough.

A small world eh?

On the spur of the moment we went for a coffee at a student cafe nearby and as we shared gossip, she showed me her son who was fast asleep in his pram.

"what's his name" I asked

"Finlay.." she said " but we all call him Fin"

I had to laugh a little......and I picked up the Welsh Terrier who was sat at my feet

"Meet my son", I told her

"What's his name? " Fiona asked

"Finlay" I said with a smile

Hippo Comment

 One of the better comments to my blog ( see previous entry)
Thanks Hippo

Pryvit

I Vladimir from Ukraine.

Why you compare small, small farm in tiny country with village in Ukraine? You been Ukraine? You ever come her, drink Slavutych (won gold medals, you won gold medals?) you seen Ukrainian chicken? You visit Ukrainian farm? We Ukraine, we say bad thing Wale farm? Why say bad thing Ukraine?

I spit on your chicken, Ptooh!!

You name place. I bring Ukrainian chicken, he kick shit out your chicken

Then I give Salvutych and we drink. In morning you stop nasty about Ukraine. Ukraine much bigger than Wale, Gregoriev say Wale men only Irish men who no swim. All Ukranian man swim, I show you when I bring chicken. When my chicken kill your chicken we swim Ireland, drink Irish Salvutych and swim back. Then I show you how build real house for chicken.

I read your blog, I think you nice man but stupid, You do work for woman, feed animal. You need Babushka. Mebbe I bring Babushka for you, no? She good. Beat her in morning she work hard and sleep with chicken when snow come and fry kovbasa in morning for you made from pigs you kill. All Ukrainian man like kill pig. If you no like kill, Babushka do it.

Do pobachennya
Vladimir
Kiev

There's Some sun In The Distance

The sun was shining yesterday and the village was galvanised into some sort of activity......today it is cold , damp and grey and the place is deserted and somewhat depressingly quiet.

Tom  over at "Tom Stephenson recalls",  has summed up this mid winter feeling so well, referring to it as the January Blues......for me, this time of year means just one thing----mud!; it means a constant battle with shitty paw prints on the kitchen floor and it means caked wellington boots and dirty, chillblained hands.

We all need a little hope in January don't we?

We need a glimpse of better things to come, some good news, some positive thinking.....

and at least here in our tiny corner of Wales, I think there are small islands of positivity to celebrate and to look forward to.

1. The Post Office makes a welcome return to the village in a month or two. 

Ok it will be only be set up on a Friday afternoon over at the village hall, and of course we still won't have the accompanying shop and newsagent services we used to have when Jenny the flamed haired post mistress fought her way through the reams of paperwork at the old Central Stores but it is a wonderful baby step at keeping the village functioning.

I looking forward in manufacturing a sudden need for  stamps and banking every Friday!

Historically the Post Office has moved sites at least 4 times over the years

2. A committee has just been formed up at the Crown Pub, to sort out some sort of Village Celebration to commemorate the Queen's Jubilee in June. I think this is a cracking idea, especially as I have decided not to hold my  "Open Allotment Day" until next year and I have already said that I am more than happy to help out with anything the committee comes up with.

In this age where people only seem to make the effort to look after themselves, any altruistic enterprise, in my mind should be celebrated, supported and encouraged.....

Now....where's my bunting?

Trelawnyd Coronation Carnival 1953

3. With the pigs' imminent departure, I have decided that 2012 will be the year that the allotment will go from strength to strength. The Ukrainian village will be having a full face lift and I aim to have a couple of milking goats this year.......milk, cheese, self sufficiency in veg and who knows.... more piglets in July perhaps......

and of course more waifs and strays will be turning up with gay abandon over the next few months.....

4. and I will be going to Choir practise this year.........losing Andrew underlines that old hackneyed saying...." life's too short"

And as the Two Ronnies used to say "and finally"
here is a blog header that will lift your spirits... it's a candid shot from http://lifeonthesmushieranch.blogspot.com/
Enjoy xxx

Moving Onwards

No 21 and the delightful no 12

Was it only Six Months ago since number 12 and Number 21 arrived at Bwthyn-y-Llan? It seems such an age ago now. Both have blossomed into two huge, fine looking pigs, each with a personality and attraction all of their own.......but I have always been mindful that both are now ready for bacon, for sausages and for chops.

I have just got off the phone with a rural butcher. A jovial Chap, full of Welsh chutzpah and good will, he gave me a whistle stop menu of pork cuts,explained the whole process of butchery from culling to table as it were and even offered to pick them up for me, which I have just now agreed to.

I am now just waiting for the phone call, telling me when it is all going to take place.

I feel ok and ever so slightly relieved that I have finally summoned the nerve to finally get the ball rolling, but I know I will find it just a little difficult to look no 21 in the eye a little later today....he's such a sweet natured fellow.........

I feel like a real farmer ( well just a little)

Barcelona 1992 Olympic Flame

I am getting excited about the Olympics...........we ( the family) are talking about going down to London to soak in the atmosphere of the closing ceremony ( no we have not got tickets)
I Just Hope the organisers take a leaf out of the Barcelona Olympics ( the most classy) and the Sydney Olympics ( The most Joyous!)
My Best friend Nuala and I went to the opening of the World Student Games at The Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield many years ago now.... I remember that Uk Astronaut Helen Shaman ran in with the "Games Flame" and bloody dropped it running up the steps to the cupola!
and...it was so embarrassing as THE BLOODY FLAME WENT OUT!!
The Sheffield crowd....( good natured as always) laughed it's bloody socks off!!!!!

5 Bags of Sugar

Weightwatchers weigh in today 15st 4 lbs 

Weight loss in the past week 6 lbs

Total weight loss in  2 weeks 10 lbs

Having suffered that bloody awful virus last week, I just knew that my weigh in this week would be fairly successful.......... So, I didn't need to employ all those pre weigh in tricks that we all employ just before dragging my sorry carcass onto the bathroom scales 

( by saying "tricks" I mean the forcing out of a big wee just before assessment time etc!!!)

Give me a couple more weeks and I just know I will stop farting with the force of the Queen Mary's Hooter when I bend over........Way to go Girlfriend

x

Ps will blog more "appropriately" a little later!

Noise

Sunday mornings in the country are not always peaceful. This is especially true in winter when the sounds of bird shoots echo constantly around the circle of hills that surround the village, giving one the sense of being a mile or two from the "front line" so to speak.

It has been like that this morning.

The village Church Bell strikes up at ten minutes to eleven and does not stop until the Rector arrives.........Robert is sometimes a little late, so the monotone "DING" of the bell can go on just a little, and it often sets the lurcher howling from the corner house which can be somewhat tiring.

I am on night shift tonight, so have retired to bed for a few hours. It is a necessary luxury as I will not have any sleep until tomorrow night now, and it is a luxury that I rather enjoy.....

Its just me in the bed.....no one else is allowed......the sheets are cool and the room is dark and even though I can still hear the occasional shriek of the geese as they bicker, the pillow over my head cushions most of the Sunday Morning soundtrack........

Sweet Dreams x

Oh Dear

Well, I went to be entertained and I went to have a good bawl.........and unfortunately I did neither....

Warhorse, I am afraid to say, is not one of Steven Spielberg's better films.Sure, it has a chocolate box view of Edwardian Devon, sure it has a totally underused Emily Watson as a plucky farmer's wife and sure it has sweet boy in love with his pet horse which is sadly taken off to the Great War...... but what it doesn't have is any real dramatic tension, in a story which, on stage at least, has gripped and moved literally millions of people.

The play is narrated by the central horse character of Joey; subsequently the emotion of the trauma of separation,loss and of War itself can be shared by words, as well as visuals... The film lacks this device and is, I am sorry to say, much the poorer for it, as horses, although beautiful animals, can look ever so slightly inscrutable to the untrained eye. If they show human emotion...they can unfortunately look a little cartoonish

Warhorse also does not have many of those flagship Spielberg touches that satisfy the soul.

But a few scenes do linger  in the mind

- the horse Joey galloping madly  across the besieged trenches at night

- the shooting of two deserters as seen through the sails of a working windmill

- the gentle banter between a sweet natured German soldier (Hinnerk Schönemann) and a chirpy Tyneside   Squaddie      ( Toby Kebbell)  who meet up in no-man's land

  ( incidentally the best performances of the film)

But overall, I felt cheated there was no "Lassie Come Home moment".....

I needed a bit of cheap sentiment, and a lot of blubber

Unfortunately I had neither!
6/10