A Baby Elephant In The Room

Love me love me

Mabel has not really ingratiated herself with Chris.

Some of this stems from the fact that he is, in fact, a terrier fan, pure and simple.

But most of the time it is Mabel's slightly neurotic and rambunctious behaviours that leaves him shaking his head with a certain amount of resignation.

Terriers are quick, light footed and needy. They demand cuddles like well intentioned babies, and have a gentleness about them which everyone seems to enjoy.

Mabel on the other hand is overactive, totally uncoordinated and incredibly clumsy....she craves physical contact but cannot quite rein in the heavy breathing hysterics that always accompanies being made a fuss of...and 25 kilos of paw waving bulldog is a lot cope with sometimes in a cottage the size of a postage stamp.

It can be a little bit like being molested by a constantly bouncing fur covered fridge freezer.

Not easy when you are not in the mood for it!

Mabel requires consistency and firm handling, to control her desperate need for affection, and she needs a calm structured approach to deal with her nervousness, which , I think it the root of her excitable behaviour........we have not quite got there as yet, but we are close, and I have to smile to myself, for as I am typing this blog entry at the kitchen table, I can see her watching my every move with her big brown sad eyes never leaving my face, just waiting for that moment she can gallop forward like a steam train for a cuddle

*********************************************************************************

Weight Watchers weigh in this morning 14 stone 13lbs

Total weight loss since 2nd Jan 1 stone 1lb

Weight loss last week 1 lb......(a surprising result given those homemade sausages!!!)

All Together Now

I have just re read my previous post

so I ask all readers to stand up! come on stand up!

and  in a theatrically girly voice everyone throw their hands out wide and   repeat after me loudly"

"out with Anger!"

Now s-l-o-w-l-y draw back your hands back to your bosoms

and say breathlessly

"In with love"

There!!! do you feel better now?

 

Thought not!

Oh don't you just love irony!

To Whom it may concern

The downside of blogging it that you always seem to be upsetting someone with something at sometime.

Now, to me, there are two things that you can do if "one is upset"......

You can have a lively and somewhat infantile debate ( like we often do c/o Tom Stephenson)

or you can just stop reading that particular blog........simples!

Last night I received a somewhat abusive post comment relating to the culling of the pigs. It was graphic, somewhat rude and threatening, and instead of embarking on any discussion with it's author I deleted the comment immediately banning any further comments from someone, who was so strangely....well....... aggressive.

Since we took the decision for the pigs to "go" I have found it interesting that I have lost five followers, perhaps it is just coincidence, after all Blogger seems to be playing up quite a bit recently, but if my deserters are a result of 85 kilos of sausage lying on our kitchen table, so be it........you can't please everyone !

The anonymity of blog land can give some bloggers a certain carte blanche to vent their spleen in ways that they couldn't possibly do (or dare to) in real life ( and before you go off on one Thomas, I am not talking about you...... I know you, in your real life can be a real stinker face to face so to speak!)..it has happened to me a few times with characters that I once thought stable (oh how wrong was I?).... That is  the problem with blogland , sometimes lunatics can slip under your well homed  nutter radar!

I remember that one affable old duffer that I follow with some loyalty- the bouncy old soul that is (Yorkshire Pudding) - well he had a awful time once, with one particularly nasty character who left a whole novel of abuse on his blog.

As a regular reader, I remember finding the whole thing unnecessary and all rather upsetting...

If you want a fun debate... great!

,If you disagree with an idea, a philosophy or an opinion....do so respectfully

and if you strongly disagree with anything you read or see...

then..........just fuck off

Life's too short!

In Trutina from Carmina Burana - Carl Orff.

lovely........lovely.........lovely

Pork, Pork and More Pork

"look at my meat!"

  

 Well I feel a little like a serial killer who has been spent a busy afternoon packing bits of my victims up in a whole plethora of plastic bags......yes number 12 and number 21 were picked up today from the butcher's shop in six large boxes and were carefully re bagged ready for a hastily bought chest freezer, which has been set up in the back shed.

85 kilos of sausages, massive leg joints, a ton of belly pork and chops galore ( or should that be gore) have covered every surface in the kitchen. and I was grateful that amid the carnage there were only four recognisable trotters to cope with and not a whole pigs head. ( the butcher's don't generally give you the heads unless requested)

Looking at the prices of meat at our local butchers, I think that we have well over £1,000 quids worth ready to be eaten!..... Bless number 12 and 21 have done us proud.

I dropped some goodies off for the RFWF, and to Eirlys and John who helped me so well last Tuesday and then just had time to leave a chop with Auntie Glads for her tea!

85 kilos of sausage!!!

We have just had sausages for our tea!!! bloody lovely!!!!

The 4 Tribes Of Trelawnyd

 My sister in law called around yesterday, I had missed our weekly "coffee and cake" meet up as I had fallen asleep in arm chair, warmed into slumber by a blanket of fluffy Welsh Terriers and tired out by that morning's altercation with a trailer trash hag who ruined my morning by trying to bully free petrol out of a teenage petrol pump attendant.

It is just eight weeks since my brother died, but what with Christmas, New Year and the anniversary of his Birthday all part of those two months, his death seems  almost  an age away now.
It's a weird thought....

Andrew at my 2009 Open Allotment Day

 Jayne watched the field for a while after she parked and after hearing all about the blind Rooster Cogburn she watched the hens milling around the gate and said "Everyone of them has a story to tell"....

she seemed surprised...after all hens are only hens........

Just recently I have realised that the hen population  on the field has evolved into four distinct tribes or factions. Three of the four tribes now have their own cockerel leader where the fourth has an alpha female in charge, and each group have chosen to inhabit their own corner of the field.

The Tribe of the West is the most eclectic of the tribes.Led by the diminutive Eric, it comprises of the remaining crackhead whores,  a bullied arucana and her team mate Phylis Diller (Below) and three shy re homed Wellsummers

 The Tribe of the North comprises of all seven of the oldest hens on the field which have been joined by the three of the crackhead whores who arrived bald and damaged from a year's mistreatment by their over randy cockerel . These hens are all now fully re feathered and healthy birds and all three have just started to lay again, a sign of good condition ,  

I have found it rather amusing that the youngest and most inexperienced cockerel, Badger has taken over as leader in this coop. Some readers may remember that he was the single chick that survived a fatal badger attack on his mother last spring and alone and lonely was luckily teamed up with Camilla the gosling when she arrived.

Badger with Camilla

Badger now!

 The Tribe of the East, is the "front of house" group of hens on the field, for their designated area is the most sociable and most visual to anyone passing by in the lane. Subsequently the hens in this tribe are the most confident and the most pushy, for they are the ones that always benefit from scraps and bread donated by villagers.

Stanley, the old cockerel, interestingly enough has moved hen houses with his trusty white guinea fowl, Angostura in tow, to "take charge" of the Tribe of the East. which comprises of seven re homed orpingtons and a large group of bog standard red hens that arrived last year after being mistreated by their owner.

The last distinct group on the field is the Tribe of the South. This is a rag tag group of geeks, shy saddos and lonely hens.from three coops, who like to hide away from the hustle and bustle of daily life.They always remind me of those kids at school that never played with anyone at break time, you remember the ones?, the kids that read their books on the periphery of the action, wanting to join in but not having the confidence to do so

Their "leader" is Lillian, a white hefty Orpington, who enjoys peace ,quiet and periods of warm sunshine.....it is not a coincidence that their part of the field remains in the sun for the majority of the day

Lilliam.....a gal not to be messed with

 ......yeap Jayne was right...... every hen has a story.......

Slag!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"And your fans think you're all heart..."

and so said a close friend of mine that read a somewhat acerbic comment I wrote about the Occupy Sheffield demonstrators.... 

and he is right in what he said......I am not the Mary Poppins of Welsh poultry, or the Francis of Assissi of Flintshire....at times I can be as bad tempered and as much of an old bastard  as anyone out there in blogland ......and that's official.

I don't loose my temper often, but when I do, I can easily do a cracking impression of Aurora (Shirley McClaine) loosing it , from the movie Terms of Endearment

I have not got time now to tell you exactly How I lost my temper early this morning after I had left work for home.... suffice to say that it involved a rather common woman in tracksuit bottoms at the petrol station........and the phrase " you Rancid old slag!"

The price of a pint of milk

What can you get for around 44p nowadays?

A pint of milk?

A cheap Newspaper?

A stamp?

No, Chris has just spent 44p on something for me and will continue to pay 44p a day for the next year on it!

What is it he has bought me, I hear you all ask...?

Well he has just bought me the best pressie ever....

He has paid the field rent for me

44p a day!

The best pressie ever!

Thank you! x