House Names

Dirty Clouds over the Gop Yesterday

The United States is stealing our weather...they are overly hot and dry...we are overly wet and damp. It's just not fair!

I have not been able to get my hands dirty on bosoms as yet this week and the weeds are high as an elephant's eye!.....oh for a bit of sun and clear skies.

The cottage smells of damp dog at the moment as yet again we got soaked on our morning walk..it's been a f*cking crap summer so far.

George, steaming gently

I walked the dogs in nearby Prestatyn this morning. I had gone down to drop a belated birthday card off for my sister, so she could get it when she arrives back off holiday later today. I left her some flowers on the door step too as a little morale booster, for right in the middle of her break in Spain, her on suite toilet spring a leak and soaked her newly decorated living room with devastating force.

A neighbour saw me leaving the flowers and looked so worried that I felt I needed to explain that no one had, in fact died !....
"Her bog has flooded the house" I called out in way of an explaination
They left looking just as worried!

My sister lives in an affluent leafy suburb....Built in the 1920s, the  houses are all surrounded by wide tree lined avenues and have the look of middle England at it's most peaceful. It's a nice place to walk, and it's a nice place to "house watch"...and to be honest, when it's pissing down with rain, it's a slightly cleaner place to walk the dogs!

Upper Prestatyn

 I have always found the names that people choose for their houses interesting. For an estate like the one I walked around this morning, there is no obvious need for the naming of the houses, for all the homes have clear numbers unlike most of the older houses here in Trelawnyd who have to have their own names to differentiate them from each other "postally". But name them, people do, and I must admit that I found the list of house names oddly fascinating.

Of course the old stalwarts of "The Willows", "Fairfields", "Kenwoods" and "Chatsworths" figured highly alongside of the more traditional Welsh names of  "Bryn Newydd" (New Hill) and "Bryn Teg" ( fine Hill) , but now and again a more "individual" name came into the mix

"Nellandy" might have been owned once by Nellie and Andrew...."Sea Whispers" must have a owner with a bit of a dramatic flair and I'll be buggered if I know just why "Gunther Place" was called "Gunther Place"

The motivation for naming such extensions of self, perhaps can tell a great deal about a person.

"The old Rectory"- which is just around the privet hedge from my Sister ( and which has never in it's life ever had a vicar near it) of course has delusions of grandeur

(see Telegraph cli[pping) while "The Haven" and "Sunnyside" provide a bit of optimism in this uncertain world... and I always liked the name of a house I once saw in Netheredge in Sheffield, as it was called "Witts End".......

My favourite house name comes from a novel and more famously from the filmed version of that novel.... the film is Mrs Miniver and the house name in  question is "STARLINGS"....that middle class haven of Englishness where Walter Pidgeon and Greer Garson won their own little parts of the war!

Starlings as English as bagels

Our Cottage is  Called Bwthyn-y-llan by the way..... which literally means Church Cottage......a little nicer than it's historic general name of Tan-y-fynwent (below the cemetery!)

What is your house name? I would be interested to know!
Funny what you think about when it's pissing down with rain!

Yellow Room!

 

For Those that may be interested in what Chris' new room looks like

Here is a sneak peek!

  

 

Is it all a bit much?

Ok he's a quick look

(The stately Home wallpaper has been left intact on the other wall!)

He's seen the photo and liked it!

Scones, Yellow Walls And A Despot's Big Up

Auntie Glad's infamous scones

The weather yesterday was truly atrocious. I ventured out only to look after the animals and to walk the dogs. Old Islwyn Thomas was the only villager I met when I was braving the rain in the morning....He cheerfully called out that he didn't think that we would have many entries for the flower show this year because of the wet.......apparently he says every year: a fact that Auntie Gladys  reminded me of a little later when I was summonsed by telephone to collect the scones she had promised would be ready in the early evening
The weather was getting Gladys down somewhat as she has reported with some frustration that she has only sold 100 ticket books for the Flower Show raffle since Friday because of the blustery conditions!.....
ONLY 100!
the woman is bloody 92 for god's sake!

Anyhow,I spent the entire  damp,day cleaning then painting the office, and below is a small taster of the "work in progress"

I will refrain from a "changing rooms" type reveal, until Chris returns home from Cambridge on Thursday (which is very restrained of me I think)

I think he should be the first to see his newly appointed  custard yellow office!

Jason

 

I will leave my "thoughts for the day" with a final big up for cheerful village despot Jason who is taking part in the three peaks challenge on the 7th of July in aid of the Cancer Unit at our local hospital.

His "Just Giving" page can be seen at http://www.justgiving.com/Jason-Randa0

He'll have legs like over stretched elastic bands when he's finished!

Good luck matey

A Room of One's Own

Erddig Hall

Old Joan

It has always tickled me that we have a spare room that is  wallpapered in the style of one of the most luxurious bedrooms from the National Trust Stately Home Erddig Hall
Our back bedroom/office is around 12 feet long and 6 wide, a fact that does not quite lend itself to the grand designs of a Regency house...but Chris always wanted an office with delusions of grandeur and so the "Blue Bedroom" which is located in what I now call "The East Wing" of the cottage, was born, 

Trelawnyd Towers, "The East Wing Blue Bedroom" back in 2006

Today, the bedroom looks like a typical academic's bolt hole. Papers cover every surface ( as does the dust) and the whole place looks tired,uninviting and all a bit sad, so given the fact that Chris is working away until Thursday, I am going to give the whole room a bit of a make over and a lick of paint
And what is the inspiration for this "new room"?
Hummmm. wait and see

Well I need a bit of a project!

The heavens have continued to open and it's too bloody wet to do much outside

Welcome July!

A Slippery Little Sucker

Last Night was a bitch of a shift,
Four admissions,one death, a staff at full stretch and at one slightly surreal moment, a broken sink tap and an unexpected flood.
As always, the predominantly Filipino staff soldiered on with good humour but by 8.30am after 13 hours on my feet I was ready to kick the shit out of the noisy monitor system without any hint of unprofessional irony.

George, being "quietly cheerful"

I had a 90 minute sleep covered in dogs when I got home then went out for a walk up the Gop then around the village where I bumped into the ever cheerful Sandra, who was out on her allotment.
"do you want an extra hen?" she called out as I passed "she's a good layer!"
"what's wrong with her?" I called back and Sandra explained that she was a constant escapee from her allotment hen house and an avid eater of young plants from not only her veg patch but from the vegetable plots from all her neighbours allotments
"she's a slippery little sucker" she laughed!
and so, remembering the film where the heroine uses a version of that line ..a new Rhone Island Red who has a passion for escapology will be arriving today. Her name? Vivian Ward....of course!
Now name that film?

The Peas Were Right

My favourite Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes' joke was told by the wonderful Frankie Boyle on some tv show or other a while back.
With his usual dour Scottish delivery he remarked that when he went to Tom and Katie's house for dinner he looked at his plate and Katie had written ,"Please help me" , with the peas.

Working later

hey ho

(variation see http://www.hark.com/clips/klxgbfhgkx-i-swear-you-can-see-katie-holmes-mouthing-help-me)

A Rat Under The Duvet and Other Stories

A couple of weeks ago I decided to kick alcohol on the head
It's been an easy decision to make for I have been thinking about it for several months, ever since my brother died in fact.
A large glass or two of a decent pinot a night can become a bit too much of a habit as you are unwinding with a good film, a good blog and/or a good Zombie Blood fest and now I have reached that "certain age", I feel it's time to take that final step towards a better and healthier lifestyle.
I think, for me, it's far easier to stop totally rather than just to cut down.....that half opened bottle of wine in the fridge is just too much of a temptation to finish off at the end of a busy day........do you know what I mean?

Andrew's premature death from motor neurone has been a catalyst for the re evaluation many of life's bits and bats, of that I have no doubt.as many other family members have reviewed what is really important to them in their own lives over the past six months ago.
It's not rocket science..but for me, it's time
I have not really missed it ...a fact .which has surprised me...and I am looking forward to my next proper weight watcher's weigh in so see if those non glugged fluid ounce  calories have had their desired effect.on my fat arse.......
oh to have the hips of a snake.........

.

Ps I rolled over in bed at around 7.00 am this morning and promptly came nose to nipple with this little chap who had been thoughfully deposited on chris's side of the bed (  and UNDER the duvet!!!!!!!!!)

That cat will drive me to drink!

The Peril of over tight Knickers

I was a youthful 21 when I realised that doctors were not infallible.

I was a first year student nurse on my first placement and the doctor was an elderly locum covering an "out of hours" admission to the psychiatric ward. The patient ( and there always has to be a patient in these cases) was a large, cheerful, red faced alcoholic on her uppers.

Now,I was acting as chaperone during the admission procedure ( yes I know I was and am a male...but at the time (1983) this small fact didn't seem THAT important) and given the fact that the doctor , I suspect, was showing off somewhat, the examination seemed to take an absolute age.

With incredible patience and good humour, I remember the patient answering every mind numbing question politely and in detail. She rolled her eyes only a couple of times when the doctor tried four times to draw blood and by the time she was asked to partially disrobe for her physical examination even I was getting bored by it all.

The elderly doctor gave the woman a good going over. He described this and noted that and so excited was he at having a captive audience in me, he obviously decided to teach me everything , he thought I needed to know about the body of a 50 year old woman!

After an age he pointed to the woman's ample abdomen and said rather pompously 

"look at this scar..absolutely wonderful surgical techniques have been used here.....see can you see it? it's an old appendix scar!...so neat....so precise"

The woman looked down to survey his findings and looked slightly worried

She grabbed my arm when the doctor turned away to wash his hands

and she mouthed at me

"I've never had me appendix out!"

It must have been a mark left by some over tight knicker elastic