Mrs Fickle (a personal update) & Do As I Do...Not As I Say!

I have added the following photo for Mrs Fickle who emailed me today
To answer your question Bea, yes Rooster Cogburn is alive, well and remains a robust member of the field population..... here is a photo of him this morning, enjoying the 24 degree heat we've experienced today!!!!!
(I had just had fed him some black currants that's why he is resting!!!!)
It feels like summer!

Blind but happy..Rooster Cogburn dozing in the heat

The other day I caught up with an "arty" quiz show on tv entitled Show Me The Monet!
The format will be instantly recognisable for fans of Superstar, The X Factor and other such "build em up and rip them down" reality tv shows.... three judges (one nasty, one sexy (Roy Bolton below!) and one supportive) take a look at some amateur art pieces.....said pieces are savaged appraised and the winners put into a high class exhibition, where the general public can be given the opportunity to buy the art for real money ( Monet?..... geddit?)

Sex on legs Roy Bolton

As entertaining as this sort of tv undoubtedly is, I must admit I am getting just a little tired of this modern day attitude of "I know better than you and I am going to tell you just why I'm right!"
we see it in everyday tv, everyday life, everyday emails and everyday blogs.

Programmes about "art" have never really been big draws on television.A few gimmicks have slipped under the wire so to speak....toothy nuns, ( Odyssey)  , The Children's art champion Tony Hart (Vision On) and the dire Melvin Bragg in (The South Bank Show) but we have never had a joyful and simply instructive arts programme since Nancy Kominsky picked up her paint knife in the 1970s afternoon hit 
Paint along with Nancy.

I mourn the likes of Mrs Kominsky, ( who by the way only died last year ) Positive, celebratory and talented, she was one of those tv presenters that showed you just how to do something and did so with great humour, wit and positivity. 
There was no "tut tutting" at this and no "you're doing it all wrong" at that.....
It was a simple, polite,rather kitsch,  and incredibly sweet way of looking at the world...

Felicity Shagwell and the Mini me's

Now forgive a follow up blog about hens...... bin men and hens in one day.... f*cking hell I AM an interesting blogger am I not?!......
Anyway (he said charging on regardless) I have just spent an evening galloping around a field after some "rescue" hens instead of doing my civic duty in the Community Council Meeting at the Memorial Hall!
A young woman needed a new home for 5 light sussex hens as she was about to embark on a summer's work experience in Africa of all places, I said I could take them
Job Done!
When I arrived I could tell that she was not a real expert in animal care, and although the birds were well fed and their coop spick-and-span, she hadn't really got a clue about any birds in her charge.
She saw me looking at the large Sussex hen and the four smaller birds that were feeding around her feet and said
"It's a bit odd but the chicks haven't grown much since last year!"
I had to smile to myself
I didn't tell her that four of her hens were indeed fully grown bantams!
What did I name them?
Felicity Shagwell and the mini me's of course

Your Call Is Important To Us!

I feel a little sorry for Flintshire Council's refuse collection department, so I do
For three weeks now, our black wheelie bins and recycling waste has been left on the side of the road and for three weeks the residents of the five houses in our little part of the village have been turning from Doris Day's into Joan Crawford's in our telephoned efforts to get a spotty teen in a white van to pick up a hundred weight of cans,plastic bottles and the other irritating flotsam of our  throwaway modern world.
Our usual morose bin man has not been seen for three weeks now....the local gossip has suggested that he has been fired so that cheaper, European workers could be brought in to do the work!....I suspect he is actually on holiday in the South of France....well I hope he is anyway....a bit of relaxation would do him the world of good,.....I have never seen him smile once in the  years he has been collecting.....


Collecting the crap from 152 thousand people from a predominantly rural country must be a logistical nightmare, especially given all those corporate promises of good service have been splashed over every part of the local government websites and literature "ad nauseam ".......
Cock ups will happen from time to time they are bound to...and in many ways I would prefer the email answer of
 "oh bloody hell.... a guy will collect all of your shite when he get's around to it...OK?????...get a life and chill out a little"
instead of the more usual corporate speak 
"Your request will be carried out within 48 hours..we endeavour to provide a quality service"
In the meantime....I will play the "game" and will continue to sound like a pissed off Joan Crawford on the other end of a phone!

The Happening - Construction workers

I will leave you with a scene from the so-so disaster/horror film THE HAPPENING, which I watched last night and which I have posted about earlier today without finding the specific scene I wanted to show as way of illustration.
Forgive the re posting but I must admit my film critic's eye (?!) found it fascinating!
The film by M. Night Shyamalan (A bollocks name btw!) tells the story of how the earth's plants suddenly emit a toxin that forces the general population commit mass suicide ( like you do!)........yes....a real load of crud if ever I saw it... but one particular scene where construction workers literally walk off their tall building, lingers long in the mind, and perhaps stands as an interesting example of just how talented Shyamalan could be given the right story...

I think it is a chilling little piece of cinema.

Olympic Bosoms

I have posted a rather pleasantly gratuitous photo of Welsh discus thrower Brett Morse in way of illustrating the fact that we have now had two days WITHOUT rain here in Trelawnyd
The jet stream has been pushed Northward by the collecting "tut tuttng" from a disgruntled British public who was finally sick to the back teeth of getting piss wet through every day since the end of spring, and the skies are now a hopeful blue in readiness for the Olympics,
The Olympics have touched and are touching the village in their own small way! Pippa, the doctor's wife seems to have purchased a lion's share of the allocation and was excitedly telling me about the venues she will be attending just the other day.....and a few years ago, Austin Savage, the brother of local Thespian Tecwyn Savage( here seen in the village production of Sleeping beauty) played hockey in the 1972 Olympics!

Ok, the link is a little tenuous , but I found it interesting!

Right, all this Olympic talk has galvanised the old juices and I need to get my hands on my bosoms today!
With a daytime fox around ( I do have 6 nervous adult ducks left!) It would be prudent to show a presence on the field.
(to all those worried about little CAROL and POLENTA - be reassured that the two duckings are quite safe in their own little wooden run!)

My 'Bosoms' need a good seeing to

hey ho!

It's Time!

AND THE WINNER IS?

Drum Roll Please

The Crowd gasps

Opens the envelope

..............................

Mr Fox of ARCTIC FOX fame

and his Zombie based suggestion of

CAROL from The Walking Dead!

&

Miss Chania of RAZZMATAZ fame

and

her SLIGHTLY "Off the wall "

suggestion 

of

POLENTA!

And so

CAROL & POLENTA 

IT IS!

Chania & Jason please send your addresses to my email 

jgsheffield@hotmail.com

and some amazingly expensive gifts will be posted tout suite!!!!

congratulations

and to all of the others who sent in 320 suggestions

TOUGH SHIT!

Ducky Name THE FINALISTS

I had 322 entries! 
and in no particular Order the finalists ARE.......................( very long pause for dramatic effect...ROLL OF DRUMS..........some dramatic music plays
 ...............audience gasps.................

Rick and Lori (Hannah)
Barnaby and Burgho (Despot Jason)
Molly (Theanne) YES One name can be picked from a couple!
Dorothy and Judy (!) Wartime Housewife
Tosh (Mumasu)
Brian (Jac @home)
Bogart and Bacall (Wanda)
Nova and Scotia (Shari)
Otis (VD Locey)
Semolina and Polenta (Razzmataz)
Daryl and Carol ( Arctic Fox)
Stan (gheyes)
Maude (North of wiarton)


And the winner is?.........LET ME KNOW YOUR FAVS PLEASE!!!!


tune in tomorrow to find out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Theatre and Lunch....A Gentleman's Day Out

Topthorn and Joey (you honestly do NOT "see" the puppeteers!)

Well how can I best describe the Stage production of War Horse?
Overall it's a little difficult to say, because from the get-go, the puppetry that depicts a tiny foal in the centre of a darkened stage is quite, quite breath taking in it's complexity and it's accuracy, a fact that literally overshadows other more basic aspects of the production.


Visually WarHorse is a stunning example of just how good observational choreography can be; and I have a deep, deep admiration for the work of Toby Sedgwick who brought a whole set of skeletal animatronic characters to life.
The horses move and act just like the giant beasts they are pretending to be, and, for me, it is the scene where the hero stallion Joey jousts with the black stallion Topthorn on the eve of the battle in No Man's Land that really takes the breath away....this scene alone is worth the price of admission.


Unfortunately the human side of the drama, left me all a bit cold ( like it did in Spielberg's movie) and I was generally rather disappointed with the script and the acting as a whole. Which was a shame.....
Don't let this put you off however, as I suspect both Chris and I were in the minority of people that gave the play  a so-so review...the rest of the audience was hooked 

Fortnum's teapots...a gay man's heaven

However, our trip to London was a real tonic. The weather was good, there was a real Olympic "BUZZ" in the air as we walked across Green Park to the Mall to see all of the preparations for the big event and we had a delightful lunch at Fortnum & Mason's where the scrambled eggs have been collected only from "rare" hens......!!!

We just had time for a brief shop , coffee with the tourists at Covent Garden, and got home just in time to feed the new ducklings and walk the dogs in a cold and, rainy and rather dull Trelawnyd
A nice day!