Finagle's Law

I had a lovely time with my friend Nigel in Manchester.

Tatton Hall

Last night we went to see the Norwegian caper movie "Jackpot", did a lot of talking over pizza and coffee and today went to Tatton Park in Knutsford for a mooch around the 2000 acre deer park, gardens and house.
I will blog about all this tomorrow.
I will concentrate today's blog on my own personal experience of Finagle's Law... which can be translated thus:-
"If you own and care for animals.....something ALWAYS goes awry when you have a day away!"

Last night Chris texted me that Boris could not be located at shutting up time. He searched the field, no feathers, no typical chirping, there was no sign of the old turkey. In Manchester there was absolutely nothing I could do, so I let fate take it's toll until I got home this afternoon and I could check for myself.

Grace and Boris ( Brother and sister) when they arrived years ago

At around 5pm I found the old fella. He was hidden away in the long grass, dehydrated and collapsed. His left leg trailed uselessly by his side as if he had had a stroke and although he chirped quietly when he saw me, it was clear that he was not long for this world.
I rang the RFWF and asked if he could come to help. Dispatching chickens is one job I can do myself, although it is one final kindness that I hate carrying out.... dispatching Boris who has been with me since he was a poult, was absolutely another kettle of fish. Culling him would have to be done my someone who no only knew just how to humanely kill a big powerful bird but by someone who had no emotional investment in a bird who had shared bagels with me on cold winter days .

The RFWF was very kind. 
He showed me just how to "do the deed" from start to finish and minutes after he arrived, Boris was lying still in the long grass with the light Sussex bantams gazing carefully at the blood which splashed his neck and the long grass.
Finagle's Law for animal keepers eh?.......it never fails
I know I have 72 healthy animals but this feels bloody shite!

No Sex and The City

Wht's up with blogger today? I have had to post this entry three times now! anyhow I am off to Manchester today
(yes Manchester, where the locals pronounce the City's name as Man-chest- O (O as the O in Orange)
Anyway, I am having an overnight visit with friend Nigel, which doesn't mean that the pair of us will be donning our sequinned hot pants to swish our way down canal street like a pair of over-the-hill queens......oh no........ we are off to do "coffee", an arthouse movie at the Cornerhouse Cinema and a visit to Tatton Hall tomorrow!
And I shall back to Wales tomorrow afternoon...just in time to assess just how any more apericubes William has passed in a 24 hour period......

All that glitters!

Despite being busy with -field jobs, grass cutting,broad bean picking ready for freezing,
returning noticeboards from the show to Mold ( which is a town by the way) and with egg deliveries, today has been somewhat of an anticlimax.
Now, I know I hardly live a life that's roaring away in the fast lane so to speak, but with all of the build up of the Flower Show, the day itself and a visit from old friends on Saturday has meant that things recently have been all a bit frenetic and incredibly "sociable"
Today, things are back to normal.
Well, when I say normal.....I actually mean kind of normal .........(for me)
Yesterday William somehow got hold of a whole load of  French apericube cheese squares complete with their foil wrappers ( Chris had organised a Gallic themed meal for our guests)

Today he ( William not Chris btw) has passed what seems like a hundred weight of what can only be described as "glittering stools!" many of which still seem to have a tiny cows head staring out from them...
I had to smile at this slightly surreal turn of events when I brandished my pooper scooper plastic bag in the centre of the village!
Saturday.....I experienced the dizzy excitement of the Flower Show.... today I face the adrenaline rush of gold colour dog sh*t!
Go Figure
x

The Trelawnyd Flower Show 2012

I thought I would post a selection of photos from yesterdays Flower Show

In the end our exhibit entries were the highest ever ( thanks to some supportive bloggers and local friends)

and the Memorial Hall was transformed yet again into a vintage show that was worthy of  something out of Mrs Miniver

ValHassall's winning Floral art

The miniature floral displays, cups and Show Secretary(Slyvia) and Treasurer (Irene)

Mr Vincent's infamous Prize winning "Effing" Fuchsia can be seen clearly in the background

The Veg entries , despite the bad summer were impressive ( and I am quoting the veg judge)

Roses and Flowers

Novelty Veg was well supported ( after my low level bullying)

My winning Olympic Courgette

Olwyen Dillworth's last minute "bananas in pyjamas"

Floral Art

flower classes

Onion Classes

Domestic Classes ( Well done to ITU nurses Ann Beech and Greta for their first prizes)

 art classes

Veg

The Official "Judge" photo with their traditional "Auntie Glad" scone tea!

Terry and Anne Malthoff show stewards

Gladys

Blogger Anne Gordon's first prize( one of two)

Blogger Kath's first Prize in the Card section was ably supported by Weaver Of Grass's second place!(below)

Anne Gordon's Cup!(for highest points in the craft section)

Adam and Kath ( two of my friends from sheffield, who had come over to see us yesterday

Villagers Robert and Sandra Cameron who did so well in the veg classes

Poultry farmer Eilys (left) looking somewhat bemused at her second place prize in the floral art

As usual it was all rather hard work,but it was an enjoyable day

Thanks to committee members

Sylvia, Irene,Terry, Ann,Carol,Gladys,John F,Pat, for all their hard work setting up, running and taking down of the Show

A big thank you too to the Helpers on the day, and to all of the competitors who have given a great deal of time and effort to keep the tradition of the Flower Show afternoon going

I AM OFF TO LIE DOWN IN A DARKENED ROOM

Can I enter another Marrow?

I am fading fast
My quiche has just exploded in the oven and the parsley keeps falling off the head of my butternut quash lion ?cow.
But as many of you would suspect I still could not resist a quick blog before bed.
The flower Show is more or less set up.
We have had a record number of entrants (around 350 at the last count and still more bizarre looking vegetables with legs were being entered!)
I have to thank all of the people that have braved the elements to put in their veg,flowers and artwork....
and just wait when you see the home made "bananas in pyjamas" display!
I think I have gone quite mad
xxx

Where's my pastry cutter?

It's almost 11pm  and I still need to bake my quiche and sugar the top of a fruit pie....
The kitchen looks as though a gaggle of fat ladies have just exploded inside it
and to complete a slightly surreal scene, a set of vegetables that have been fashioned into a whole collection of strange animals and people adorn the window sills.

I do this to myself every year ( all this pre event anxiety) and I must admit that I kind of love the slightly anarchic build up to The Trelawnyd Flower Show when cooked entries need cooking and flower arrangements need arranging.....
It's the same every year! 
This blog entry will have to suffice, 
Tomorrow I will be far top busy to scratch me arse, let alone put my oh so interesting feelings down on paper
I run around like a headless fart while Sylvia and Irene who are more or less a decade older than I ,do the leg work in the memorial hall! without even breaking a sweat........they are professionals at all this... old village ladies have flower Show organisation in their genes..... it's a natural gift!
Today the Hall has been transformed from 1950 community centre.... into a 1950's community centre with show tables in it..... through low level bullying I have conscripted 113 entries already ( a record for me) and many of those are from readers of Going Gently!
(tomorrow is the official day when locals can enter the show)

It has tickled the Show Committee that today one entry actually arrived from New Zealand! and only a week ago another popped up from Warriwood in Australia..
Trelawnyd Show has gone all global!

I won't blog now until Saturday night!
so come back then to see a blow by blow account of the event...the novelty vegetables are worth the price of admission alone!

9

NAD

I rang the doctors surgery to chase up those blood results that were taken for my M.O.T a few weeks ago.
The receptionist read all of the test results without knowing that I was an intensive care nurse, a fact I found rather odd to say the least.
"CRP NAD"
"Creatinine NAD"
"Fasting Blood Glucose NAD"
"Urea NAD"
"LFT NAD"
etc.etc etc
She read all down the long line without a pause and I thanked her once she had finished
NAD for all that don't know nursing terms, is the thankful acronym of "No Abnormality Detected"




I was thinking about this all before and after a chance meeting with someone I am friendly with. I bumped into them by chance when I was in the supermarket buying cake stuff for the flower show, and it was the sort of meeting where they needed to share some sad personal health news, (which were found through a simple diagnostic test similar to my own)........ while all I could do was to sympathetically listen.

I have blogged about life's "curved balls" before have I not?
One minute you can be tootling along, quite nicely thank you very much indeed.... and the next moment whammo! life's a f*cking bitch and you are treading water in shit.

One phone call conversation and a mild anxiety caused by my middle aged body..and I am feeling mighty fine.
One different kind of phone call, and my friends now face the challenge of their lives.
Fate?,kismet?destiny? accident?........whatever you call it.....life's a fickle son of a bitch sometimes...
Is it not?

The Great British Bake Off

George looks bright in himself but continues to suffer from a jippy tummy. A dog with the runs is not too much fun, especially when everyone has to tip toe carefully past caramel coloured puddles on the kitchen floor. The vet has given him the once over and seems fairly unconcerned with his condition, George came away with a fun ride in the car...
I came away 60£ lighter and with a pharmacy of medications under my arm.

With the Olympics now finished, there is a new competition that has sparked the old imagination and interest and that is the quintessentially British pastime of competitive cake making!

The first episode of The Great British Bake Off (BBC Tuesday Nights) made for a fascinating watch. 12 amateur bakers from all over the UK produce their own very individual set of buns and cakes against the clock and in competition with each other. Silver Fox Judge Paul Hollywood and Virginia McKenna look-a-like cook Mary Berry are on hand to assess the confectionery while the pithy presenters Mel Giedroyc & Sue Perkins eek up the pressure by popping back and forth in the marquee when oven disasters rear their ugly head!Of course the whole thing is contrived as hell. The bakers are not just housewives from the local WI they are "serious" cooks "with a passion " for baking and each has their own back story which is set up to endear them to the general public.... we have an Asian student, and Black midwife, a ginger computer looking geek, some sexy looking young men and pleasing looking women, a vicar's wife and even the obligatory elderly Professor type who plays the cello......I was half expecting to see an Albanian lesbian in a wheelchair cooking away in the back but I think that the producers bottled it.....

Judges Hollywood and the delightful Mary Berry

Having said this, I must admit that I really enjoyed the whole , bunting covered slice of "middle England"
Everything is presented in a Kath Kidston way......of butter icing, doilies and "more tea Vicar?" 
An Ideal panacea to Olympic withdrawals and a resurgence of the bloody recession